Are smart people jerks?

Albert Einstein is generally remembered as a “warm and fuzzy”, congenial teddy bear of a man, who also happened to be an off the charts genius. The popular perception of the “absent minded Professor” also fits this stereotype. However, another stereotype is that of the autistic, aloof, introverted, socially inept but brilliant geek who generally dislikes people, and avoids contact with them. Some studies of “techies” have confirmed a high incidence of Asperger’s syndrome, suggesting that perhaps the latter stereotype is more apt to be correct.

It has long been my experience that, at least in the world of surgery, a “nice” surgeon would have a relatively equal likelihood of being “good”: i.e., technically skilled, well read, efficient, and generally skillful. However, surgeons who most people would consider “jerks” i.e. unfriendly, short tempered, and generally lacking a good bedside manner, have a much higher chance of being “good surgeons”. The rationale proffered for this is that if an incompetent surgeon is a pleasant fellow; nice, easy to get along with, well liked, then his or her incompetence will be “put up with” or at least tolerated by associates, underlings, et cetera. However, if a generally nasty person is also incompetent; coworkers, associates, underlings, will have a much lower threshold for tolerating the person, and would be likely to complain, censure, etc. this individual. Although obvious, this is not an argument in favor of surgeons or anyone else acting like a jerk. Recalling basic logic 101, if 99% of people who are 6’5″ tall are men, it does not follow that all men are 6’5″ tall.

An alternative explanation was recently noted in an article about extremely high IQ individuals. The article pointed out that, if the average IQs is 100 “by definition”, and a mildly retarded person (IQ of 75 to 80) interact for long periods of time, the person of average intelligence is likely to become frustrated, and to not have much in common with the mildly retarded individual. This is not to say that the person of average intelligence would have some underlying prejudice against the other person, or would necessarily treat them badly. The idea is simply that a person of average intelligence, if forced to interact 8 to 12 hours a day with people who were mildly to moderately retarded, would likely find it in a difficult and frustrating experience. Therefore, if a person with an IQ of 150 – 160 is exposed on a daily basis to “normal” people (IQ of 100 – 120) they also would likely find it a difficult and frustrating experience, since the difference between their level of intelligence and normal people, and the difference between the normals and retarded individuals (at least in terms of IQ points – a debatable and hotly contested topic) is similar. This argument is used to explain the putative antisocial personality characteristics of the introverted intelligentsia.