Shankar Vedantam

I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Do you have follow-up questions about intelligence after listening to this episode?

Maybe you have a personal story about how your potential was assessed when you were young.

If you'd be willing to share your question or story with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone.

Two or three minutes is plenty.

Then, email the file to us at feedback at hiddenbrain.org.

Use the subject line, intelligence.

That email address again, feedback at hiddenbrain.org.

Early in his career, intelligence researcher Scott Barry Kaufman set out to tear down the edifice of IQ testing.

He felt it had greatly limited his own prospects as a young person.

But then he found himself convinced by much of the science behind IQ.

It left him with a quandary.

Should he trust his own experience with IQ tests, or should he trust the data?

As he finished his undergraduate studies and went on to get a PhD in cognitive psychology, Scott came to feel that the real question was not whether the science of IQ was wrong, but whether it was incomplete.

One thing that IQ tests hadn't looked at was how much a person cared about what they were doing.

Teachers, managers, and coaches can testify to Scott's insight.

Talent matters, but sometimes passion and drive matter more.

Along with deep engagement, creativity is another driver of performance that is overlooked by IQ tests.

In fact, researchers have found that there can be an inverse relationship between intelligence and creativity.

And why do you think it is that in artistic fields you're not seeing a connection between IQ and outcomes?