Worrying About Stuff Is A Sign Of Intelligence - HuffPo

[flamingdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/26/worrying-intelligence_n_6369370.html

The tendency to worry about stuff could be a sign of a certain kind of intelligence, according to a paper in an upcoming edition of the journal Personality and Individual Differences (hat tip to Christian Jarrett at the British Psychology Society’s Research Digest for spotting it first). A team led by Alexander Penney of Ontario’s Lakehead University gave 126 undergrads a litany of surveys and questionnaires designed to measure both their intelligence and how much they tended to stress about events in their lives. (For instance, they were asked how strongly they agreed with statements like, “I am always worried about something.”) After analyzing the results, Penney and his team found a correlation between worrying and verbal intelligence.

Correlation doesn’t imply causation, of course, but this is not the first paper to have found a link between anxiety and intelligence. On the other hand, Penney and his colleagues also found an interesting association in the other direction: The more respondents said they replayed past events over in their minds, the lower they ranked on non-verbal intelligence. By way of an explanation, Penney and colleagues have this to offer:

It is possible that more verbally intelligent individuals are able to consider past and future events in greater detail, leading to more intense rumination and worry. Individuals with higher non-verbal intelligence may be stronger at processing the non-verbal signals from individuals they interact with in the moment, leading to a decreased need to re-process past social encounters.

[Orrex]

1. I've always said it: "It's all small stuff," my ass!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Then this election must have turned me into a freakin' genius.

[flamingdem]

3. I'm a major grump these days but even that is good news!

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/10/grumpy-people-get-the-details-right.html?mid=huffpohealth

Grumpy People Get the Details Right

Feisty personalities, although unpleasant, can be tremendously effective. The psychological agility we’re advocating here would expand your repertoire to give you access to the tougher, more direct, and sometimes more effective approach. You’re probably avoiding this strategy because you think that being negative is, well, negative. You may think that aggressive, hostile, or downright mean people are generally jerks and you don’t want to run with that crowd. The good news is that a whole range of negativity — of beneficial negativity, mind you — has nothing to do with being a jerk.

Negative emotions can also help you focus on the situation at hand. When you are about to drill a hole in the wall, chances are that you pay close attention to the measurements involved as well as to the position of your hand. The anxiety associated with the downside risk encourages you to drill in exactly the right spot. (Cutting pieces of birthday cake with a plastic knife is a very different experience, in which a good-enough approach is, in fact, good enough.)

[The Genealogist]

4. "...a link between anxiety and intelligence." I must be the next Einstein

Few can out-stew and out-fret me!