Intelligence and flying
 

Just catching up on some reading when I came across an interesting article in Science (vol. 299, p192 2003 if you must know!). Reviewing studies of the usefulness of the IQ score (sometimes abbreviated to "g" for general intelligence), Linda Gottfredson claims that people who score poorly on IQ tests also have more accidents. (There's a table correlating IQ score with death rates from car accidents).

Here's the thing. Remarkably, she says, "the only accidental death not correlated with lower g is death in a private plane."

Hmmmm. What do you make of that?!

Well, I am saying nothing, staying right out of this one....:confused:

I think she is saying that both stupid & clever people die in private aircraft. Given the number of clever people who fly, and the nature of the environment, it is probably true that clever people die at the the same rate as stupid people. i.e. your intelligence will NOT protect you. But I think air sense will. My definition of 'air sense' is the good judgement you use in situations in the air. Such judgement will not be tested in an 'intelligence' test, which will not tend to test any kind of judgement.

So not a suprising finding then. :)

Maybe you need to be intelligent to be a pilot :cool: but a bit stupid to be a passenger in one of those ridiculously small things with "that idiot".

Over the course of time, it'll probably even itself out. And when it does, the "stupid" passenger was right all along.

tacpot,

So why (according to Gottfredson) so you not see the same results with car drivers? Is there a difference between 'air sense' and 'road sense'? Surely both are just examples of 'good judgement'.

As she calls this remarkable maybe she doesn't have an answer either.

I'd throw out the theory that the hardest thing about learning to fly is making the money to pay for lessons. Making money is directly related to IQ. So only 'clever' (and that is a very poor way to describe people with higher IQ) people learn to fly due to economics, and that level is higher than the IQ threshold needed to fly a plane safely.

Obviously the same cannot be same about cars, because the entry level of money and experience to get a drivers licence is pretty damned low.

Most light aircraft accidents are caused by pilot errors which in hindsight are blatently stupid. High IQ does not protect against these stupid mistakes because they are by definition 'stupid'

Pushing it......

Hang on, got some more.

If my theory is correct, you would expect to see dumb kids with wealthy parents have more accidents. These people did not have to pass the initial hurdle of being able to make the cash to buy the pilot's licence. This would explain those words of wisdom 'more money than sense'.

I wonder if there is another correlation to support those findings: That a safe mental attitude requires self discipline, and self discipline requires a considerable amount of fore thought, which in turn requires the gift of critical self analysis; ergo intelligence - the ability construct and deconstruct problems logically and rationally.

I am with Slim on this. I would imagine the ambient intelligence of the GA community is within the 10% of the country. Lets face it, if you are a bit t'ick then, although it is not rocket science, you ain't likely to pass your PPL (assuming you have a good enough job to pay for the PPL in the first place) so quite how the follow on assessment was made, I don't know - unless the comparison is relative within the group :rolleyes:

bertiethebadger,
I see where you are comming from. Is my instructor stupid or so debt ridden that crash or fly, makes no difference!? Looking at the FI forum, I'll assume the latter ;)

slim_slag

Gotta say I think you'e spot on. I posted something very similar then deleted it cos it sounded too "IQ-ist" :D

Not sure I agree with that. Making money can be related to intelligence as far as certain highly paid professions require reasonable intelligence. Otherwise, making money is directly related to luck, personal choice, and brown-nosing ability.

I'm thinking seriously about getting my PPL at 48 y/o , I have a high IQ. Am I crazy or is the IQ test wrong?

PFLsAgain
Did the article consider the mean intelligence quotient, for the test population of (A) drivers & (B) pilots?
Would (B) be statistically higher?

A bit off topic, but I liked a recent quote in the press (can't remember who) but it was something on the lines of:-

"I am always surprised that there are not more accidents on the roads.......
.......driving is like formation flying, with complete strangers".

T_richard

"...I have a high IQ. Am I crazy or is the IQ test wrong?"

Catch22 if you ask me :D

I'd throw out the theory that the hardest thing about learning to fly is making the money to pay for lessons. Making money is directly related to IQ. So only 'clever' (and that is a very poor way to describe people with higher IQ) people learn to fly

Nah. Flying is no more expensive than golf, and anyone who wears Rupert trousers and *those* sweaters....... ;~)))

Seriously, I believ that people who make lots of money are not usually the most intelligent, but they are reasonably so.

But I don't beleive you have to be particularly wealthy to fly - I'm certainly not, and neither are most other flyers I know. It helps not to be poor, but wealthy? No.

SSD

d_b The article was a summary of a talk she'd given at a recent meeting, so was short on data. It didn't state the IQ range for the pilot group, although it broke down the IQ range for the driver group and showed the correlation with death rate.

Rustle Saw your very brief posting. No sample size was quoted. Maybe 42 really is the answer!

slim_slag not sure I agree that making money and IQ are correlated, otherwise how do you explain all those poor PhD students out there! :D

She didn't seem to have an explanation for the observation, she just highlighted it as interesting. Maybe there's a research project waiting to be carried out here. I hereby volunteer our very own AerBabe to carry out the project, just as soon as she's written her thesis. ;)

Need to see the data behind this. Sounds like cod science to me.

QDM

I'm confused.

I think I may be intelligent 'cos I passed my GFT & got my PPL, and have flown and driven safely since the 1970s.

However, logic tells me I am stupid, for over all that time I have spent a small-to-medium fortune on aviation rather than investing it wisely and being well-off in my dotage.

...oops sorry nurse, going back to my room now.....

To get a PPL you've got to pass several exams, be able to read a map in detail, know a bit about technical stuff... I suspect you'd have to be above average in intelligence to manage all that. Not genius level, not PhD or even degree material, but a littler above average. So unless the study took this into account....

Maybe I read the quote incorrectly but isn't the she "saying" that thick people are at a disadvantage driving ie being thick correlates to more accidents, but that there is no such correlation in flying ie being thick is no disadvantage? Thank Heavens.
Please no more elitism in flying...

nonradio,

I'm sorry if it sounds elitist, but I've never yet met a pilot who didn't at least appear to have an above average IQ. I'm an ex-occupational psychologist; I've worked with the "general public". Do you have any idea at all how "low" the "average" is? "Average" people wouldn't usually pass the PPL ground exams, or cope with radio work while flying and navigating, or anything like that. "Thick" is a relative term. Elitist or not, I strongly suspect virtually all pilots have above average IQs. But someone must have researched this? Anyone know?

Whirlybird

Elitist or not, I strongly suspect virtually all pilots have above average IQs

You know there has to be an "exception to prove the rule" - have a read of my current Notam thread - the rule is proven :D

How did she test the g of dead people to reach this conclusion? ;)

Final 3 Greens

"the only accidental death not correlated with lower g is death in a private plane."

Any fool knows that it's the "g" that kills you - free falling 30,000' is fine, it's the high "g" when you hit the ground that's fatal :D

God it's a slow day at work...

Yeah, that last foot stings like hell :D

Hi Whirly: that elitist comment wasn't aimed at you, honest! When you get your FI, I think you may change your mind;)