People with higher IQ may live longer

Socioeconomic status, educational level and mental ability are closely related. Whalley and Deary (p 819) determined the survival of people up to age 76 who had taken an intelligence test aged 11 years in Aberdeen schools as part of the Scottish mental survey 1932. They found that those with higher IQs lived longer. The effect was stronger among women, partly because men of high ability were more likely to die in active service during the second world war. Although adjustment for overcrowding did not affect the results, the authors caution that other social class factors could have confounded the results as the mechanism of the association is unclear.

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Longitudinal cohort study of childhood IQ and survival up to age 76

Lawrence J Whalley and Ian J Deary
BMJ 2001 322: 819. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]