One characteristic I’ve observed in the highly intelligent is their reluctance to form an opinion until they’ve gathered a substantial amount of information. Having reached an opinion, they continue to reserve judgment pending new evidence that challenges their belief. This contrasts with the behavior of those of lower intelligence whom I have observed to reach opinion quickly, based on what seems to be the consensus of the various “tribes” to which they belong. Once that opinion is reached, it is guarded with great emotional intensity, accompanied by a confirmation bias that welcomes only information that supports that viscerally-held opinion.
The social media have exacerbated this problem, because people participate in chat groups with those of like mind, seeking mainly confirmation of their opinions. Seeing other members of their tribe express similar views, they become entrenched in their beliefs and incredulous that people could think otherwise. The struggle to understand diverse opinion often results in the attribution motives, that assign malevolent intent is to dissenting views. Respect for scholarship and expertise gradually diminishes in favour of widely-shared consensus, virtually guaranteeing that the many widely-held opinions are seriously flawed.
In his comments below Bill Berotti expands on this issue in his comments titled, Too Many Opinions.
The debasement of public and private discourse continually shocks me.
I think the internet has given loads of people the false impression that their opinions have merit and that they have, not only the right to speak, but the obligation to speak, preferably in the most public forum they can find.
Years ago, during a completely different historical epoch, we all seemed to accept the very obvious notion that the only legitimate means of becoming sufficiently educated to qualify yourself to intelligently express views on complicated social, scientific and political issues was that you would have had to have been able to endure the arduous task of having read and discussed a good number of intellectually challenging books on the subjects.
The thought of having to actually read a few challenging books on a particular subject before venturing out to enlighten the rest of us with arguments that would quickly persuade audiences to conclude that the speaker was, in fact, well informed and perhaps even some sort of modest, but legitimate, expert on the subject is now too horrifying for most people to even contemplate.
Skimming a few superficial and very angry, one-sided articles on their favorite website is now deemed by many to be way more than enough studying to qualify them to speak as though they have fully mastered the issue of the moment — while the quiet, thoughtful and more educated people are condemned by virtue of their serious-mindedness to grapple, frustrated and confused over the matters that capture their attention for months, years, and sometimes forever.
Things have changed quite dramatically, our culture is being turned upside down, and the driving force behind this transformation seems to be the very same people, who during earlier eras, possessed the common sense to remain quiet about matters, about which it had previously been quite obvious to both themselves and others that they knew very little and understood even less.
Who wrote this? Some ghost in the machine?
It is, indeed, a magic ghost that emerges on its Quora space “Intelligence and IQ.” If you visit this site you won’t be spooked.