Why do High IQ Societies Differ in Intellectual Achievement? The Role of Schizophrenia and Left‐Handedness in Per Capita Scientific Publications and Nobel Prizes

Abstract

AbstractPrevious research has attempted to understand why countries with relatively favorable conditions and high estimated average IQs (such as Finland and Japan) have a relatively low per capita number of scientific Nobel prizes. In the present study, we examine whether there is a relationship between national schizophrenia and left‐handedness prevalence, on the one hand, and per capita scientific and literary achievement, on the other hand, in countries with IQ estimates of at least 90. We found that per capita science and literature Nobel prizes and scientific publications are strongly negatively associated with schizophrenia and strongly positively correlated with left‐handedness. There also was a very pronounced negative correlation between schizophrenia rate and left‐handedness rate. These results suggest that genius can be regarded as a combination of very high IQ, aspects of high‐functioning autism (specifically low empathy) plus relatively low impulse control, consistent with observations of intellectually outstanding individuals, and the fact that schizophrenia appears to constitute the opposite pole of these aspects of autism spectrum. We posit differences in androgen levels as a possible underlying explanation for these findings.