Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol

Satoshi Kanazawa in Psychology Today:

Controlling for a large number of demographic variables, such as sex, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, frequency of socialization with friends, number of recent sex partners, childhood social class, mother’s education, and father’s education, more intelligent children grow up to drink more alcohol in the UK and the US.

[This] graph shows the association between childhood intelligence (grouped into five “cognitive classes”:  “very dull” – IQ < 75; “dull” – 75 < IQ < 90; “normal” – 90 < IQ < 110; “bright” – 110 < IQ < 125; “very bright” – IQ > 125) and the latent factor for the frequency of alcohol consumption.  The latter variable is constructed from a large number of indicators for the frequency of alcohol consumption throughout adult life and standardized to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.0.  The data come from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) in the United Kingdom.  There is a clear monotonic association between childhood intelligence (measured before the age of 16) and the frequency of alcohol consumption in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.  “Very bright” British children grow up to consume alcohol nearly one full standard deviation more frequently than their “very dull” classmates.

More here.