Big Question: Are rich people smarter?

Curiosity contributor Bambi Turner took a look at this question.

From an early age, children of lower socioeconomic backgrounds display lower levels of testable intelligence than children of middle-class or wealthy parents. It starts in elementary school and even earlier, and persists through high school and beyond.

Some theories suggest genetics may be to blame for this phenomenon, but studies of adopted children show that this simply isn't the case. In fact, children who are adopted by wealthy parents score an average of 12 points higher on standard IQ tests than children adopted by low-income families [source: Fisher]. This difference in scores persists regardless of the biological mother's socioeconomic status, suggesting that the child's environment is more important than the genes.

Sociologists point to a range of factors that may help to explain the difference: poor nutrition, prenatal substance abuse and even lead paint, all of which disproportionally affect the poor and are known to interfere with healthy brain development.

However, when one considers net wealth, or true assets after debts have been paid, the advantage begins to fade, and smarter people generally fare no better financially than others. People with high IQs are just as likely as those without to have money problems [source: Grabmeier].

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