Having Smart Friends Makes Us Smarter, According To Research
Can our friends make us smarter through their influence on us? A pioneering study in human behavior analyzes this premise, and establishes a strong relationship between classmates who socialize with more or less intelligent people.
Florida International University has prepared a report with the title: Can our friends make us smarter? (Can our friends make us smarter?) in conjunction with the Federal Department of Criminology and the International School of Public Relations of the same state. This document shows the results of a research led by Professor Ryan Charles Meldrum, which yields very interesting results. But let’s start with the basics.
Intelligence is the ability or faculty that people have to act correctly depending on their objectives and the available options. Beyond IQ and other measures of cognitive potential, An intelligent person will be one who knows how to choose the best option among the possible ones, who is capable of doing what best suits him in every situation and moment. It can also be understood as the ability of individuals to absorb data, process it, understand it and use this knowledge in the best possible way.
Does having smart friends make us smarter?
From the moment we begin to have consciousness and until we enter the circle of social development, our parents influence us to surround ourselves with the right friends. “Don’t go with this friend”, “get together with Pepito, he’s smart”, etc. are some of the phrases that we most identify with when remembering part of the education we have received from our family. It is evident that, depending on the group to which we belong, this will directly influence our behavior and personal development.
Interpersonal relationships with friends are largely determined by our family environment, social stratum and the future aspirations that are instilled in us or that, on a personal level, we aim to achieve, even if these are different from those acquired during childhood.
But… Does interacting with one or another type of people really influence us that much? In many aspects yes, and it is now known that this could even affect our level of intelligence, at least if certain conditions are met.
Puberty, key moment
An extensive base of studies is based on the topic of the influence of the environment on our cognitive abilities The groups or individuals we associate with will have a special impact on our behavior. The work carried out by Florida International University reveals the impact of our environment on a personal level: our behavior, cultural sentiment and professional perspective.
An exceptional example in this matter are the children of immigrant relatives in many Western countries. The family nucleus is very hermetic, given that the native language and its cultural values are used. If the firstborn of this family joins, associates and develops with local people, he will end up adopting the same behaviors, regardless of the roots he has with his parents.
Given these precedents, Ryan Charles and his counterparts decided to delve into the matter. They took almost 10,000 secondary school students as a starting point, adolescent age, and they measured their level of intelligence with that of their peers. Each individual’s IQ was correlated with the IQ of his friend or group to which he belonged.
However, what was striking is that this fact corresponded to a very striking phenomenon: the people who interacted with more highly intelligent peers had an IQ higher than what would be expected taking as parameters their results on intelligence tests taken. years ago.
Thus, what has been recorded in this study is not simply that people with a higher IQ tend to interact more with each other. It has been seen that the fact of Becoming part of these social circles has a positive effect on one’s intelligence at least during childhood and adolescence.
During the investigation, we wanted to clarify the results even more. Another 7,000 students between the ages of 8 and 16 were taken, and the conclusions were similar. Those children who had grown up in groups with better academic grades had obtained better records to access higher education.
Conclusions
It seems that adolescent age is the key to the study. Some previous experiments similarly confirmed the effects of “bad or good company” between the periods of primary and secondary education, effects that lost strength and consistency when these data were compared with the university period According to the latest results, there is a missing link that does not correlate adolescent friendships with adulthood.
As if that were not enough, relationships with a healthy environment do not only provide intellectual benefits, but also provide good development of social behavior. Among other advantages, having a high IQ allows you to have access to a support network with greater resources.
