People with high IQ tend to be lazy as they don’t bore easily, study finds

New research has suggested that being lazy may mean one is highly intelligent. Thus, going by the research findings, people who spend a lot of time lazing around, may actually be more intelligent that the ones who are active. The study was conducted by Florida Gulf Coast University researchers and it suggests that people with high IQ don’t bore easily.

Published in the Journal of Health Psychology, the findings were taken from answers provided by a group of students who took a “Need for Cognition” test. It was observed that high IQ people spend more time being still and being engrossed in thought. On the other hand, active people may require more physical activities to stimulate their minds.

“Ultimately, an important factor that may help more thoughtful individuals combat their lower average activity levels is awareness. Awareness of their tendency to be less active, coupled with an awareness of the cost associated with inactivity, more thoughtful people may then choose to become more active throughout the day,” the researchers said in a statement.

The test participants were asked to rate how strongly they agree or disagree with a set of statements. The 30 odd participants who expressed a strong desire to think a lot (thinkers) and the 30 odd, who preferred to avoid mentally taxing tasks (non-thinkers), were then asked to wear an accelerometre for a week to know how much physical activity they performed.

Interestingly, the thinkers were very less active than the non-thinkers during the week but during weekends, results showed a huge difference in activity for both the groups. The researchers had no explanation for this. Associate professor of psychology, Todd McElroy, said that the findings lend weight to the notion that non-thinkers get bored easily and need physical activity to enjoy their time.

However, he also pointed out the need for everyone to follow an active lifestyle to improve overall health, irrespective of being a thinker or non-thinker.