“Crankiness” May Be A Sign Of Intelligence | LifeTwo — Oh brother. Even I have trouble with this one. That said, I do know older people who are genuinely too nice. And indeed, most of them are out-and-out idiots.

New research has come out correlating a “disagreeable attitude” with “increased intelligence.” More specifically, older people with above-average intelligence tend to be more disagreeable than those of lesser intelligence. Interestingly, when above-average intelligent people are younger, they tend to be more likely to be open to new situations, rather than being disagreeable. Something happens in the middle where these young open minds become far less agreeable.

According to co-author Jacqueline Bichsel, an associate professor of psychology at Morgan State University, in Baltimore, “…when we get older — and this hasn’t been found before — it appears that openness to experience is no longer as important, and what is important is a disagreeable nature.”

found by Barton McKinley



  1. The topic needed a revisit apparently since I forgot about Ed’s post. So what!?

  2. James Hill says:

    My Nana crocheted me a Mr. Cranky when I was little.

    (For those of you not in the know, Mr. Cranky is who is pictured in the post…)

  3. tallwookie says:

    This story is a complete aberration – look at the most popular news stories today section – lol, every signel one is also “mid life crisis” (ala: http://pages.citebite.com/y1f2f5y4u2mkl ).

    Perhaps those pissed off enstein’s are also having mid-life crisis’s – what does that say about their intelligence?

  4. Earp says:

    There are millions of reasons I don’t carry a gun. The readers and posters of this forum, even though I don’t agree with all of them, are NOT part of those reasons.

    Some CEOs and politicians might be…

  5. pedro says:

    #23 that’s called emotional intelligence

  6. Mr. Fusion says:

    #24, I can relate. The coroner is probably happy that I don’t carry a gun.



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