Das Aufwachsen in einem benachteiligten Umfeld behindert nicht nur die kognitive Entwicklung, sondern schwächt auch die standardmäßige Bereitschaft einer Person, später im Leben anderen zu vertrauen. Während eine höhere Intelligenz Menschen im Allgemeinen vertrauensvoller macht, wird dieser soziale Nutzen durch Widrigkeiten in der frühen Kindheit halbiert.
Intelligence makes people more trusting, but early hardship cuts this benefit in half
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**Intelligence makes people more trusting, but early hardship cuts this benefit in half**
Growing up in a disadvantaged environment not only hinders cognitive development but also weakens a person’s default willingness to trust others later in life. A recent study published in [*Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin*](https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261439412)reveals that while higher intelligence generally makes people more trusting, early childhood adversity cuts this social benefit in half. These findings suggest that childhood hardships create long-lasting barriers to social mobility by preventing individuals from reaping the typical rewards of their cognitive skills.
Trusting strangers is a fundamental requirement for a functioning society. Generalized trust is the basic belief that other people are generally reliable and will not exploit you. Economists and psychologists view this kind of trust as a foundation for cooperation, economic prosperity, and overall well-being. People who trust others are more likely to build strong networks and succeed in their careers.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672261439412
Right off the bat I have to question these people’s methodology and conclusions.
Intelligence is not some predetermined, hardwired variable. Intelligence is 99% a product of our brain’s plastic adaptation to its environment.
Poor people stay stupid generation after generation because they literally train their kids that way (generally out of ignorance rather than malice, but still).
By the same token, the greatest developmental advantage of affluence isn’t access to money, it’s access to an environment that prioritizes curiosity and learning and doesn’t bottleneck kids‘ development at a young age.
So it’s completely meaningless to talk about childhood development and make statements like „while intelligence has this effect, the benefit is lost over time“.
If you don’t have a serious learning disability, you can be raised to be intelligent. Full stop. Kids aren’t born intelligent and then somehow lose it.
In short, in the context of childhood development intelligence is an _output_, not an _input_.
Seems debatable that trusting people is a social benefit.
Wouldn’t having high intelligence contradict the statement of being more trusting? I think it’s quite the opposite, to a point that hyper intelligence can actually lead to paranoia instead.
>“And that’s why we stay away from poor people, kids! They’re not only dumb, they’re inherently shifty!“
Garbage article misinterpreting the study and making their own conclusions.
Takes money to make money. Always has been, always will be.
It’s because you can’t trust the kind of people in disadvantaged environments. So yeah, it’s harmful for these intelligent people if they get to better environments where people are more cooperative, but they’re smart to learn to not trust where they came from.
So, is the conclusion that disadvantage leads to/is associated with less cognitive development and less trust later in life while not impacting intelligence?
I don’t think I know what cognitive development means in this context
I’m more surprised at the correlation between higher intelligence and being trusting…but maybe that’s just my stupidity talking.
Trust is earned. And if the only examples one has is people going against that, then what do you expect?
I just made 27 and I’m dealing with the repercussions of this now. I found the social aspect of college so painful and isolating, constant reminders of my Difference all around me. I really struggled to make friends all growing up and now as an adult I find I’m dysfunctional in so many aspects of relationship-building, and I find it SO difficult to trust anyone. Here’s to working on it and being kinder to myself and literally everyone around me
I’s hard to learn to trust others when you’re taught as a child that pain and abuse and love are the same thing.
To be that old person, back in my days, us poorers created community to survive. You had to trust your neighbors. The problem was, when you went outside the community you became exposed to anti-poor attitudes that tried to shame you for being in that situation. You learn not to trust people out of the community, they don’t like you. (I’m not discounting the damaging effects of domestic violence).
So, I’m in my 40s and I’m just learning to kind of trust middle-class people. I will never trust the wealthy, they hated us the most.
Wait, people from the hood have trust issues? I wonder why.
The people I was surrounded by when I was a child and the people I am surrounded by as an adult are starkly different. I could never trust the people from back then, but I have so much love and trust with the people I keep around now. That being said, it has been glaringly obvious how much more difficult it has been for me than the privileged people I know.
Man i could have been a great person. Welp. Gotta work with the cards im dealt.