Взлет и падение интеллекта на западе (E. Datton). Lecture 2

Lecture 2: Selection for Genius What is Personality? We want to test whether the prevalence of genius was also increasing but we need to understand personality so that we can understand genius. We define ‘personality’ and show that it can be reduced down to differences in five key traits, including Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness and Neuroticism. We find that personality, like intelligence, is strongly genetic and that different personality traits predict different life outcomes, drawing on a large body of published evidence. With this background established, we can move onto the rise in genius. Was Genius Becoming More Prevalent Historically? Here we tackle the issue of what makes a genius and how to evaluate their impact on society. In line with experts on genius, such as Dean K. Simonton and Hans Eysenck, we argue that high-intelligence is a necessary component for geniuses, but nowhere near a sufficient one; genius being an emergent property of rare combinations of environment, personality and ability. It is these rare combinations that may be behind the genius’ breakthroughs. We revive an old idea first proposed by W.D. Hamilton, namely that though many geniuses did not have children, the genes for genius are kept in the population by group selection. Groups that can produce an optimally small number of geniuses will dominate other groups, as the geniuses give these groups an ‘edge’ in conflict and competition, via technological and mathematical innovations. We review evidence indicating that levels of genius – as measured both directly and by per capita major discoveries – were increasing between 1450 and 1800. At this point, average intelligence was sufficiently high to sustain relatively large numbers of geniuses. As a consequence the fundamental breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution took place. We find that two key factors would predict this rise: selection for intelligence, and the intensifying of this selection due to climate change leading to the Maunder Minimum in the seventeenth century, when the European climate was extremely cold. This also led to conflict and thus heightened group selection.