What disease do you get when you decorate for Christmas? “Tinselitus”
…Okay, the joke might be beyond corny, but if it made you chuckle, that’s a good sign you have more wits about you than the average individual.
According to a 2011 study from researchers at the University of New Mexico, funny people are a bit smarter than the average Joe.
For the study, 400 psychology students were asked to complete measures of abstract reasoning ability and verbal intelligence before attempting to caption a series of New Yorker cartoons.
The researchers found that the captions that were rated as “funnier” were authored by students that scored higher on their tests of cognitive ability.
A similar, separate study was also conducted by the University of New Mexico but instead focused on a group of comedians.
The comedians not only produced more caption ideas that were funnier than the students, they also scored higher on tests of verbal intelligence, which typically correlates with overall intelligence.
Shocking or not, this isn’t the first study determining comedic people to be more intelligent.
As Business Insider reports, research published in the 1970’s showed that comedians, both male and female, scored significantly higher on IQ tests than the average person.
Males, specifically, scored an average of 138, while the females scored an average of 126; for comparison, an average IQ score rests between 90 and 110.
Like cursing, staying up late, and having more sex, being funny is just one more trait associated with higher intelligence.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Comment below and share this news!
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