Remember when you were in school, an organization would come in to teach an anti-drug program?
If you went to school in the ’80s and ’90s (way back in the 1900s, as our kids now say), you probably even remember how kids would make fun of the program, perhaps sharpening a pencil that initially said, “Friends don’t let friends do drugs” until it only said “do drugs,” or pretending to smoke or get drunk after the presenters left.
A significant part of the messaging we received was that smart kids don’t drink, smoke, or try illicit substances. However, the data suggests that smart kids (at least, by the IQ metric) are growing up to drink more and experiment with more substances than their average IQ peers.
The Link Between High IQ In High School & Later Alcohol Consumption
There’s an important caveat here: the correlation isn’t linear.
In other words, if you lined all the kids in your teenager’s class up in order of IQ and snapped a photo, then in twenty years lined them up according to alcohol consumption, you wouldn’t get the same line. Instead, you’d get a general predictor — the kids on the higher-IQ end would be more likely to be moderate or heavy drinkers compared to those at the lower end.
There are also other factors besides IQ itself. We already know that IQ is not an ultimate measure of intelligence, just a metric for one aspect. We also know that IQ is influenced by other factors, including genetics and environment, and that education influences other factors, like income. PsyPost explains:
“The mediation analyses revealed that household income partially explained the relationship between IQ and drinking patterns. Higher IQ scores were associated with greater household income in adulthood, and increased income was, in turn, linked to higher alcohol consumption. Education, on the other hand, did not significantly mediate this relationship. While higher education levels were associated with greater IQ and more frequent drinking, they did not fully account for the observed patterns.”
Another factor is that higher IQ scores can be influenced by higher parental income. (Imagine taking an IQ test on a day when you’re hungry and worried about your mom losing her job, and then imagine taking it on a day when all your needs are met and you’re feeling safe and happy.) It turns out that there’s a correlation between higher parental income during adolescence and higher levels of alcohol consumption as an adult.
The Study Found One Odd Exception To This Rule
While the kids with higher IQ scores were more likely to grow up to be heavy or moderate drinkers, they were also less likely to be binge drinkers.
While they might drink more overall, they were less likely to report having five or more drinks in a single sitting. The students who tested with lower IQ scores, though, were more likely to report binge drinking episodes within the last thirty days.
Researchers believe that the outcome could suggest that children in higher-income households were exposed more to parental consumption of alcohol and that this exposure normalized alcohol in a way that contributed to heavier drinking but not to binging.
Important Factors In This Study
Though the study compared teenage IQ to adult drinking, it should be noted that the participants were teenagers in the 1950s who self-reported their drinking habits in their sixties.
The population sample consisted of 6,300 Wisconsin residents who were born between 1938 and 1940 and who provided a self-report on their alcohol consumption in 2004. They were selected out of a total of 10,000 participants in a longitudinal study in the state.
For these reasons, and because of the lack of diversity, the study doesn’t really give predictions for a broad cross-section of the country.
It’s also important to acknowledge that alcohol consumption was self-reported in the 2004 surveys and that self-reporting isn’t always fully reliable.
Other Data Does Support The Same Conclusions
While the Wisconsin study may not give the most complete picture of nationwide or global alcohol consumption and its possible links to IQ, it doesn’t have to stand alone. A link between high IQ and substance abuse has been observed in other studies, and by substance abuse treatment experts.
It’s also not just alcohol. Multiple studies have uncovered that individuals with an IQ higher than 110 are more likely than peers with average or below-average IQ scores to use psychoactive drugs, according to the Hanley Center.
One study in 2011 also compared IQ scores at ages 5 and 10 to the use of alcohol and illicit substances at ages 16 and 30, according to Big Think, and found a correlation between higher IQs and the likelihood of using a range of drugs.
What Draws People With High IQs To Alcohol & Drugs?
The aforementioned Hanley Center floats several possible reasons for this. One is that some mental health conditions (including anxiety and depressive disorders) are more prevalent in people with higher-than-average IQ scores, and people with some of these disorders are more likely to abuse substances. Another is that intelligent people may be more likely to try new things.
Another treatment center, Burning Tree Ranch, has even more theories about the reasons people with high IQs are likely to be susceptible to substance abuse, including social isolation that can result from a sense of being misunderstood, high-pressure jobs and advanced degrees, and the access to financial resources to afford these substances.
They also note that individuals with higher IQs can get trapped in what they call “intellectualizing the problem,” spending endless time and energy researching the effects of substances and the mechanics of addiction but failing to “make the emotional connection needed to drive personal change.”
What Does All Of This Mean For Parents?
What steps should parents take to protect their kids from heavy use and/or abuse of alcohol and other substances?
First, talk to your kids frequently and honestly. You can specifically address risk factors, including family history, anxiety and other mental health conditions, and IQ.
Concerning IQ, you can talk to your kids about some of the reasons that high-IQ individuals might be drawn into behaviors that they may think they can outsmart. For instance, discuss the problem of intellectualizing that Burning Tree Ranch cites.
You can also talk to them about healthier ways to deal with stress and social discomfort. Explain that many people get the notion they can “self-medicate” by using a substance that helps them feel better for a while and then find themselves stuck in a cycle of addiction.
Instead, encourage good therapy, find a social circle that fulfills their intellectual and community needs, and make other safer choices.
If you partake in alcohol around them, open a discussion of temperance, of knowing one’s limits and staying within them, and of the long-term dangers of binge drinking.
Ultimately, we won’t be able to make our kids’ adult decisions for them, but knowing the risk factors puts us in a better position to forewarn and forearm them against potentially dangerous choices.
