Stupider people get arrested more often for committing violent crimes. On the other hand, smarter people may commit more nonviolent crime and definitely get caught less frequently. ¯\(ツ)/¯
While there remains debate regarding the existence (and strength) of this relationship, there is a wider consensus that individuals with below average functioning (in particular cognitive impairments) are disproportionately represented within the prison population.
The high-level explanation I’d give for this is that smart people make better decisions in general, and certain classes of bad decisions are also illegal. So perhaps the reason smart people follow rules more isn’t that they’re more inherently rule-abiding, but that they behave in more reasonable ways, and rules tend to be reasonable (obviously not always, but they’re more reasonable than if they were assigned at random).
Stupider people get arrested more often for committing violent crimes. On the other hand, smarter people may commit more nonviolent crime and definitely get caught less frequently. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Perhaps we have different reference classes for “less intelligent people”. When I think “less intelligent people” I think about this man who bought beer while carrying an alligator.
The high-level explanation I’d give for this is that smart people make better decisions in general, and certain classes of bad decisions are also illegal. So perhaps the reason smart people follow rules more isn’t that they’re more inherently rule-abiding, but that they behave in more reasonable ways, and rules tend to be reasonable (obviously not always, but they’re more reasonable than if they were assigned at random).