Very good point. That would mean examining Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine and economics might not give much extra information.
Literature laureates would, I presume, have significant intellectual curiosity so might give an indication as to whether the effect is specific to STEM subjects or more generalised curiosity/something else.
I’m not sure about Peace laureates – a negative result wouldn’t tell us much but a positive result would be interesting.
Any other suggestions for data which might be publicly available and point us towards one hypothesis or another?
We’re only going to get a good picture of what’s going on by someone deciding to do a proper research project on this but I feel like any additional data which people could collect would be helpful to point the project in the right direction.
The suggestion about Fortune 500 CEO seems good; “self-made” millionaires are a category far enough from STEM, and, due to their status, they are more likely to have reliable biographical information. If you want to go in a completely different direction, how about something like the Darwin Awards?
Which you also can’t know if you don’t test other fields. I think there are at least 3 concentric levels to distinguish : ( famous ( intelligent ( STEM ) ) ).
Some sports players are pretty smart and probably some governors aren’t. What about ( Reality TV celebrities ( heads of state of UNSC countries ( Physicists / Mathematicians / Engineers ) ) ).
(1 minute of thought did not provide another group of famous & not-even-a-little-bit-selected-for-intelligence people, unless there’s a database of lottery winners, which I doubt. Curious for suggestions.)
Very good point. That would mean examining Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine and economics might not give much extra information.
Literature laureates would, I presume, have significant intellectual curiosity so might give an indication as to whether the effect is specific to STEM subjects or more generalised curiosity/something else.
I’m not sure about Peace laureates – a negative result wouldn’t tell us much but a positive result would be interesting.
Any other suggestions for data which might be publicly available and point us towards one hypothesis or another?
We’re only going to get a good picture of what’s going on by someone deciding to do a proper research project on this but I feel like any additional data which people could collect would be helpful to point the project in the right direction.
Seems interesting to get data on:
Some group that isn’t heavily selected for intelligence / intellectual curiosity: skateboarders, protestors, professional hockey players...
Some non-STEM group that is selected for success based on mental skills: literature laureates, governors, …
Not sure which groups it would be easy to get data on.
There is also the option of looking into existing research on birth order to see what groups other people have already looked at.
I’m interested in teasing apart “high achievement” from “high achievement in a STEM field”.
I’d be interested in analysis of fortune 500 CEOs, for instance.
The suggestion about Fortune 500 CEO seems good; “self-made” millionaires are a category far enough from STEM, and, due to their status, they are more likely to have reliable biographical information. If you want to go in a completely different direction, how about something like the Darwin Awards?
Staying ‘out of the 2-4-6’ does seem useful, but it’d also be nice to know if it is a ‘STEM thing’.
Which you also can’t know if you don’t test other fields. I think there are at least 3 concentric levels to distinguish : ( famous ( intelligent ( STEM ) ) ).
So potentially ( Sports players ( Literature laureates / governors ( Physicists / Mathematicians ) ) ) ?
Some sports players are pretty smart and probably some governors aren’t. What about ( Reality TV celebrities ( heads of state of UNSC countries ( Physicists / Mathematicians / Engineers ) ) ).
(1 minute of thought did not provide another group of famous & not-even-a-little-bit-selected-for-intelligence people, unless there’s a database of lottery winners, which I doubt. Curious for suggestions.)
(Famous engineers: of course Wikipedia does not disappoint.)
That’s a good point, which applies to both this and the prior post. The reason ‘Nobel’ Laureates are easy is probably the fame component.
Olympic medalists? Not just intelligence but a certain kind of political savvy and perseverance.