Study claims average person as intelligent as a rocket scientist

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

The average person really is as intelligent as a rocket scientist, a new study has discovered.

The phrase "it's not rocket science" to describe an easy task has long been used after gaining popularity during the 1960s space race.

But while many people think that aerospace engineers are some of the smartest people on the planet - it turns out that is not quite true.

Brain surgeons are also not necessarily smarter or dumber than the average member of the public, the research found.

The team decided to study the intelligence of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons, as well as comparing their brains to everyone else, to determine who was the smartest.

The study, published in The BMJ Christmas edition, asked 329 rocket scientists, 72 neurosurgeons, as well as over 18,000 people with other jobs, to complete an intelligence test.

Measuring six distinct aspects of smarts, they were tested on planning, reasoning, problem-solving, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities.

The results show aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons were equally matched but differed in two ways.

One was that while rocket scientists might be better at mental manipulation, imagining what figures and shapes looked like from different viewpoints, while neurosurgeons were better at semantic problem solving, understanding definitions of rare words.

Neurosurgeons were able to solve problems faster than the general population but showed a slower memory recall speed.

Doctoral candidate Aswin Chari, from University College London, said: "Despite the stereotypes depicted by the phrases 'It’s not rocket science' and 'It’s not brain surgery,' all three groups showed a wide range of cognitive abilities.

"The results suggest that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers might be unnecessarily placed on a pedestal and that 'It’s a walk in the park' or another phrase unrelated to careers might be more appropriate."

He also said the study, which used data from The Great British Intelligence Test, shows there is a natural variance in scores and that people are likely to be good in one area and lack in others.

Mr. Chari added: "I think the concept of measuring intelligence through only one score is not the right thing.

"The concept of intelligence is a multi-faceted thing. Each job might entail particular strengths in specific things that you need to be good at to succeed, but there is not one job out there that requires a higher IQ.

"If you look at the general population, there is a natural variance. One person isn't great at everything and one person isn't bad at everything either - there are different kinds of intelligence and the average person will have a distribution of scores across different aspects."