"Investigating America's elite: Cognitive ability, education, and sex differences", Wai 2013
"Are the American elite drawn from the cognitive elite?...However, whether the elite are primarily composed of individuals in the top percentiles of the ability distribution who have attended the most prestigious colleges and universities has not yet been empirically examined...To address this, five groups of America's elite (total N = 2254) were examined: Fortune 500 CEOs, federal judges, billionaires, Senators, and members of the House of Representatives. Within each of these groups, nearly all had attended college with the majority having attended either a highly selective undergraduate institution or graduate school of some kind. High average test scores required for admission to these institutions indicated those who rise to or are selected for these positions are highly filtered for ability...Females were underrepresented among all groups, but to a lesser degree among federal judges and Democrats and to a larger degree among Republicans and CEOs. America's elite are largely drawn from the intellectually gifted, with many in the top 1% of ability...Murray (2008) was correct that a large portion of America's elite are drawn from the intellectually gifted. This held for every group except the House of Representatives, which had a lower percentage having attended an Elite School. If the definition of elite is broadened to include either attendance at an Elite School or Graduate School then the majority met these criteria and are likely in the top percentiles of ability. This would include 56.6% of the billionaires, 67.0% of the CEOs, 68.1% of the House, 83.0% of the Senate, and all of the judges. All the federal judges and Senators and nearly all the other groups attended college...This study used average SAT or ACT scores of a college or university (America's Best Colleges, 2013) as an approximation for ability level (Frey & Detterman, 2004; Koenig et al., 2008), which may not hold for each individual case. It would have been optimal to have access to individual test scores, but unfortunately this data was not publicly available. However, using average SAT and ACT scores as an approximation for ability level may give an underestimate because extremely smart people may not have chosen to attend a top school for multiple reasons (e.g., financial, scholarship, staying close to home). Alternatively, using this method may also give an overestimate because there are many legacies and athletic admits to elite institutions who do not usually meet the typical test score criteria (Espenshade & Radford, 2009).
...This study demonstrates that in America, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to have a higher percentage of Senate and House members who attended an Elite School which places these individuals in the top 1% in ability (see Fig. 1 panel B and Appendix A). Therefore, among the elected elite, Democrats had a higher ability and education level, on average, than Republicans...This also shows that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg (included in the Technology sector), who are often used as prominent examples in the media as to why going to college is not necessary for success (e.g., Lin, 2010: “Top 10 college dropouts”; Williams, 2012: “Saying no to college”), are actually exceptions to the rule. Within the billionaire sample, 37 (8.7%) were clearly marked as a college drop out by the Forbes staff who compiled the data. The majority of the billionaires (88%) went to college and graduated.
...Even within a group in the top 0.0000001% of wealth and a group of CEOs who were compensated quite highly (well within the top 1% of wealth), there were differences in the education and ability level between those who earned more money compared to those who earned less. The analyses in Table 3a and b demonstrate that even within billionaires and CEOs, higher education and ability level is related to higher net worth and compensation. Prior research demonstrated that even within a group in the top 1% in ability, higher ability is associated with higher income (Wai et al., 2005). The analyses in Table 3c demonstrated that even within the top 1% of ability, higher ability is associated with higher net worth and compensation. Therefore, this study adds to, expands, and strengthens the literature linking education, ability, and wealth (Murray, 1998; Nyborg & Jensen, 2001; Zax & Rees, 2002), and provides further evidence that does not support an ability threshold hypothesis (Kuncel & Hezlett, 2010; Park et al., 2007; Wai et al., 2005) — or the idea that more ability does not matter beyond a certain point in predicting real world outcomes."
- Kuncel, N. R., & Hezlett, S. A. (2010). "Fact and fiction in cognitive ability testing for admissions and hiring decisions". Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 339–345
- Murray, C. (1998). Income inequality and IQ. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press.
- Nyborg, H., & Jensen, A. R. (2001). "Occupation and income related to psychometric g". Intelligence, 29, 45–55
- Park, G., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2007). "Contrasting intellectual patterns predict creativity in the arts and sciences". Psychological Science, 18, 948–952
- Wai, J., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2005). "Creativity and occupational accomplishments among intellectually precocious youths: An age 13 to age 33 longitudinal study". Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 484–492
- Zax, J. S., & Rees, D. L. (2002). "IQ, academic performance, environment, and earnings". The Review of Economics and Statistics, 84, 600–614.
This might seem obvious ("elite schools produce the elites") but is worth verifying. It's also interesting that being elected doesn't substantially affect the educational credentials & inferred IQ (even Representatives are still 20x more likely to be from an elite school), since given their behavior/policies/statements one might assume elected politicians are mediocrities or otherwise not especially intelligent. I can give a personal example: I grew up in New York, where one of the Senators has been for as long as I can remember, Charles "Chuck" Schumer, who never struck me as very subtle or intelligent, an impression furthered when he made his ill-fated public call years ago for the - still operating - Silk Road to be shut down; so I was somewhat shocked to learn via Steve Sailer (http://isteve.blogspot.com/2013/06/did-senator-schumer-really-get-perfect.html) that he claimed a perfect 1600 on the pre-centering SAT (and then went to Harvard where he was Phi Beta Kappa) which implies that he was more intelligent than myself or most of LessWrong, and combined with his flawless election record, further suggests that I have badly misunderstood him and he is actually a brilliant political mastermind.
"Are the American elite drawn from the cognitive elite?...However, whether the elite are primarily composed of individuals in the top percentiles of the ability distribution who have attended the most prestigious colleges and universities has not yet been empirically examined...To address this, five groups of America's elite (total N = 2254) were examined: Fortune 500 CEOs, federal judges, billionaires, Senators, and members of the House of Representatives. Within each of these groups, nearly all had attended college with the majority having attended either a highly selective undergraduate institution or graduate school of some kind. High average test scores required for admission to these institutions indicated those who rise to or are selected for these positions are highly filtered for ability...Females were underrepresented among all groups, but to a lesser degree among federal judges and Democrats and to a larger degree among Republicans and CEOs. America's elite are largely drawn from the intellectually gifted, with many in the top 1% of ability...Murray (2008) was correct that a large portion of America's elite are drawn from the intellectually gifted. This held for every group except the House of Representatives, which had a lower percentage having attended an Elite School. If the definition of elite is broadened to include either attendance at an Elite School or Graduate School then the majority met these criteria and are likely in the top percentiles of ability. This would include 56.6% of the billionaires, 67.0% of the CEOs, 68.1% of the House, 83.0% of the Senate, and all of the judges. All the federal judges and Senators and nearly all the other groups attended college...This study used average SAT or ACT scores of a college or university (America's Best Colleges, 2013) as an approximation for ability level (Frey & Detterman, 2004; Koenig et al., 2008), which may not hold for each individual case. It would have been optimal to have access to individual test scores, but unfortunately this data was not publicly available. However, using average SAT and ACT scores as an approximation for ability level may give an underestimate because extremely smart people may not have chosen to attend a top school for multiple reasons (e.g., financial, scholarship, staying close to home). Alternatively, using this method may also give an overestimate because there are many legacies and athletic admits to elite institutions who do not usually meet the typical test score criteria (Espenshade & Radford, 2009).
...This study demonstrates that in America, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to have a higher percentage of Senate and House members who attended an Elite School which places these individuals in the top 1% in ability (see Fig. 1 panel B and Appendix A). Therefore, among the elected elite, Democrats had a higher ability and education level, on average, than Republicans...This also shows that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg (included in the Technology sector), who are often used as prominent examples in the media as to why going to college is not necessary for success (e.g., Lin, 2010: “Top 10 college dropouts”; Williams, 2012: “Saying no to college”), are actually exceptions to the rule. Within the billionaire sample, 37 (8.7%) were clearly marked as a college drop out by the Forbes staff who compiled the data. The majority of the billionaires (88%) went to college and graduated.
...Even within a group in the top 0.0000001% of wealth and a group of CEOs who were compensated quite highly (well within the top 1% of wealth), there were differences in the education and ability level between those who earned more money compared to those who earned less. The analyses in Table 3a and b demonstrate that even within billionaires and CEOs, higher education and ability level is related to higher net worth and compensation. Prior research demonstrated that even within a group in the top 1% in ability, higher ability is associated with higher income (Wai et al., 2005). The analyses in Table 3c demonstrated that even within the top 1% of ability, higher ability is associated with higher net worth and compensation. Therefore, this study adds to, expands, and strengthens the literature linking education, ability, and wealth (Murray, 1998; Nyborg & Jensen, 2001; Zax & Rees, 2002), and provides further evidence that does not support an ability threshold hypothesis (Kuncel & Hezlett, 2010; Park et al., 2007; Wai et al., 2005) — or the idea that more ability does not matter beyond a certain point in predicting real world outcomes."
- Kuncel, N. R., & Hezlett, S. A. (2010). "Fact and fiction in cognitive ability testing for admissions and hiring decisions". Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 339–345
- Murray, C. (1998). Income inequality and IQ. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press.
- Nyborg, H., & Jensen, A. R. (2001). "Occupation and income related to psychometric g". Intelligence, 29, 45–55
- Park, G., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2007). "Contrasting intellectual patterns predict creativity in the arts and sciences". Psychological Science, 18, 948–952
- Wai, J., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2005). "Creativity and occupational accomplishments among intellectually precocious youths: An age 13 to age 33 longitudinal study". Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 484–492
- Zax, J. S., & Rees, D. L. (2002). "IQ, academic performance, environment, and earnings". The Review of Economics and Statistics, 84, 600–614.
This might seem obvious ("elite schools produce the elites") but is worth verifying. It's also interesting that being elected doesn't substantially affect the educational credentials & inferred IQ (even Representatives are still 20x more likely to be from an elite school), since given their behavior/policies/statements one might assume elected politicians are mediocrities or otherwise not especially intelligent. I can give a personal example: I grew up in New York, where one of the Senators has been for as long as I can remember, Charles "Chuck" Schumer, who never struck me as very subtle or intelligent, an impression furthered when he made his ill-fated public call years ago for the - still operating - Silk Road to be shut down; so I was somewhat shocked to learn via Steve Sailer (http://isteve.blogspot.com/2013/06/did-senator-schumer-really-get-perfect.html) that he claimed a perfect 1600 on the pre-centering SAT (and then went to Harvard where he was Phi Beta Kappa) which implies that he was more intelligent than myself or most of LessWrong, and combined with his flawless election record, further suggests that I have badly misunderstood him and he is actually a brilliant political mastermind.