Why there's more to being smart than intelligence

Why there's more to being smart than intelligence 7 November 2022 Share Save David Robson Features correspondent Share Save Getty Images There is much more to being smart than intelligence - multiple psychological factors contribute to feats of creativity and insight Multiple psychological factors contribute to astonishing feats of creativity and insight. Getty Images Jazz musician John Coltrane had wide-reaching interest in religious faiths Graphs of IQ scores seemed to form a "normal distribution", shaped like a bell centred on the average score of 100 points, meaning there are as many people that are above average as below, and IQs at either extreme are incredibly rare. "There is nothing about an individual as important as an IQ," declared Terman in an article on the subject, and predicted that a child's score would predict great achievement in later life. Nobel Prize-winning scientists, for example, list about three times as many personal hobbies as the average person – and they are particularly likely to engage in creative pursuits such as music, painting, or writing poetry. Whether it's the concept of "time", "consumerism", or even "creativity", many of us tend to think about – and define – certain ideas in the ways we’ve been taught.