London: Intelligent people outlive their less clever peers because genes that make one intelligent may also be associated with a longer lifespan, according to a new study, says PTI.
Scientists have known that cleverer people outlive their less intelligent peers. Most explanations for this have argued that it is down to status effects. The hypothesis is that more intelligent people earn more and have higher status, both of which would lead them to also have better health. However, a new study by scientists at the London School of Economics has found that the link between intelligence and lifespan is genetic, ‘The Times’ reported. The scientists looked at the differences in longevity between identical and non-identical twins, using studies from Sweden, the US and Denmark. Identical twins share all their genes, while non-identical twins share — on average — half of them. They are often used in genetics studies to differentiate between environmental and inherited effects, because they are typically brought up in the same way. The scientists recorded the difference in intelligence between twins, and their ages at death. They found that in both sorts of twins the brighter of the two lived longer, but in non-identical twins the effect was far greater. From this they calculated that 95 per cent of the link between intelligence and lifespan was genetic.
