'The cynic genius' is a fiction, and people with a high degree of intelligence tend not to take a cynical view

To the existing value and principles such as morality and social customs, that behave skeptical, cynical cynicism is called (ironically principle, cynicism). In the world of fiction, including Sherlock Holmes, cynics are depicted as having a high degree of intelligence, but recent studies have shown that 'cynics are not geniuses'.

The Cynical Genius Illusion: Exploring and Debunking Lay Beliefs About Cynicism and Competence-Olga Stavrova, Daniel Ehlebracht, 2019
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167218783195

Cynicism isn't as smart as we think it is — Quartz
https://qz.com/1329802/cynicism-isnt-as-smart-as-we-think-it-is/

According to Olga Stavlova of the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands and Daniel Elebrahit of the University of Cologne in Germany, the idea that 'people are driven by self-interest' is common in evolutionary biology and economic theory. It is easy to think that cynicism, which regards the behavior of a person as 'driven by self-interest', is rational and wise.

However, when researchers analyzed people with different cultural backgrounds, those who performed well in language, mathematics and intelligence tests were not particularly skeptical of others. was. Exceptionally, 'cynicism' and 'high intelligence' were linked when there was a cultural background, such as a high level of corruption or lack of legislation, in the country in which the person lived.

The study began with a number of experiments to find out how people perceive cynicism. The experiment consisted of 200 subjects reading short stories of 'the cynics' and 'non-cynics', then assessing the cognitive abilities of the characters, as well as the subjects themselves taking a cynicism test. The results of three experiments confirmed that subjects tended to connect cognitive ability with cynicism, ``overall, a majority of the subjects were clearly ``cynics perform better than non-cynics.'' I was expecting that.'

Researchers then conduct experiments to see if 'cynicism' and 'intelligence' are related across different ages and cultures. The first two of the three experiments focused on adult or younger cynicism in Germany, and the third is an analysis of global data.

First, researchers analyzed the 'Synicist questionnaire survey' and 'relationship between abilities such as education, general cognitive ability, and educational background' for adults in Germany, and it was ironic that those who scored high in the ability test. Was not shown. In other words, these people had high performance while trusting others.

In addition, an analysis of the results of a large follow-up study conducted in Germany since 1984 showed that cognitive abilities of teenage boys and girls were a few years later when they were ridiculed with cynicism in young adulthood. 'Correlation' was seen.

And, when the data of the adult skill survey was analyzed for 200,000 people in 30 countries around the world, it was said that the result that ``a consistently suspicious cynic is not effective'' was also shown in almost all 30 countries. .. On the other hand, it was also shown that intelligent people living in a corrupt socio-cultural country tend to have cynicism compared to other regions.

Researchers wonder why this is because ironic people who rule out good results from the start lose many opportunities because they don't trust others. In this regard, author and comedian Steven Corbea said, 'Cynicism pretends to be wise, but it is far from wise. The cynics don't learn anything. Cynicism blinds and hurt itself. It's the fear of discouragement that rejects the world. The cynics always say 'no,' but 'Jesus' is the beginning. Saying 'Jesus' grows us.' Leaving words.