According to a study, vegetarians are likely to be smarter than non vegetarians?

Question

..afterall, herbivores were eaten by the carnivores.

Spot on Doctor Why.

ABRIDGED

Thank you all for the various serious and comedic contributions whilst generally keeping a healthy scepticism.

- Docto.., Geoff.., Enric.., lexo80.., Canni.., filia.., Tom31..;
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(Wheres Uncle Mike and Co ?)

Many would be inclined to look at the basis of the report. Are not scientific findings too quickly released before confirmation under pressures of time and money that are detrimental to uncovering the issues ?

Answer 1

I know the study you're referring to (link 1). Yet it bears mention that although this is an observed correlation, it may not indicate so much.

For example, your assertion that 'vegetarians are likely to be smarter' is incorrect based on this study. The statement implies cause and effect, which the study makes no measure of at all. Perhaps being intelligent is more likely to make you a vegetarian instead of the other way around. Or pehaps unintelligent people don't pay attention to signs of bad health and die off while intelligent ones eat more veg instead.

In fact, many of the people who self-identified as vegetarians (a third of them!) actually also ate fish and chicken. So perhaps all this study tells us is that intelligent people like to be percieved as vegetarians, whether or not they really are.

This was also a British study, so it may have nothing to do with any other society.

Take what you read with a grain of salt!

Answer 2

Show me the results of the study first. I'm not just gonna take your word for it.

May I remind those veggies out there that Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian. If you're a veggie because you just think it's unfair to kill animals, I have the greatest respect for you, although I am weak enough to not join you.

If, however, you're a vegetarian because you hate food, or you think it makes you cleverer or better in some way, or you have some sort of problem with your meat-eating parents - get lost. Humans, like pigs, evolved to be omnivorous. It would almost certainly be better for the world if we all gave up meat, but it ain't going to happen soon, and in the meantime, don't kid yourself that all the smart folk in the world are vegetarians. It's a bit more complex than that.

If i've got you wrong, remember that being carnivorous didn't save a whole lot of dinosaurs from extinction.

Answer 3

I agree with some of the answers so far.
As a vegetarian, I don't think that being a vegetarian makes you cleverer. Rather, you're more likely to become a vegetarian if you are already "clever" (or smart, inquisitive, whatever you wish) because you tend to question things and habits otherwise taken for granted, such as meat-eating.
The results of the study showed that vegetarians are smarter than non vegetarians because only a certain kind of education and life as well as a certain sensitivity enable you to become aware of such issues and rid yourself of the accepted cultural paradigm. If your major concerns are how to get to the end of the week, you won't bother - quite understandably, I should say.

Answer 4

If a child has the capacity to determine what is deemed as a healthy food intake, rather than living on junk foods. Then this obviously insinuates that the child has a degree of intelligence anyway to start off with in life.

Answer 5

I can't speak for studies where vegetarian childrfen grew up to be smarter but I would have thought that people become vegetarians because they think about the morality around meat eating more, and so smarter people are more likely to become vegetarian, not neccesarily vica-versa. Just my own thoughts.

Answer 6

According to who's study? I always thought that mankind evolved to the state we are in now because we started to eat meat!?! Our ancestors were lame, dumb creatures because they only ate plants and foliage but then when they started to hunt and eat meat, their brains grew bigger. This lead to them becoming the kings of the jungle and then they slowly evolved over thousands of years into us.

Now we're supposed to believe another theory? Who's theory is it any way?

Answer 7

A recent study showed that children/adolescents who were vegetarians grew up to have higher IQs as adults. There was no correlation to whether the parents were vegetarians/vegans or not. Interesting, no?

Answer 8

No not any smarter, but you may be able to think a little more clearly with out a head full of bacon grease.

Answer 9

for those of you who so defiantly refuse to even consider a finding like that, intelligence has been found to be inherited to an extent, which is a biological effect on intelligence, how do you know that there isn't something biological here that can affect intelligence?

Answer 10

???????????
The main study for the food/intelligence argument has merely given an idea that fish oil may have an impact on learning.
How many vegans enjoy a nice bit of cod?