Do Smart People Drink More Alcohol?

A new study analyzes the relationship between intelligence in adolescence, measured through IQ tests, and alcohol consumption in adulthood. People with higher IQs were found to have higher chances of drinking alcohol, but reported fewer episodes of abusive drinking. 

A study published in 2024 (1) analyzed data from 6,300 American men and women who participated in a longitudinal project that began in 1957 (the "Wisconsin Longitudinal Study"), when the participants were around 18 years old. In 2004, 47 years after graduating from high school, the participants were asked about their alcohol consumption patterns. Specifically, they were asked how many alcoholic drinks they had consumed in the last 30 days and the frequency of binge drinking during that period. 

Among various sociodemographic factors of these participants, the authors focused on education level and income, aiming to analyze whether these factors influenced the relationship between IQ in adolescence and alcohol consumption in adulthood. 

The results were quite intriguing and sparked significant interest in the international media. The authors found that for each point increase in IQ, there was a 1.6% increase in reports of moderate or heavy alcohol consumption. However, among those who drank alcohol, having a higher IQ was associated with fewer reports of binge drinking. As noted by the authors, these results are influenced by many variables, and studies in other countries, such as Sweden and Denmark, have shown that higher IQ scores were associated with greater chances of abstinence (2). 

One factor that influenced the relationship between IQ and alcohol consumption was the participants' income, as people with higher incomes were more likely to consume alcohol and, among those who drank, had a lower likelihood of engaging in abusive drinking. This income variable considered the participants' parents' income, given that the study began when they were at the end of their adolescence. The authors point out that this result suggests that children and teenagers who grow up in financially stable environments may have lower chances of abusive drinking in adulthood. 

Although enlightening, this study has important limitations. In terms of the analyzed population, 99% of participants reported being white and born in 1939. The lack of diversity in the population makes it difficult to generalize these results. Therefore, since alcohol consumption is influenced by cultural variables, comparisons with Brazil should be made with caution. In general, this study highlights the importance of adolescence in the development of emotional and cognitive factors that can affect alcohol consumption in adulthood.

References:

1 - Druffner, N., Egan, D., Ramamurthy, S., O’Brien, J., Davis, A. F., Jack, J., ... & Brown, E. S. (2024). IQ in high school as a predictor of midlife alcohol drinking patterns. Alcohol and alcoholism, 59(4), agae035.

2 - Just-Østergaard E, Flensborg-Madsen T, Knop J, Sørensen HJ, Becker U, Mortensen EL. Intelligence in young adulthood and alcohol use disorders in a prospective cohort study of Danish men: the role of psychiatric disorders and parental psychiatric history. BMJ Open. 2019 Sep 4;9(9):e028997. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-028997. PMID: 31488478; PMCID: PMC6731796.