Pupil Size Is a Marker of Intelligence

acosmichippo , 5 hours ago (edited 4 hours ago)

this study is from 2016. a more recent study from 2021 was not able to replicate the results and says other studies have had mixed results as well.

edit: and a response from one of the original authors

i don’t have time to deep dive now, but suffice it to say this is far from settled.

givesomefucks , 4 hours ago

Really good study, but it looks like the only things with a stronger correlation than attention control score and resting pupil size was caffeine and nicotine.

And it’s concerning so many participants couldn’t verify nicotine/caffeine consumption when those are the biggest connections when they disclose their sample was “moderate”.

We’d also have to get into how nicotine/caffeine would be “performance enhancing” for these kinds of tests, yet would make the pupils contract. They should have tossed the participants who couldn’t report nicotine/caffeine instead of including them.

But ideally it would have just been participants who had abstained from either for 24 hours. Good luck with that tho.

givesomefucks , 6 hours ago

Interesting, but I think it has more to do with focus and/or adrenal response…

That being said, I’ve taken the Wechsler IQ test, and scored higher than can be measured reliably.

I’m super light sensitive, had some optometrists refuse contact prescriptions because my pupils “dilated too much”, and had to pay like a $200 licensing fee when I got LASIK because they had to use some special attachment because it had to be done wide than normal Lasik due to pupil size.

So maybe there is something to this? I still think there’s a middle step in there and not direct correlation though

Mcduckdeluxe , 6 hours ago

I have a top 1% IQ, so lower than you I guess, and my pupils are also super big. I’m pretty sensitive to light, though not as much as you. I remember multiple people remarking on it to me during my school days, and my eye doctor has never had to dilate my pupils before examination which is a nice bonus.

givesomefucks , 6 hours ago

Yeah, it just seems like its measuring engagement during the testing.

Would have been better to take measurements at “rest” as well, then compare them.

It’d be a lot easier to believe there’s a larger increase in pupil size when concentrating than permenantly.

That being said both my parents had blue eyes, and looking at my DNA I should have blue eyes. But they’re green, which can be explained by pupil dilation causing an increase in pigment density. Like how David Bowie has one eye that’s permanently dilated so looking at a picture it looks like he has heterochromia when he doesnt.

slate.com/…/the-story-behind-david-bowie-s-unusua…

Shits interesting, but there’s going to need to be a lot of follow up studies to rule out confounding variables.

floofloof , 4 hours ago

Nothing can be concluded from the anecdotal reports of individuals. If there’s a real effect here it can only be seen in a statistical study of many subjects (and it seems there’s some doubt about the study’s replicability). So I don’t think anyone could tell you definitively whether your eyes manifested this effect, and it would be a mistake to treat the hypothesis as confirmed or undermined by any one person’s report.

Head , 6 hours ago

It says in the article that the pupils enlarge with increased concentration. Perhaps more intelligent people are just always paying attention in new surroundings, where less intelligent people are more disinterested.

N0x0n , 4 hours ago

I have seen aloooooot of intelligent people on Festivals lately :D also they all drank water ! Suchh healthy people !!!

Warl0k3 , 2 hours ago

Given the sounds that are produced when the overhead lights are turned on in any compsci lab, this actually seems pretty plausible…