Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

I just read an article. It said that smart people can have poorer social skills. This was news to me. Are there reasons besides the one documented in this article that such would be the case? What is Asperger's Syndrome?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Smart-...&id=642758

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

The article is very 'light' so I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Asperger's syndrome easily explained is best understood as a light version of autism.

Unlike many other autists they don't have verbal language problems and they don't have any impairments to the thinking process, but they often communicate worse when using other stuff than language and may have less motor control.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I just read an article. It said that smart people can have poorer social skills. This was news to me. Are there reasons besides the one documented in this article that such would be the case? What is Asperger's Syndrome?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Smart-...&id=642758

[/ QUOTE ]

Though there are some good points, it is a very light article... it seems more like an advert.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

I'm a pretty classic "smart person with poor social skills," so I think I'm qualified to answer. I don't think smart people actually tend to have poor social skills, but when a person's social development is slower than their mental development the gap can be noticeable. This problem is exacerbated because there is often a strong expectation of heightened maturity and social savvy in smart kids and because those kids may have different interests from their peers.

I think the problem is at its worst during adolescence. "Fitting in" is very important during the teenage years, and the effects of poor socialization in early childhood will often become most apparent at this time. Most of us do finally "figure it out" in our twenties - some people even develop exceptional social skills in adulthood despite a childhood of social ineptitude.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

Its true regarding the smartest one percent or so. With plenty of exceptions. One reason is that these people are often too immersed in thought to notice they are being anti social. Another reason is my theory that many social conventions which are unthinkingly adopted by most people seem ridiculous to smart people (eg saying "bless you" after someone sneezes) so they have to force themselves to do something that is mildly uncomfortable to them.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

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Another reason is my theory that many social conventions which are unthinkingly adopted by most people seem ridiculous to smart people (eg saying "bless you" after someone sneezes) so they have to force themselves to do something that is mildly uncomfortable to them.


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Clearly, super smart people will view many things differently and have a difficult time connecting with people of average intelligence, but I don't think that (saying "bless you") is a very good example.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

People on this board who think they're smart but not smooth with the ladies != asperger's syndrome. Asperger's is the absence of the ability to recognize social cues, not just being the loser in high school etc. Instead of saying something awkward and being laughed at and feeling like an idiot, the asperger's kid says something awkward, gets laughed at and doesn't feel anything, he's just somewhat confused why everyone's laughing. He can't put it together. Some people with asperger's can be very intelligent, others not so much, others with hordes of other psychiatric problems, etc, like any other group really. It's a different sort of thing from the "uncool genius" high-school-personality-complex though.

Re: Is This True? Why or Why not?
 

This was covered extensively in the now defunct Special Sklansky Forum.

geniuses can have mental problems that cause a social deficit.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I just read an article. It said that smart people can have poorer social skills. This was news to me. Are there reasons besides the one documented in this article that such would be the case? What is Asperger's Syndrome?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Smart-...&id=642758



[/ QUOTE ]

This is a great post for me to tell a story about how my genius brother figured out how to read at the age of four without any help from anyone ( other then my mom who taught him how to tell time and read time ). When we were kids, my brother and I liked to watch certain programs such as Star Trek. Only my dad, coming home from work, would grab the little pamphlet that he called the TV guide and explain to us, that woopsy - daisy boys, Star Trek isn’t on tonight, we’ll have to watch ( fill in the blank whatever my dad wanted to watch ).

My brother called BS on my dad and when my dad was in the kitchen or bathroom, my brother would switch stations and sure enough, Star Trek was on. It was then that my brother asked my mom how to tell and read time, which she explained to him. At this point, he grabbed the pamphlet called the t.v. guide and would associate patterns of letters with names of t.v. shows at various times. He did this every day, and I was completely in the dark as to why he was so interested in adult scribblings on pieces of paper. By the time my brother was in first grade, he could read any book. My parents called it a miracle of God. To hear them tell the story, my brother was born with the ability to read, but I knew better.

At any rate, throughout my growing up years, I constantly called my brother an idiot and a moron, because he was mentally unbalanced. He was given a full ride academic scholarship to BYU, but wasn’t able to graduate, simply because he can’t relate to people at all.

I now know that he suffers from schizophrenia, and I am hugely humbled at what an idiot I am for not recognizing his genius as I was growing up. My own friends recognized it and shared their stories of my brother. For example, my brother is one year younger, but he was bumped up in math to my grade. My friend said he sat behind my brother and always copied off him in tests. One day, my brother sat at his desk, so consumed with a novel, that he didn’t bother answering the test questions, so my friend filled in the questions the best he could, handed in his test, then reported, that my brother, at the last five minutes, set down his book, filled in the test, and scored a 100 percent.

As stated, I feel constantly bad at the grief and anxiety, as an older brother, that I must have caused my brother by ridiculing him for his complete lack of social skills.

Re: geniuses can have mental problems that cause a social deficit.
 

Lots of schizophrenics are uncommonly intelligent. One of Einstein's sons was a schizophrenic.