Do Smart People Drink More?
The stereotype of the drunk genius is doggedly persistent: Think of Ernest Hemingway, who claimed to “write drunk, edit sober,” or you yourself, having a well-deserved glass of wine at happy hour after dealing all day with what sometimes feels like a world full of … not-so-bright people, to put it kindly. This connection has driven scientists to study the question: Are smarter people heavier drinkers? Here are five tipsy facts about drinking and intelligence—and what they add up to. (Spoiler alert: confusion.)
1. SMART WOMEN DRINK MORE, BUT NOT MORE THAN MEN OVERALL.
College educated women in a UK study drank 86 percent more than less educated women in the same age group. Men, in general, drink 11.1 percent more than women regardless of their intelligence level.
2. SMART KIDS GROW UP TO IMBIBE MORE.
Smarter children become heavier drinkers, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (U.S.), the National Child Development Study (U.K.) and a study from Finland of twins. The last one found that the more verbal the kids were at 12, the more likely they were to be drinking at 16.
3. HIGHER EDUCATION = HIGHER ALCOHOL INTAKE AS YOU AGE.
The older you get, the more you drink—but only if you went to college. The National Survey on Drug and Health use found that among college graduates, 68.4 percent reported drinking versus only 35.2 percent of those who did not graduate high school.
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