Entitlement and Intelligence

 

Entitlement and Intelligence

Intelligence plays an important role in our day-to-day activities. It determines the type of work we do, the spaces we occupy, how people perceive us and even how we interact with others. Intelligent people have superior cognitive abilities that enables them to complete tasks more efficiently, whereas less intelligent people need to work a bit harder in order to complete the same tasks. This is the neural system’s innate ability and there is nothing that we as humans can do to change this, hence we say you are born with it. Now while this is true, there are also people who are hardworking and just as smart, but intelligence seems to be used as a higher level of measured intellect. We give a higher compliment when we tell someone that they are intelligent as opposed to when we tell them they are hardworking. Already you can see that there is an invisible hierarchy that exists, and  that in my opinion adds to an individual’s sense of entitlement. 

 

There are many studies that explore the correlations between intelligence and success and achievement, intelligence and wealth and even intelligence and mental health. I have noticed that there is a lack of research on intelligence and entitlement, and this is interesting because it is something that I have noticed to be a common trend.  Before continuing, I want to state that I have not conducted any surveys, nor have I done any formal research per se. I will simply share my observations and experiences. Let me start by posing the question: Is IQ positively correlated to entitlement?

 

Intelligent people tend to have a higher sense of entitlement because they feel that they have something (knowledge) that is unparalleled. A possible reason for this is that intelligence is directly linked to our own degree of sophisticated knowledge.

 

People with a higher IQ tend to dominate the spaces they occupy and make their presence known, thereby making others feel invisible. Inevitably, the less intelligent individual will be submissive and feed into the notion that the other dominates the space, thereby heightening their sense of entitlement.

I’m part of the generation who thinks that the world owes us and that we deserve everything, but also the generation who generally have higher IQs. Since early childhood, we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that we’re “special”. We’ve been told that we can have and be anything, and so many times we’ve been told we’re not losers. When in reality we’re mostly egotistical losers with a high sense of entitlement.

 

Picture a graduate on their first day of work. How do they look? Confident? Arrogant? Entitled? Or ready to own the space and demand (rightfully) what is theirs? Perhaps also somehow demanding respect when it has not yet necessarily been earned. I know that when I’m in a room where I consider myself to be the more intelligent person, I tend to have a sense of entitlement almost as if my higher IQ automatically places me above everyone else. Conversely, I’ve also noticed that when I’m not the smartest person in the room, I’m slightly intimidated and would rather hide away in the corner and suppress my opinions and even my needs.

 

I noticed the connection between entitlement and high IQ when I was a student at the University of Cape Town. I interacted with people from all over the world, from all walks of life, but one thing everyone, or at least majority of the students had in common was an unexplained sense of entitlement. It was almost as if the students were walking around with a chip on their shoulders. At first, I thought it was just a big city narrative, until I realized that it was because of the amount of intelligence (and hardwork) it took to be part of an institution like UCT. I guess possessing knowledge opens up the floor to flexing and paves the way to entitlement?