Rocket scientists aren’t any smarter than the rest of us, science says
“It’s not rocket science” is an expression used to describe tasks that aren’t complicated. But are rocket scientists smarter than everyone else? That was a question researchers sought to answer in a new study in medical journal BMJ; the study also applied the analysis to brain surgeons. The study was led by researchers at universities and hospitals in London and Bristol, as well as UK charity Brainbook, which is dedicated to neurosurgical communication and engagement.
Researchers gave the Great British Intelligence Test to aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons. The test evaluates areas of cognition like planning and reasoning, working memory, attention and emotional processing. The researchers compared the results of 300 aerospace engineers to those of 72 neurosurgeons from across the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, as well as to the scores of 18,257 members of the British public.
The neurosurgeons scored higher than the aerospace engineers in semantic, or word-based problem solving, while the aerospace engineers scored higher in mental manipulation and attention. There were no other notable differences between their scores. But how did the saying hold up? Compared to the general population, neurosurgeons had faster problem-solving speeds but slower memory recall. There were no notable differences between the scores of aerospace engineers and the general population.