研究证实：越聪明，越长寿

A survey of more than 2,000 people living in the UK has found that those with a higher IQ are more likely to live a longer life. Researchers analysed data from the Scottish Mental Surveys - in which almost every 11-year-old in Scotland was given the same IQ test on the same day in 1932 - and tracked the participants' lives up to when they passed away.

基于对2000多名英国居民的调查，研究结果显示：智商越高的人长寿的几率越大。研究者分析了来源于苏格兰心智调查的数据：1932年，几乎每个11岁的苏格兰儿童都在同一天接受了相同的智商测试，之后测试者将接受追踪调查，直至他们去世。

Even when factors such as economic status and employment level were accounted for, the smarter kids ended up living longer than those with lower IQs. These results correlate to several previous studies that have found a link between IQ and mortality when other factors were filtered out.

即使经济地位和就业水平等因素都被考虑在内，调查仍旧显示，智商高的孩子寿命更长。这些结果与先前的研究不谋而合，即在排除其它因素的条件下，智商与死亡率有一定的关联。

"Subjects who died before 1 January 1997 had a significantly lower mean IQ at age 11 years than subjects who were alive or untraced," says the report, published in the British Medical Journal. "Our data shows that high mental ability in late childhood reduces the chances of death up to age 76 years."

发表于《英国医学杂志》的报告显示：1997年1月1日前去世的调查对象11岁时的平均智商远远低于当时还健在的和没接受追踪调查的群体，数据表明，如果一个人在童年后期表现出较高的心智能力，76岁前死亡的几率会有所降低。

The numbers crunched by Lawrence Whalley from the University of Aberdeen and Ian Deary from the University of Edinburgh show that someone with an IQ of 115 at age 11 was 21 percent more likely to be alive at the age of 76 than someone with an IQ of 100 (the general average), as David Z. Hambrick at Scientific American reports.

《科学美国人》的戴维·汉布里克报道称，由阿伯丁大学的劳伦斯·沃利和爱丁堡大学的伊恩·蒂尔瑞估算的数据显示，智商值为115的11岁儿童活到76岁的几率比智商值为100（平均水平）的儿童高21%。

We don't yet understand why this is the case, but more than 20 longitudinal studies (studies with data points covering a long period of time) carried out around the world have found similar links.

这一现象是如何产生的呢？我们也尚未发现原因所在，但是全世界20多个纵向追踪研究都发现智商与寿命间有类似的关联, 这些研究数据均来自长时间的调查。

There are some interesting hypotheses: one is that intelligent people are more likely to strap themselves in while driving, choose to eat a healthy diet, avoid smoking, and exercise more often. Whalley and Deary found that those with a higher IQ were more likely to quit smoking after its negative health effects were publicised in the 1950s. In other words, smart people might just be better at avoiding things that are going to kill them.

下面是一些有趣的猜测：其一，聪明人往往更倾向于约束自己，比如，开车谨慎，饮食健康，拒绝吸烟，锻炼身体。沃利和蒂尔瑞发现，20世纪50年代曝光吸烟有害健康之后，智商较高的群体戒烟的可能性更大。也就是说，聪明人更懂得如何避免健康危机。

Another hypothesis is that a high IQ is a signifier of a sturdy constitution and a body that's going to last - it's essentially a signifier rather than a cause, some scientists believe. One study published in 2005 found that better reaction times specifically helped people live longer - so a high IQ is possibly an indication of an efficient nervous system, rather than being itself a cause of longer life, the researchers proposed.

另一个猜测是，有些科学家认为，高智商是强健、耐受体质的标志，而不是长寿的原因。2005年发布的研究表明，反应越快的人活得越久，研究者因而指出，高智商很有可能就是神经系统高效运转的标志，但它本身不是长寿的原因。

Alternatively, or perhaps in addition to the above suggestions, it could be that genes are contributing to the link between IQ and longevity. Hambrick cites a recent study involving twins that provides the first evidence for this hypothesis:

除了上述的猜测，另一种可能性就是基因导致了智商和寿命之间的关联。汉布里克引用了最近有关双胞胎的一项研究，为这一假设提供首个依据：

"Twin studies disentangle the effects of environmental and genetic factors on an outcome such as intelligence or lifespan by comparing identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and fraternal twins, who on average share only 50 percent of their genes. [The researchers] performed statistical analyses to estimate the contribution of genetic factors to the IQ-lifespan relationship. The results were clear and consistent: genes accounted for most of the relationship."

“通过比较同卵双胞胎（百分之百的基因相同）和异卵双胞胎（平均只有百分之五十的基因相同），研究者理清了环境和基因因素对智力和寿命的影响，他们分析了数据以推测基因因素对智商和寿命的关系起到的作用。结果明确而一致：大部分二者的关系能用基因解释。”

It's a complicated area of science, particularly as an IQ score doesn't necessarily directly represent intelligence, and can be affected by social class, education standards, and other cultural factors - if you're preconditioned to think you'll do badly in an exam, for example. Nevertheless, the link is there - and researchers are still trying to find out why.

关于智商与寿命的研究是一个复杂的科学问题：智商值不能直接代表智力。因为智力还会受到社会阶级、教育标准和其他文化因素的影响。因此，可别认为智商值低就考不好试。无论如何，智商和寿命是一定存在某种关联的，只是研究者还需要试着去发现个中原因，揭开奥秘。

Vocabulary

crunch: 对…进行数学运算；（反复）处理

longitudinal: 纵向的

identical twins: 同卵双胞胎

fraternal twins: 异卵双胞胎