Study Finds You Don't Have To Be Smart To Get Rich

Let the dim, dull, and dumb rejoice: You don't have to be smart to be rich.

People of lower than average intelligence proved to be about as wealthy as those with higher IQ scores in similar circumstances, according to a nationwide study by Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research.

"People don't become rich just because they are smart," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a researcher at Ohio State University, in a statement. "Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty."

The study did find one benefit of intelligence: People with higher IQ scores tend to get paid more.

Confirming other research in this area, Zagorsky's study showed that each point of increase in IQ score corresponded with with $202 to $616 more income per year.

How then to explain the absence of a relationship between wealth and intelligence? Zagorsky said this data isn't clear about this. He suggests that those with high IQs aren't saving as much as the less gifted.

The absence of a strong correlation between intelligence and wealth can seen in the parking lots of universities, Zagorsky said.

"Professors tend to be very smart people," he said. "But if you look at university parking lots, you don't see a lot of Rolls Royces, Porsches or other very expensive cars. Instead you see a lot of old, low-value vehicles."

Zagorsky's study appears in the journal Intelligence.

The study relies on data from 7,403 Americans who took part in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which is funded mainly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.