Stephen’s Self-Assessment Arcade

The Intelligence Trap

In the book de Bono's Thinking Course, Edward de Bono asserts that thinking is a skill. His finding has been that intelligence and thinking skill are not directly related; the existence of this effect is counterintuitive for most people. Dr. de Bono calls this effect the intelligence trap.

In describing the intelligence trap, Dr. de Bono identifies the following components:

Verbal facility: Intelligent people learn that well-articulated is often mistaken by others for well-thought-out. Since verbal skills come easier than thinking skills, the intelligent person is tempted to substitute the former for the latter.
Backdoor commitment: An intelligent person can create a rational and articulate argument to support almost any position, sometimes without even examining it. It is very easy for him to then slip into having an emotional stake in the position, not because he has critically evalutated it, but simply because he has pride of ownership of the argument in its favor.
Social costs of error: Intelligent people are often heavily invested in the self-image and social status conferred by their intelligence. This can lead them to become very risk-averse regarding mental errors. It’s safer to stick with the generally accepted line than to branch out and advocate an untried point of view.
Bias toward criticism: If you advocate an idea, you make yourself vulnerable to the criticism of others. If you shoot down others’ ideas, you get to be the one who showed others they were wrong. This behavior can be very seductive. It is also self-reinforcing: once you have been the critic for a while, you visualize others doing to your ideas what you routinely do to theirs, and are therefore even less inclined to put forward new ideas of your own.
The “Everest effect”: Intelligent people often seem to prefer reactive and analytic thinking over projective and synthetic thinking. In reactive thinking the problem is there before you and you have to respond, usually on the problem’s own terms. In projective thinking, you have to find the problem, the objectives, and the solution space. Reactive and analytic thinking appeals to intelligent people the way a big mountain appeals to skilled mountain climbers: because it’s there. However, most of the important problems in life require projective and synthetic thinking.
Speed: Because an intelligent person can reach a conclusion without walking through all the intermediate steps, he is tempted to do so. But some of the intermediate steps may be important and reveal considerations that make the easy conclusion inappropriate.
Bias toward cleverness: There are greater social rewards for demonstrated cleverness than for demonstrated wisdom. This can lead the intelligent person to habitually retreat into cleverness.

Not all intelligent people get caught in the intelligence trap, and of those who do, they do not get stuck there all the time. Some are able to avoid the trap instinctively, while others have been taught or have learned to overcome it. However, it is always there calling, and it is something to be aware of.

Find Out More

Dr. de Bono has made a study of creative thinking and thinking as a skill.

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Edward de Bono has his own web site.

Find Books

de Bono's Thinking Course

Look for other books by Edward de Bono

Last modified Monday, 14-Jul-2014 16:38:16 EDT