Medical hypotheses
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The psychological attributes of intelligence and personality are usually seen as being quite distinct in nature: higher intelligence being regarded a 'gift' (bestowed mostly by heredity); while personality or 'character' is morally evaluated by others, on the assumption that it is mostly a consequence of choice? So a teacher is more likely to praise a child for their highly Conscientious personality (high 'C')--an ability to take the long view, work hard with self-discipline and persevere in the face of difficulty--than for possessing high IQ. Even in science, where high intelligence is greatly valued, it is seen as being more virtuous to be a reliable and steady worker. Yet it is probable that both IQ and personality traits (such as high-C) are about-equally inherited 'gifts' (heritability of both likely to be in excess of 0.5). ⋯ In particular, people with high levels of C are very lucky in modern societies, since they are usually well-rewarded for this aptitude. This includes science, where it seems that C has been selected-for more rigorously than IQ. Indeed, those 'gifted' with high Conscientiousness are in some ways even luckier than the very intelligent--because there are more jobs for reliable and hard-working people (even if they are relatively 'dumb') than for smart people with undependable personalities.