A Model of How Shifting Intelligence Drives Social Movements

Noah F G Evers; Patricia M Greenfield

doi:10.3390/jintelligence9040062

A Model of How Shifting Intelligence Drives Social Movements

J Intell. 2021 Dec 13;9(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence9040062.

Authors

Noah F G Evers¹, Patricia M Greenfield^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

Abstract

Based on the theory of social change, cultural evolution, and human development, we propose a mechanism whereby increased danger in society causes predictable shifts in valued forms of intelligence: 1. Practical intelligence rises in value relative to abstract intelligence; and 2. social intelligence shifts from measuring how well individuals can negotiate the social world to achieve their personal aims to measuring how well they can do so to achieve group aims. We document these shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic and argue that they led to an increase in the size and strength of social movements.

Keywords: COVID-19; George Floyd protests; abstract intelligence; adaptive intelligence; cultural evolution; intelligence; practical intelligence; social intelligence; social movements; theory of social change, cultural evolution, and human development.