The DOI matches its Crossref record; 186 of the 189 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Intelligence: is it the epidemiologists’ elusive “fundamental cause” of social class inequalities in health?
Abstract
Virtually all indicators of physical health and mental competence favor persons of higher socioeconomic status (SES). Conventional theories in the social sciences assume that the material disadvantages of lower SES are primarily responsible for these inequalities, either directly or by inducing psychosocial harm. These theories cannot explain, however, why the relation between SES and health outcomes (knowledge, behavior, morbidity, and mortality) is not only remarkably general across time, place, disease, and kind of health system but also so finely graded up the entire SES continuum. Epidemiologists have therefore posited, but not yet identified, a more general "fundamental cause" of health inequalities. This article concatenates various bodies of evidence to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause.
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“As children's intelligence predicts later socio-economic success better than parents' attributes (Gottfredson, 2004), Glazer and Konrads W nding is consistent with our claim that altruism and IQ are related.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gottfredson, L. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Delaware (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gottfredson, Linda S.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2004
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 174-199
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2141185279
- Cited by
- 580
- References
- 189
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 28.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- intelligence, socioeconomic status, health disparities, fundamental causes, psychosocial factors, material disadvantage
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Health Status, Humans, Intelligence, Social Class
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