It was Christmas Day 1999. On CNN, talk show host Larry King was interviewing Stephen Hawking.
"What, professor, puzzled you the most?" King asked. "What do you think about the most?"
Hawking immediately replied, "Women."
It's a comfort that Hawking, one of the smartest men in the world, is puzzled by the opposite sex. But, that's not surprising, according to Satoshi Kanazawa. Bright people are no better than anyone else at making smart decisions about common things, he says. These include finding a mate, maintaining family relationships, raising children, finding the way home, and dealing with a variety of basic life needs.
That's because there are several kinds of formal "intelligence", Kanazawa argues. Being smart one way does not necessarily mean smart in another way. This view is sure to cause arguments among scientists who think about thinking. That is because it disagrees with the common view that general intelligence is a single thing. In that view, it is not, as Kanazawa and others say, a set of independent mental areas.
Kanazawa says that some kinds of intelligence developed slowly over time. Many people have heard about what is called "emotional intelligence". Now, psychologists(心理学家) have discovered several other types of intelligence. These include the ability to learn a language, find a mate, recognise faces, and locate oneself in a new environment.
But, is there proof to support the theory that intelligence comes in many forms?" Actually, there is quite a lot of proof, " Kanazawa says. "If there were only one type of intelligence, "he adds, "people with high IQs should be ‘smart' in every way. "
In one test, a psychologist took a group of subjects on a hike, walking into the forest. He then told them to find their way back. The high IQ people were no more likely to be able to find out where they were. In another experiment, a researcher asked people to find their way to a specific location in a computer maze(迷宫). Once again, high IQ did not give them any edge.
