Science Says Being Generous, Thoughtful, and Kind Is a Sign of High Intelligence. Leading Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant Agrees

One of the most successful people I know is really, really smart. She’s also extremely generous with her time, with her money, and with praise. She fits perfectly into Adam Grant’s “giver” category.

“True,” someone once said to me about her, “but then again, she’s so smart and successful she can afford to be generous.”

Actually, he might have that backward. 

• According to a study published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, greater cognitive ability is associated with a higher probability of charitable giving. 
• A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that unconditional altruistic behavior (acting to help someone else at some sort of cost to yourself) is related to general intelligence. 
• A study published in Social Psychology and Personality Science found that intelligence correlates with personal values; in simple terms (the only terms I understand), the less selfish you are, the smarter you tend to be.

Success tends to create more opportunities (or at the very least, more possibilities) to be generous, helpful, and altruistic. But since intelligence tends to be a driver of success — in whatever way you choose to define “success” — maybe some people are more generous because they’re more intelligent. Or in my friend’s case, maybe she’s not generous because she’s so successful she can afford to be; maybe she’s generous because she’s really smart.

As Grant says:

Generosity isn’t just a sign of virtue. It’s also a mark of intelligence. 

Data: people with high IQs have more unselfish values, give more to charity, and negotiate better deals for others. They prioritize the long-term collective good over short-term self-interest. 

It’s smarter to be a giver than a taker.

Granted, that might sound counterintuitive. When time, money, and resources are scarce, being generous with any or all can only make it harder for you to succeed. (By definition, bootstrapping means wringing every ounce of value out of the assets at your disposal.) You almost have to be a little selfish, at least early on. 

But maybe that’s the point. In broader terms, a decade-long study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that selfish people are no more likely to “attain power” (think get promoted) than people who are generous, trustworthy, and kind. Being selfish — and aggressive — tended to predict attaining higher power, but so did being generous and team-focused. 

And who do you think the most talented people want to work for, especially over the long term? Effective leaders, sure, but really it’s effective leaders who are also thoughtful, generous, and team- rather than self-focused. 

As Grant writes in Give and Take, when “success” is a sprint, givers will often finish last. But when success is a marathon, givers often finish first.

Maybe that’s why smart people tend to be more generous. As a series of studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found, the most successful negotiators care as much about the other party’s success as they did their own, finding ways to help the other side that cost them nothing. (As the old saying goes, good negotiators don’t just split the pie; they also find a way to make the pie bigger for everyone.) 

That approach helps foster, and preserve, a good relationship.

And good relationships are good business.

Can you still have high expectations? Of course. Can you still be demanding? Definitely. Can you still focus on results? Absolutely.

But you can also be smart enough to be generous, thoughtful, and kind. You can be smart enough and build people up instead of tearing them down. You can be smart enough to give before you receive (or better yet, with no expectation of reciprocation.) You can be smart enough to shift the credit from yourself to others. 

You can be smart enough to be generous — and be smart enough to surround yourself with people who are generous.

If only because spending more of your time with considerate, thoughtful, and kind people is a good way