If You're so Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
既然你这么聪明，为什么还这么穷呢？
How much is a child's future success determined by innate intelligence? Economist James Heckman says it's not what people think.
先天的智力能够在多大程度上决定一个孩子未来是否成功呢？经济学家詹姆斯·赫克曼表示，这可能和人们所想的不太一样。
He likes to ask educated non-scientists -- especially politicians and policy makers -- how much of the difference between people's incomes can be tied to IQ.Most guess around 25 percent, even 50 percent, he says. But the data suggest a much smaller influence: about 1 or 2 percent.
他喜欢问那些并非科学家的受教育者（尤其是政治家和政策制定者）一个问题，人们收入的差异与智商存在多大的关联。他说，大多数人认为大概25％，有人甚至认为50％。但据数据显示，智商对收入的影响非常小：大约仅为1％或2％。
So if IQ is only a minor factor in success, what is it that separates the low earners from the high ones? Or, as the saying goes: If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?Science doesn't have a definitive answer, although luck certainly plays a role. But another key factor is personality, according to a paper Heckman co-authored in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
如果智商只是决定成功与否的一个次要因素，那么导致人们收入高低的主要因素是什么呢？或者，正如常言道：既然你这么聪明，为什么还这么穷呢？科学尚未给出一个明确的答案，但运气肯定起到了一定的作用。但根据赫克曼在《美国国家科学院院刊》合著的一篇论文显示，性格是另一个关键因素。
He found financial success was correlated with conscientiousness, a personality trait marked by diligence, perseverance and self-discipline.
他发现，一个人在经济上的成功与责任心有关，而责任心是一种以勤奋、毅力和自律为特征的人格特质。
To reach that conclusion, he and colleagues examined four different data sets, which, between them, included IQ scores, standardized test results, grades and personality assessments for thousands of people in the UK, the US and the Netherlands.Some of the data sets followed people over decades, tracking not just income but criminal records, body mass index and self-reported life satisfaction.
为了证实这一结论，他和他的同事对来自英国、美国和荷兰的数千人的四项数据（智商、标准化测试结果、成绩和性格评估）进行了研究。其中一些数据集对受访者进行了几十年的追踪调查，不仅是收入，还包括犯罪记录、体重指数以及自我报告的生活满意度。
The study found that grades and achievement-test results were markedly better predictors of adult success than raw IQ scores. That might seem surprising -- after all, don't they all measure the same thing? Not quite.
研究发现，相比单独的智商而言，成绩和成就测试的结果显然更能预测一个人的成功。这似乎让人感到惊讶，毕竟，两者所衡量的不是同一个东西吗？并不完全是。
Grades reflect not just intelligence but also what Heckman calls "non-cognitive skills," such as perseverance, good study habits and the ability to collaborate -- in other words, conscientiousness.
成绩不仅反映了智力，还反映了赫克曼所说的“非认知能力”（比如毅力、优良的学习习惯和合作能力），换句话说就是责任心。
重点单词：
innate [ɪˈneɪt]adj.天生的; 先天的; 与生俱来的
perseverance [ˌpɜːrsəˈvɪrəns] n.毅力; 韧性; 不屈不挠的精神
conscientiousness [ˌkɑnʃiˈɛnʃəsnəs] n.自觉性; 责任心; 尽责性
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