Cities are more crowded, more polluted, and more stressful to live in than any other kind of man-made environment in the world. But they are also where the smartest people want to live。

城市比世界上其他的人工環(huán)境更加擁擠、污染更加嚴(yán)重、生存壓力更大。但它卻也是聰明人喜歡居住的地方。

A new study of American mobility patterns suggests that people with higher intelligence are more likely to be moving in and out of cities. Among them, those individuals who originate from rural towns exhibit the highest forms of intelligence. The findings, now online, will be published in the September/October issue of the journal Intelligence。

一項(xiàng)關(guān)于美國(guó)人口遷移模式的研究表明，智商高的人更喜歡遷入和遷出城市。其中，來(lái)自農(nóng)村地區(qū)的人智商水平最高。此項(xiàng)研究的結(jié)果目前可在網(wǎng)上查看，另外也將發(fā)布在Intelligence雜志的9月/10月刊上。

The study, conducted by psychologist Markus Jokela from the University of Helsinki, traced the 16-year migratory patterns of 11,500 Americans between the ages of 15 and 23, starting in 1979. Jokela found that people who moved from rural and suburban areas to central cities typically had much higher intelligence scores than people who stayed put or made other kinds of movements. Those same people also tended to leave central cities for suburban environments, to a lesser degree。

此項(xiàng)研究由芬蘭赫爾辛基大學(xué)心理學(xué)家馬庫(kù)斯·喬克拉負(fù)責(zé)，跟蹤了11500名15-23歲的美國(guó)人在1979年后16年間的遷移模式。喬克拉發(fā)現(xiàn)，相比那些一直呆在一個(gè)地方或進(jìn)行其他遷移的人，從農(nóng)村和郊區(qū)遷移至中心城市的人通常智商更高，而且他們離開(kāi)中心城市遷往郊區(qū)的可能性更小。

The findings themselves aren’t particularly revelatory – it has long been thought that smart young people flock to the cities for better education and higher-paying jobs, and move out to the suburbs in order to raise a family. But the most striking part about Jokela’s study is the numbers; most notably a 12-point intelligence gap between rural residents who stayed in their hometown and those who moved to central cities. When Jokela controlled for socioeconomic status, this gap was reduced to 4 point. While this is less stunning, it does indicate that intelligence plays a role in where Americans decide to live. “The most general message is that the selective residential mobility we observe associated with socioeconomic status has its psychological underpinnings in intelligence differences,” Jokela told CityLab。

這些并不是什么驚天發(fā)現(xiàn)。長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)，人們一直認(rèn)為聰明的年輕人為了養(yǎng)家糊口，會(huì)蜂擁至城市尋求更好的教育和報(bào)酬更高的工作。但喬克拉的研究中有一點(diǎn)十分令人驚訝：留在農(nóng)村和搬入中心城市的人群間智商水平相差12點(diǎn)之多。若將比對(duì)范圍限制在社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)地位差不多的人中間，相差水平則縮小到了4點(diǎn)。這個(gè)數(shù)字雖然沒(méi)那么大，但也顯示出智商對(duì)美國(guó)人生活地選擇的影響。喬克拉對(duì)CityLab說(shuō)，“總而言之，據(jù)我們觀察，與社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況有關(guān)的選擇性居住遷移的心理基礎(chǔ)在于智商差別。”

While the results are interesting, they should be read with caution. Jokela’s analysis illustrates that intelligence and migration are connected, but not whether intelligence actually influenced individuals’ decision to move. The dataset for the study is also cut off after 1996, and American migratory patterns may have changed a great deal in the last two decades。

研究結(jié)果雖然有趣，看時(shí)卻也不可大意。喬克拉的分析表明智商與遷移有關(guān)，但并未說(shuō)明智商是否真的對(duì)個(gè)人的遷移決策有所影響。此外，研究并未包含1996年后的數(shù)據(jù)，而美國(guó)人口遷移模式在近20年內(nèi)可能發(fā)生了很大的變化。

The biggest takeaway, however, is that smart people are constantly anxious to keep moving around. If you live in the city, you may want to talk to your new neighbor from that rural town you’ve never heard of – they probably have a few things to teach you, before they leave for greener pastures。

還有最重要的一點(diǎn)在于，聰明人總是渴望不停地搬來(lái)搬去。如果你住在城市里，不如去和你來(lái)自農(nóng)村的新鄰居聊聊，即使你從沒(méi)聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)他的家鄉(xiāng)——他們也許會(huì)在搬去綠色大草原前教給你一些東西。