Cletus

This is rather a controversial question I know but it is something I have wondered about for a while. Before people start writing in, let me point out that I have lived in the country most of my life so I am no way trying to insult country people. Sorry about the picture, but I just couldn’t resist!

People that live in cities generally have to be more aware of certain dangers that just aren’t found in the generally slower pace of the country, namely lots of people. When you have lots of people sharing the same space and resources you tend to get more danger. This I think we an all agree on. I have witnessed a robbery, an attempted robbery, vandalism many times and theft, all in different towns and cities. In the country I have not seen any such crime, probably because there are less people to cause it.

When people are faced with challenging difficulties they generally learn how to deal with these difficulties if they are to survive, a small example of Darwinism. In my humble opinion, city people are slightly more “street wise”, presumably this is due to the additional stimulus of an active and slightly more dangerous environment. So to reiterate my original question, does living in a city make you smarter?

A counter argument is that these days many wealthy people are buying up all the homes in the country, this is certainly the case in England. Many of these homes are in fact second homes or holiday homes. Although I dispute the idea that wealth is linked to innate intelligence, I am pretty confident that a privileged background and private education helps. Around 50% of students at the leading universities of Cambridge and Oxford are from the 7% that went to private schools. [source]

I think there is no real way to prove or disprove this idea, but I would be interested to hear about anyone else’s opinions on this matter.