Emil O W Kirkegaard

Are people with bigger brains smarter (on average)? Here I will summarize some of the biggest studies which test whether there is a correlation between intelligence and brain size (within modern humans). Thread.

Evolutionary advantages of smaller heads/brains (?): easier birth, less energy intensive, smaller target, less fragile. Low correlation presumably means that it's entirely possible to be highly intelligent with a small head/brain. Why go big?

Except, they did go big!

Exactly! And if evolutionary biology is to be believed, there must be a reason - some physical or intellectual advantage to larger brains not fully captured by g.