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Worry too much? Don’t fret as it’s a sign of high intelligence, study finds

They are mocked for their frequent fretting but worriers may have the last laugh.

Research suggests that being a worrier is a sign of high intelligence.

Those who live in constant fear they won’t get everything done and who can’t switch off worrisome thoughts are more articulate.

In tests, worriers scored higher in something called verbal intelligence – the ability to understand and work with the written and spoken word.

The Canadian researchers said there are clear advantages to being a worrier.

The team from Lakehead University in Ontario put 125 students through a battery of tests.

This included measures of depression and shyness and a test of verbal intelligence.

The verbal intelligence test looked at vocabulary, as well as the ability to categorise words and to understand proverbs.

The men and women also filled in a ‘worry questionnaire’ which asked them how much they agreed with statements such as ‘I am always worrying about something’ and ‘I have been a worrier all my life’.

Those who admitted to worrying a lot also tended to do better on the test of verbal intelligence – at least when their worries about the experiment itself was taken into account.

The researchers said that taking the time to anticipate and plan for potential threats could have helped our ancestors survive.

After all, it is better to be overly cautious and live than be too confident and then be struck down by disease or killed by a wild animal.

However, worriers can’t relax.

The study also found links between high verbal intelligence and depression.

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