According to a research published in the BMJ’s Christmas edition, rocket scientists and brain surgeons are no smarter than the average person.
Despite the usual sayings “It is not rocket science” and “It is not brain surgery,” new research shows that both aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons are on par with the general population in terms of their intellectual level.
Consequently, the researchers believe that both specializations may be elevated to an unwarranted degree, and that words like “It is a walk in the park” may be more acceptable.
Researchers compared the IQs of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons with 18,257 members of the general public in order to settle the age-old debate over which phrase – “It is not brain surgery” or “It is not rocket science” – is most deserving.
Six diverse domains of cognition were tested online, including planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and the ability to process emotions.
Gender, handedness, and years of expertise in the field were all considered in the study as potential determining factors.
There were no significant differences between the two groups in most areas, but the data suggest that aerospace engineers were better at manipulating their thoughts than the neurosurgeons were at addressing semantic problems.
There were no significant differences between aerospace engineers and the general population when these scores were examined. Memory recall speed was slower in the general population, while neurosurgeons solved tasks more quickly.
All three groups demonstrated a wide range of cognitive capacities, contradicting the prejudices portrayed by the statements “It is not rocket science,” and “It is not brain surgery,” according to the researchers.
However, they note the fact that this is an observational study that does not represent the full spectrum of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons
In their findings, they claim to have found that “It is a walk in the park” or some other non-career-related phrase may be more suited to describe the work of both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers.
