Jennifer Armstrong's answer to Are higher-intelligence people more likely to be emotionally intense/sensitive? - Quora



I don’t perceive that there is only one type of person who is highly intelligent. There may have been reasonable studies done on this , but my suspicious mind would have them placed in the same camp as the speculative and ideologically-driven work of much of “evolutionary psychology”.

Rather, I think that what seems to be turning up as a positive correlation between high intelligence and emotional sensitivity are the consequences of contemporary social relations. Our current relations of productivity tend to favor the bumbling and unimaginative service worker as the most productive member of society, and penalize in many small ways, the more intelligence and creative person. From the point of view of the majority, who are in many ways also docile and service-oriented, the more intellectual person looks like a narcissist, or an overly-sensitive whiny person, or anything but something superior to those who are less gifted.

Interestingly enough, this is what Nietzsche calls “a false ceiling”. It’s like we are saying to ourselves, “Well, really, you know the kind of person who has the least trouble in life is really that smiling and docile service worker who flips my burgers for me. What is not to like about that? And that person will go on to have a happy and bubbly life, which is the way that life is supposed to be.’

But those who are more gifted, on the other hand, do not fit in, and they do not fit in because for the most part the style of contemporary Capitalism that is normalized does not require their services.

Consequently, those who are more gifted tend to receive a lot of negative messages along the way that make them feel estranged and even stigmatized. Take these experiences a step further, and a lot of gifted people start to react to things around them rather, let us say, “sensitively”. “Oh, that noise is too loud. Can you please turn it down?” and soon. Too much of the drum beat of the everyday norms of life tend to drive us crazy, because let’s face it, is is crass, or wrong, or just repetitive and lacking any deeper meaning.

I consider myself highly original in the creative sphere and very intellectual, so perhaps I am gifted. But I do like some loud things and some dramatic things, so long as they are not boring. There is the difference between the engine noise of your small plane before you are about to jump out of it (highly tolerable and thrilling, even if loud), and the incessant beat of somebody’s party noises.

Considering another point on somebody’s list, I find I am really not at all egalitarian. Consequently we could strike that point off for me being considered “sensitive” in terms of Western culture. I also have a keen interest in violence of certain sorts. This stimulates and motivates me. So that is another point we could cross off the list.

In all, I think my hypothesis is strong that when we are speaking of a “sensitive” person, that we are really talking about cultural attributes and a reaction (that is, a response) to pre-existing determinants (the economic system, primarily, and how it is structured

I think that in other sorts of culture, apart from that of Western advanced Capitalism, one would be able to see intelligence combined with other attributes — for instance, with the attribute of tough-mindedness, rather than with sensitivity.