This is a special post for quick takes by Eli Tyre. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
I'm mostly going to use this to crosspost links to my blog for less polished thoughts, Musings and Rough Drafts.
Childhood lead exposure reduces one’s IQ, and also causes one to be more impulsive and aggressive.
I always assumed that the impulsiveness was due, basically, to your executive function machinery working less well. So you have less self control.
But maybe the reason for the IQ-impulsiveness connection, is that if you have a lower IQ, all of your subagents/ subprocesses are less smart. Because they’re worse at planning and modeling the world, the only way they know how to get their needs met are very direct, very simple, action-plans/ strategies. It’s not so much that you’re better at controlling your anger, as the part of you that would be angry is less so, because it has other ways of getting its needs met.
A slightly different spin on this model: it's not about the types of strategies people generate, but the number. If you think about something and only come up with one strategy, you'll do it without hesitation; if you generate three strategies, you'll pause to think about which is the right one. So people who can't come up with as many strategies are impulsive.
I'm mostly going to use this to crosspost links to my blog for less polished thoughts, Musings and Rough Drafts.