It is such a common element of culture but when I look closely it doesn't make too much sense.
What are the general characteristics of a nerd?
- Smart and interested in academics.
- Physically underdeveloped and bad at sports.
- Socially awkward and unattractive.
Does this cluster make sense to you?
Sure, health problems can make you both unattractive (and subsequently awkward) and small/weak/uncoordinated. But what do smarts have to do with this? I'm guessing statistically a healthy kid is likely to do better at school than an unhealthy one.
So how do nerds come to be?
Is that because kids who don't do well socially are more motivated to excel academically?
Do smart cool athletic kids refrain from getting into nerd stuff because it's frowned upon in the cool circles?
Is being a nerd a sort of a "mild" autistic spectrum thing?
Also, a follow up question. Are nerds actually smarter on average by any measurement? Why or why not?
Is there causality though? Does being unathletic or unattractive make people focused on academics? Does being good at cognitive things make you forgo sports? Do both of those properties happen in one person by coincidence?
Kind of yeah. You're naturally going to do things that you're better at because winning gives a dopamine hit but losing doesn't.
The less you practice something the worse you'll be. So there's a feedback loop.
Otherwise, no. There are plenty of athletic people who love chess and vice versa. This is just true in a large trend sense.
I'm terrible at both. People just called me a fucking loser removed in school
Probably not. There are lots of smart hot people. We're wandering in to brain calipers territory. There's still a lot of debate as to whether "intelligence" as a general term is even useful scientifically.