I have always known that genealogists were smart people! Now we have proof. Psychologists have shown previously that thinking about our own mortality - 'where we're going' - prompts us to shore up our cultural world view and engage in self-esteem boosting activities. Little researched until now, by contrast, are the psychological effects of thinking about where we came from - our ancestors.
Now Peter Fischer and his colleagues at the Universities of Graz, Berlin and Munich have shown that thinking about our ancestors boosts our performance on intelligence tests - what they've dubbed "the ancestor effect."
You can read more in the British Psychological Society's Research Digest Blog at http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/12/benefits-of-thinking-about-your.html
