Can someone explain this for someone like me with no education in biology or psychology?
replies(6):
Take height as an example, most people tall or short have 'regular' genetics for their height. A bunch of different factors play together along with the environment to lead to the height they actually have. its basically like a 1000 different genes interacting that each may give you or take a way a fraction of an inch and all together they sum up to your actual height.
However sometimes you have people who are dwarfs, these arent just a combination of many genes, there is a overwhelming specific set of a few genes that totally overwhelm all the other height genes and give you greatly reduced height. Similarly on the other end of the spectrum you have some forms of giantism where a few genes overwhelm all the other height genes and give you greatly increased height.
This study is more or less saying high intelligence follows a model like regular tall height, many different genes interacting to sum up to above average height. Not a model like giantism or dwarfism where a very limited number of genes overwhelm the 'normal' genetics of intelligence.