Here's an article about research which finds that soccer players have better mental "executive function" (working memory, creativity, multi-tasking and inhibition) than average people, and higher level players exhibit this to a greater degree than lower level players.

Hmmm. I wonder where cyclists would lie? Maybe it's better we not know? What do you think?

https://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...s/?hpt=hp_bn12

It probably has less to do with the sport than the level of excellence achieved by the subjects. I suspect most athletes at the highest levels share similar traits, provided the sport has some level of complexity.

Soccer players also exhibit a greater capacity for falling onto the field and writhing in agony when looked upon too intensely during a game. This probably has an adative function, since larger, more competitive individuals of the population are so digusted by the spectacle that they are less likely to attack or futher injure the guy on the ground.

Students and people on the faculty at MIT and Cal Tech commute by Bicycle.

Doesn't prove anything. Lots of folks on the opposite end of the economic spectrum commute by bicycle too.

A tribute to some of the biggest flop artists out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioyt2zzm530

Basketball isn't much better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAbe-z_bTr8

You should hope the people posting here don't cycle!!

The entire Hispanic population of my town commutes by bike. And they don't ride Bianchis, they ride WallyWorld bikes.

That's what I was thinking too. I only hang out here because it makes me feel smarter than I really am.

Before or after the ride?

My real-world experience is that cyclists tend to be more intelligent than the general population. My experience of some forums within BF suggests that cyclists who post on internet forums buck that trend.

Source and any numbers?

Be careful. The guy in the cube next to me is a Cal Tech Graduate. But he is already gone for today.

I have a theory that I'm stupider when I ride a lot.

you either got the legs or you dont, theres nothing that intelligence has to do with it

qed

I hope this thread carries into at least 5 pages. It looks like it's really going somewhere meaningful!

Or it could be evidence that posters are not always cyclists.

Me too. In general, I feel mentally slower after I exercise. I first noticed this years ago when I was in college. I wonder if there is an explanation. Lack of oxygen to the brain?

Wally...world?

I find this, and that I'm always particularly unstable after I get off the bike, no matter how far I've cycled. But, it does seem that the people who post here are far more cerebral than I've seen on other forums, bar the odd idiot. Certainly much smarter than the people I tend to find on Yahoo answers, sadly. Wonder if football forum members, if they indeed exist, are that intelligent. Never heard of cycling fans fighting for example.

I agree, I would not want to take an IQ test after a hard exertion, doesn't matter the sport. I always feel sorry for the athletes that are interviewed right after they are done competing, they often have a hard time stringing a coherent sentence together. Could be some kind of oxygen deprivation effect, or maybe carbohydrate unavailability?

I'd sort if expect that the most successful people in ANY field would would demonstrate better than average reasoning capabilities, and even more so individuals that work in teams. That would include athletes, medical experts, corporate executives and people in charge of organized crime. I guess political leaders would also fall in there somewhere too but may already be covered under either 'corporate executives' or 'people in charge of organized crime' depending on your viewpoint.

Athletes at least need to be in above average physical condition to boot. I wonder why that wasn't mentioned.

Bicyclists? I think there were bicyclist shaped fossils mixed in with trilobites in the fossil records of the Early Cambrian period. They've somehow managed to survive this long but will probably die out unless they learn how to develop more successful social skills. Demonstrating aggressive or antagonistic behaviors against larger, better armored articles of transportation may be some indication of a lower than average IQ and definitely weights survival stats negatively.

Cognitive dissonance is the engine that runs the nation.