Study on Giftedness and Open Mindedness-Non Confirming Environments

I looked at some information on a study that came out this year on the "openness of experience" and how that be one key differentiator between the gifted and other people. They often call "giftedness" a tragic gift that hold with it great opportunities for understanding the stages of human development as well as the difficulty many of these people face trying to make understanding of their world.

Maybe I should rephrase that, I mean, they do have the ability to understand their world to a greater extent when compared to most others but they have no confirming peers in the environment so their thoughts and ideas rub against others. The good news according to the study by Uzeyir Ogurlu & Adnan Özbey (2021) entitled Personality differences in gifted versus non-gifted individuals: A three-level meta-analysis, High Ability Studies is that fundamentally they are as social and carry as many of the same traits as everyone else.

Can you image that every time you think deeply about a problem or a situation you come up with 5 different answers and everyone around you knows all the answers before they know the questions? (You end up being the dumb one in the room.) You know there are holes in logic and you know there are grey areas that can't be immediately solved without more information. Everyone else has the answers but doesn't have the logic and if you ask them to sort of justify their answers there are gaps where it would fundamentally change the outcome. (Assuming they don't just get frustrated and call you an "idiot!")

The authors basically conducted an metanalysis of a number of different studies on gifted people and came to the conclusion that the only trait that really seemed much different was openness of experience which leads to all types of learning, questioning, and asking (Honestly...you can't do this very often in your environment because people sometimes get really angry when you question things, what they mean, and why people believe them. Most of the time people say nothing to get along. The difference is the gifted might know they are saying little because of a social situation/awareness and in turn some try to be be helpful and letting others come to their own conclusions. Its dangerous to think for yourself in a world designed around social structures and obsession gain power and influence. Try being the guy/gal who puts his hand up and says.....wait...that's not the answer and if you do that your going to negatively impact a lot of people!)

You can get a fairly solid description to Openness of Experience in Scientific American. Basically, they take in a lot more information (through the senses, neuro development), understand things divergently (20 different possible answers versus the popular single answer), higher emotional development (why many become artists, poets, explorers, scientists), and in turn increasing complexity in being and existing. That isn't easy in a non confirming world of people who have ALL the answers. (Think about...when is the last time you disagreed with someone who adamantly believed in what they are saying, don't know how they derived at the answer, but demanded everyone around them followed what they believe without question? When you come across the dominant/distorted type personality they can be very sadistic if you poke holes in their logic. Now apply that to most people and you find that it isn't so much what they know but how they treat others and their values that separate them.)

Conclusion

"The study findings reveal that gifted individuals had higher openness levels than their non-gifted counterparts but there were no significant differences between the two groups in regards to the other factors (agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism). While interpreting these results, various definitions and identifications of giftedness should be taken into account. This study underlines the significance of addressing personality differences in gifted versus non-gifted individuals. Ogurlu & Ozbey, 2021, np)"

Why write about it? Those poor kids that grow up doubting themselves in an environment of demanded social adherence. That is also why many are not found, discovered, or fostered. They have no idea it isn't them wrong and we in turn waste our human capital. We can tap this national source for betterment of everyone around....as long as those in power can handle sometimes not being right! We should manage beyond the lowest common denominator.

Uzeyir Ogurlu & Adnan Özbey (2021): Personality differences in gifted versus non-gifted individuals: A three-level meta-analysis, High Ability Studies, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13598139.2021.1985438

Seeing It Both Ways: Openness to Experience and Binocular Rivalry Suppression. Anna Antinori, Olivia L. Carter and Luke D. Smillie in Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 68, pages 15–22; June 2017.