This paper investigates whether the phrases “It’s not rocket science” or “It’s not brain surgery” are justified.
According to research published in the December CHRISTMAS 2021 issue of The BMJ, rocket scientists and brain surgeons are no smarter than the general population.
Despite the often used statements “It’s not rocket science” and “It’s not brain surgery,” the data demonstrate that both aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons had IQ levels comparable to the regular person.
As a result, the researchers believe that both specializations may be overvalued, and that non-career words like “it’s a walk in the park” would be more appropriate.
Researchers compared the IQ of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons with 18,257 members of the general population to help decide the age-old debate over which statement – “It’s not brain surgery” or “It’s not rocket science” – is most deserving.
All of the participants took an online test that assessed six different components of cognition (domains), including planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities.
The investigation took into account potentially important aspects such as gender, handedness, and experience (years) in their field.
The findings demonstrate that aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons were roughly comparable in most categories, but that they differed in two areas: aerospace engineers had stronger mental manipulation abilities, while neurosurgeons had higher semantic problem-solving abilities.
When these scores were compared to other people, no significant differences were found in any of the domains. Neurosurgeons solved issues faster than the average population, although their memory recall speed was slower.
According to the researchers, these findings reveal that, despite the prejudices portrayed by the statements “It’s not rocket science” and “It’s not brain surgery,” all three groups demonstrated a wide range of cognitive ability.
They admit that this is an observational study that does not cover the overall spectrum of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons around the world.
They claim that their findings imply that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers may be placed on a pedestal that is unnecessary and that a phrase like “it’s a walk in the park” or something else unrelated to occupations would be more appropriate.
Source: 10.1136/bmj-2021-067883
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