# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DY3BmdWIDOu
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66107911-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3e92f834de.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-05-27T23:00:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

Probably, because according to new research our capacity to worry evolved alongside our ability to think. So it's natural for us to worry, even about some things we can do nothing about.⁠
The new work suggests that there is an evolutionary link between our tendency to worry and our intelligence, regarded as our most important evolutionary advancement.⁠
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"We think normally of worry as being disabling," said psychiatrist Jeremy Coplan, lead author of a study published in Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience. That means it's a "maladaptive trait" that should have inhibited our adaptation to a changing environment, Coplan said in a telephone interview.⁠
"So we found this strange juxtaposition of something that was supposedly disabling being linked positively with something (intelligence) that was very adaptive," he added.⁠
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The study, involving 26 patients with a disabling anxiety disorder and 18 healthy volunteers, was conducted by seven scientists at five institutions. Among the "normal" volunteers, those with the highest intelligence were the least likely to be excessive worriers. But the result was just the opposite among the patients. Those with higher intelligence and an anxiety disorder were likely to worry far more than those with a lower IQ score.⁠
Thus there is a link between high intelligence and anxiety, the study says.⁠
In addition, brain scans conducted by Sanjay Mathew at Baylor College of Medicine found that the cerebral white matter, where critical communications between brain cells are carried out, responded similarly to both worry and high intelligence.⁠
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Coplan, who is with the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center, noted that worry is not in itself a bad thing. We do have real issues in our lives, and it's natural for us to worry about the possible outcome.⁠
Even in the earliest days of human history, our ancestors worried about real threats, and they learned to avoid unsafe areas, thus surviving long enough to pass along their genes.⁠
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#intelligence #anxiety #anxious #science #biology

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## Tags

anxiety, science, intelligence, biology, anxious

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