Contributions of Gifted Individuals in Enhancing Their Communities: A World-Wide Perspective

The creative and professional accomplishments of intellectually precocious youth have been widely documented. They maintain and advance modern economies. Less is known about their contributions to society outside of the world... [ view full abstract ]

The creative and professional accomplishments of intellectually precocious youth have been widely documented. They maintain and advance modern economies. Less is known about their contributions to society outside of the world of work. What contributions do intellectually talented individuals make to society, their local communities, and beyond? This study explores the volunteer work and community engagement of three cohorts of participants in the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY). They were all in the top 1% of intellectual ability when identified at age 13; and they were surveyed at age 50 (N > 2,000). We also compared their findings to a SMPY cohort of top STEM graduate students (N ~ 600), who were identified at age 25 and surveyed at age 50. All four cohorts completed a midlife survey that included questions about their volunteer work, organizational memberships (and leadership roles), political behavior, and other non-work related societal contributions. Results showed that most SMPY participants volunteered their time in the community. Consistently across all three cohorts, around 75% of women and 63% of men spent time volunteering. These percentages were consistent with our STEM graduate student cohort and are substantively higher than a nationally representative sample (Current Population Survey, 2013), in which 29% of men and 39% of women in the U.S. volunteered their time. Intellectually talented individuals and exceptional contributors in STEM are professionally successful but not at the expense of contributing to society in other ways. The contributions they make outside of the world of work contribute to building communities and fostering social well-being.