Billionaires are scary smart and well educated – study

Published May 19, 2014

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Billionaires are able to accumulate their massive wealth because they are “scary smart”, a new study has revealed. The world’s wealthiest people are usually the most educated and have the most advanced cognitive abilities, Duke University researchers believe they have proven.

The study, titled “Investigating the World’s Rich and Powerful”, also found that the richest of the rich have often gone to top universities and colleges – and that Harvard is considered the top school for those who want to be independently wealthy.

The average net worth of those that attended an elite school was significantly higher than those who did not, said the report published this month in Psychology Today.

This conclusion was made after investigating the educational backgrounds of the attendees of the annual World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland – the majority of them attended upper echelon schools.

One in 10 US billionaires were found to have attended Harvard, the study found. One in 20 billionaires from around the world also call the Boston institution their alma mater.

The most common path to wealth also included a major in science, technology, engineering or maths, Wai observed.

The rest of the world’s rich and powerful achieve their status and wield their influence over the masses using their brains. – Daily Mail

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