A light-hearted research article published in the Christmas edition of the BMJ sought to see once for all who is ‘brainier’: brain surgeons versus rocket scientists.
Brain surgeons and rocket scientists are often put on a pedestal as the exemplars of intellectual endeavour. But which of them is smarter and deserves the accolade more? Or at all? A group of neurosurgeons – who were, of course, totally unbiased – decided to resolve this conundrum.
Delving into the background of the phrases, they wrote that, “The phrase ‘It’s not rocket science’ is thought to have originated in America in the 1950s when German rocket scientists were brought over to support the developing space program and design of military rockets,” a research team led by University College London neuroscientist Inga Usher explained in their new paper.
“The origin of ‘It’s not brain surgery’ is less clear. It is tempting to speculate that the pioneering techniques of the polymath and neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing captured the attention of the public and promulgated the phrase.”
Their study aimed to settle the debate once and for all, and to “provide rocket scientists and brain surgeons with evidence to support their self-assuredness in the company of the other party.” The researchers tested participants across cognitive domains such as emotional discrimination and motor control. Eschewing an overall winner, they assessed the cognitive characteristics of each specialty using a validated online test, the Great British Intelligence Test (GBIT). This test had been used to measure distinct aspects of human cognition, spanning planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities in more than 250 000 members of the British public. Rather than being an IQ test, it is intended to more finely discriminate aspects of cognitive ability. The dataset also let the researchers benchmark both specialties against the general population.
The neurosurgeons showed significantly higher scores than the aerospace engineers in semantic problem solving (possibly attributable to their familiarity with Latin and Greek scientific terminology). Aerospace engineers showed significantly higher scores in mental manipulation and attention. Domain scores for memory, spatial problem solving, problem solving speed, and memory recall speed were similar for both groups. When each group’s scores for the six domains were compared with those in the general population, only two differences were significant: the neurosurgeons’ problem solving speed was quicker and their memory recall speed was slower. No significant difference was found between aerospace engineers and the control population in any of the domains.
The researchers observed that, “despite the stereotypes depicted by the phrases ‘It’s not rocket science’ and ‘It’s not brain surgery’, all three groups showed a wide range of cognitive abilities. In the original GBIT, 90% of Britons scored above average on at least one aspect of intelligence, illustrating the importance of studying multiple domains that make up a concept of intelligence rather than a single measure.”
The researchers came to the conclusion that, based on the findings, in situations that do not require rapid problem solving, it might be more correct to use the phrase “It’s not brain surgery”. It is possible that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers are unnecessarily placed on a pedestal and that “It’s a walk in the park” or another phrase unrelated to careers might be more appropriate. Other specialties might deserve to be on that pedestal, and future work should aim to determine the most deserving profession.
On a more serious note, they also considered that fewer young people are choosing surgery or engineering as a career path, and that such pursuits are commonly seen as ‘masculine’, deterring many females at an early stage. Their results however, showed that neither field differed significantly in cognitive aspects from the general public, which should help reassure future candidates that there is no ‘requirement’ for any type of personality trait.
Source: The British Medical Journal
