From Psychology Today, data to suggest that smart people drink more:
The following graph shows the association between childhood intelligence (grouped into five “cognitive classes”: “very dull” – IQ < 75; “dull” – 75 < IQ < 90; “normal” – 90 < IQ < 110; “bright” – 110 < IQ 125) and the latent factor for the frequency of alcohol consumption. The latter variable is constructed from a large number of indicators for the frequency of alcohol consumption throughout adult life and standardized to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.0. The data come from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) in the United Kingdom. There is a clear monotonic association between childhood intelligence (measured before the age of 16) and the frequency of alcohol consumption in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. “Very bright” British children grow up to consume alcohol nearly one full standard deviation more frequently than their “very dull” classmates.
I’ll leave you to figure out which category I belong to. I always knew I had a reason…
Nicola Griffith 
So that is why we, at british mensa meetings (and SF conventions), gather in the bars drinking huge amounts of beer and cider. ;-)
nicolas, why yes. Yes it is :)
I'm obviously an aberration. (I have a measured IQ of about 145 and barely drink.) Or maybe I just need to drink more…?
DianneorDi, well, y'know, I'll be predictable and vote 'more'.
Oh, this explains EVERYTHING! .grin.
That has to be an English thing, all the americans I know who drink a lot happen to be quite stupid.
transceptor, interesting. Maybe you need to meet some more people?
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Oops, let's try that again and see if I can spell all the words right this time (and I haven't even been drinking!)
Previous comment was: @tranceptor, not so fast, amigo :) I keep up just fine with my English counterpart, and I'm pretty smart!
I am seriously doubtful if this applies to Australians. Maybe it is also *what* you drink that counts too. Actually, I'd really rather that the statistics are the opposite… I see so much stupidity and drunkenness I can't reconcile that with those statistics. :) Maybe after more research I'll understand better :)
@Kelly, well after having been together for so long perhaps you've just had a lot of practice :)
I really do think this is a cultural thing, I imagine that if the same study was done in the u.s. then the results would be considerably different.
As someone in the “very bright” range, how often I drink is measured in months. Though I admit to feeling a lot smarter after a few drinks.
I thought this sounded familiar. Read this about smart Americans drinking more a while back. That is, American's with better vocabularies. :)
So, not just an English thing, then :)
Nope. :)