Sako Garabedian@mises.org -- The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Defend Broken Systems. There’s a flattering story we tell about smart people: that they’re more rational, less biased, better at following evidence wherever it leads. It’s mostly wrong. What high intelligence actually gives you is a better toolkit for rationalization. A dim man will defend a broken institution with bumper-sticker loyalty. A brilliant one will defend it with regressions, citations, and the borrowed vocabulary of whatever intellectual tradition his institution has colonized.