How should the kings of men be studied?

Galton (Hereditary Genius, 1869, pp. 24-25) said, "I am sure that no one who has had the privilege of mixing in the society of the abler men of any great capital...can doubt the existence of grand human animals pf natures pre-eminently noble, of individuals born to be kings of men." Galton thought;exceptionality resulted from the extreme end of a combination of normal processes. This is in contrast to theories postulating exceptionality to be a unique event due to a unique configuration of genes or a special rearing environment. To investigate the ramifications of studying Galton's theory of exceptionality with extreme groups, 150,000 cases were generated based on a correlation matrix roughly representing factors suggested by Galton to contribute to exceptionality. The formula used was Creativity = Intelligence + Motivation + Personality + Test. Exceptional cases were then selected from the full sample and analyzed to determine how well extreme groups revealed Galton's theory from which they were generated. It was found that results from extreme groups can be systematically misleading. Suggestions were made for avoiding these problems. These findings can be applied to any study of extreme groups including exceptionality, creativity, and even mental retardation.