Real-World Intelligence (RWI): Adaptive Coherence Under Irreversible Consequence

Background:Psychometric models of intelligence, particularly general intelligence (g), reliably predict performance in structured, low-consequence environments. However, many consequential real-world domains—such as crisis leadership, recovery, caregiving, parenting, and long-horizon decision-making—require that cognitive capacity remain usable under uncertainty, physiological stress, relational exposure, and irreversible consequence. Overview:This manuscript introduces Real-World Intelligence (RWI) as a functional construct describing the capacity of a human system to maintain adaptive coherence—the stable integration of perception, regulation, and action—under consequential conditions. RWI is not proposed as a replacement for general intelligence, nor as a relabeling of emotional, practical, or social intelligence. Instead, it formalizes coherence as a system-level property governing whether cognitive, emotional, somatic, and relational information remains jointly deployable during stress. Contributions:The work (i) introduces deployability under irreversible consequence as a distinct and under-specified dimension of intelligence, (ii) formalizes real-world intelligence as the capacity to maintain integrated functioning under stress, uncertainty, and relational exposure, (iii) distinguishes RWI from existing intelligence, resilience, and decision-making frameworks, and (iv) outlines a feasible operational pathway for empirical evaluation, including explicit falsification criteria. Scope:This manuscript is presented as a theoretically bounded, falsifiable construct intended to complement—rather than replace—existing intelligence models in contexts where consequence, stress, and longitudinal reliability are central. Hypothetical examples are included solely for construct clarification and are not evidentiary.