Dumb People Think Dumb Stuff is Profound

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by vladtheimpaler

you all seem dumb to me.

fyp

[Dion]

[savemedrzaius]

Wondering where, when and why you guys had an IQ test done?

I've always wondered what my IQ would be.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by savemedrzaius

Wondering where, when and why you guys had an IQ test done?

I've always wondered what my IQ would be.

I don't think I have ever taken an IQ test per se (maybe in junior high?), but I took virtually all of the possible university aptitude tests except the medical school one. They are basically IQ tests, so you can determine your IQ based on the results. Not sure if preparing for the tests skews the results as I never tried that.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by savemedrzaius

Wondering where, when and why you guys had an IQ test done?

I've always wondered what my IQ would be.

I had several done as a kid because I kept "failing" them. Now you can do them online without a hallway full of jittery, smoking parents outside the classroom. Amazing times.

[savemedrzaius]

Where online do they have legit IQ tests? I've never seen one.

But I also think IQ tests are bull####...so I guess I don't need to take the test, I must be smart!

[peter12]

There are no legitimate online IQ tests. Aptitude tests, like the SAT, correlate around 0.8 with general intelligence. To know your IQ, you need to take a standard IQ test from a psychologist accreditation to administer the test. The two main test are the Wesley Adult Intelligence Scale IV or the Standford-Binet V. These tests comprise of several hundred questions taken through about 10 subsets of what we consider to be adequate measures of intelligence. Your score is created by comparing it to a sample of the general population. It is really this sample that makes the test legitimate, and it is what you pay for. Taking an official IQ test costs around $800.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I had several done as a kid because I kept "failing" them. Now you can do them online without a hallway full of jittery, smoking parents outside the classroom. Amazing times.

You can't fail an IQ test. It is a relative measure of your intelligence.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by peter12

Steve Jobs, for instance, was clearly someone with a very high IQ, but believed in all sorts of alternative health nonsense.

Smart people can be dumb about stuff for a couple reasons:

• The alternative fallacy. Many smart people are also arrogant. They believe most people are dumb, and so commonly-held beliefs are probably wrong. Since they can cite many cases where common attitudes were proven incorrect, they've developed the habit of assuming that in all cases where an alternative to common beliefs are presented, the alternatives are almost certainly correct. It also feels good to recognize that you're one of the insightful people who see the folly of common beliefs. That's where anti-vaccers come from, with their belief that people who fall for scientific orthodoxy are sheep. This is also why Noam Chomsky has a following.
  
• The allure of faith. It's hard assessing and analyzing everything. Most people have some aspects of their lives where they fall back on feeling rather than thinking. This board, and professional sports itself, attest to that. We want to believe a particular way about something - have simple faith - so we forego the hard work of reasoning for the comfort of belief. The problem is that reason and skepticism aren't abandoned only for innocent things like sports. Even smart people will eschew them in favour of feels for more serious matters like nationalism and religion (and environmentalism, eastern mysticism, and new age spirituality qualify as religion here).

[PaperBagger'14]

I remember writing some IQ test around grade 8 or 9. It matched what peter12 had said about the 10 different subsets of intelligence and the students which scored high on it were encouraged to pursue an education at an IB high school.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

I remember writing some IQ test around grade 8 or 9. It matched what peter12 had said about the 10 different subsets of intelligence and the students which scored high on it were encouraged to pursue an education at an IB high school.

Go Redmen.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by peter12

IQ is a funny thing. It exists, and the higher you go, the more it seems to exist.

you could just sense the brainpower, the speed with which they made connections or inferred possibilities.

Lol at the two comments that could probably have belonged in the test for "how profound are these statements".

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by peter12

You can't fail an IQ test. It is a relative measure of your intelligence.

You didn't know my parents.

[Matata]

I recently read that there is no measurable benefit to having a very high IQ. Upon statistical analysis, researchers found that there was a "Golden Standard' IQ of 120. Up until an IQ of 120, a higher IQ corresponded to a higher level of achievement in thinking related tasks, but after 120, there was no longer a tie between IQ and success. I.E. - an individual with an IQ of 180 is not more likely to have more academic success (or become a professor, or win a nobel prize, etc.) then someone with an IQ of 130.

The thinking is that if after 120, brain power because less important to other factors such as tenacity and drive, or that having an IQ that is further from the mean makes it more difficult to be an effective person.

Basically, if your IQ is over 120 you have carte blanche to say: "I can do that but I don't wanna".

[peter12]

I would be interested to see this study.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Matata

I recently read that there is no measurable benefit to having a very high IQ. Upon statistical analysis, researchers found that there was a "Golden Standard' IQ of 120. Up until an IQ of 120, a higher IQ corresponded to a higher level of achievement in thinking related tasks, but after 120, there was no longer a tie between IQ and success. I.E. - an individual with an IQ of 180 is not more likely to have more academic success (or become a professor, or win a nobel prize, etc.) then someone with an IQ of 130.

The thinking is that if after 120, brain power because less important to other factors such as tenacity and drive, or that having an IQ that is further from the mean makes it more difficult to be an effective person.

Basically, if your IQ is over 120 you have carte blanche to say: "I can do that but I don't wanna".

I'd like to see this study as well. That being said, I guess it sort of makes sense, once you reach a certain level of intelligence, other factors become more important, like a diminishing returns scenario.

I'd think that number was closer to 140 than 120.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by peter12

You can't fail an IQ test. It is a relative measure of your intelligence.

And if your score is less than 50, you probably think you've 'failed'...

[Matata]

Originally Posted by peter12

I would be interested to see this study.

I read it a magazine, while high, in an alien space ship. Sorry, I can't be more helpful then google.

When I've met extremely high functioning individuals, I'm usually more impressed by their charisma, their work ethic and how wisely they apply their energy, then I am with their raw mental horsepower. The article rang true with my own experiences and I've kept it in the back of my mind ever since.

[Sr. Mints]

I was going to contribute to this thread with something profound, insightful, funny, or otherwise completely stupid, but my porn has just finished downloading.

[Thor]

The first thing I thought of was this when I heard about the study:

http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/

Glad to see his quotes were used in the study, because he is the heroin for idiots.