People and IQ

[Shooby]

Hey All,
I think human nature is funny sometimes.
Every time I discuss IQ with someone(not very often), whatever I say my IQ is, the other person always says their IQ is higher. Also, it readily apparent to me from talking to these people that almost the entire human population could join MENSA if they wanted to, but they just don't want to /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Steve

[Davidius]

Hahaha. Actually, psychological assessment has changed a bit since the days when IQ was a single number that expressed your "overall" intelligence. Now there are various tests that break down intelligence into specific areas. This is basically because a single number tells you nothing. People who throw around their IQ number don't know what it means and have no idea about the psychometrics that went into it.

[Metric]

I know what you mean. IQ is an interesting thing to study, but some people flaunt their personal score like it represents some kind of advanced degree or accomplishment. I've personally never been tested, and really don't care to for fear of lending credibility to the whole pissing match. I can see that as soon as I've gotten a score of N, it doesn't matter if I'm a world expert on a specific branch of theoretical physics -- some dumba55 will always think that he's pulled a trump card by touting an IQ of N+1.

[hmkpoker]

IQ doesn't mean anything.

[guesswest]

IQ means something, psychometric testing including IQ is very useful for certain specific purposes. But it's not some kind of general measure of personal worth, nor was it ever meant to be that.

And anyone who throws out their IQ number as a boast is an ignorant prick - unless they know and mention the specific test they took, in which case they're just a regular prick.

[PoBoy321]

Is your IQ 70?

[guesswest]

Yes, but my 'EQ' is off the charts.

[tolbiny]

I know one guy who actually joined mensa. And i'm better at poker than he is therefore i to could join mensa if i wanted.

[Utah]

It is human nature to always seek status and people will easily lie to do so. One way to do this is to taut IQ as it is somewhat of a freebee as it is hard to disprove. It is a lot harder to fake the other symbols of status - wealth, looks, fame, etc.