[bunny]

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There were no constraints on Y in DS's scenario. I agree with you that a high IQ is a good indicator of problem solving ability in general. I dont think it's right to annoint it as the be-all and end-all though - I suspect a category of (perhaps odd) questions exists which will deceive people who approach problems in the way that scoring highly on an IQ test requires - perhaps Y is one of those questions.

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Okay, I'll grant that. But I would also say that there's no reliable way to evaluate such "odd" questions. If IQ is a liability, then I think reason is (almost always, you'd basically have to use set theory to find a counterexample) also a liability. But I don't think we can discover truths objectively and collectively without applying reason - subjectively and personally perhaps...

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Sure we can - if a class of these questions was discovered a good method of answering one would be to give it to lots of dumb people and see what they thought. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Perhaps any real-world example of what I'm speculating exists would involve a "trick question" flavour. Where the mental habits of logical, deep thinking people led them to make unwarranted assumptions which led away from the correct answer. Do you think the "groupthink" phenomenon Phil153 mentioned exists? If it does, isnt it reasonable it exists at some level amongst the "group" of high IQ individuals - from adopting similar mental habits and approaches to problems and acquiring similar blind spots?