Are you wondering what significance your Intelligence Quotient (IQ) has on your future? After taking an IQ test and seeing your score, it's only natural to want to know what it means for your future.
The subject of IQ is a popular one. Having witnessed different opinions on public forums, we understand you may have several questions. Does IQ matter? Does a high IQ score on a particular test assure you of future success, and does a low score mean you're destined for mediocrity?
Let's start with the most pertinent question: Does IQ matter?
Yes, IQ matters. Although it may not adequately measure all forms of intelligence, it is still the most reliable metric for assessing human intelligence.
Your IQ score, even in a standardized test, does not guarantee whether you fail or succeed in life, though. Even the experts on IQ testing understand that while it can make data-based predictions about one's chances of success, its predictions are not iron-clad prophecies.
After all, several people with high IQ scores lived ordinary lives without making any remarkable impact. Similarly, some people got low IQ scores — some were even classified as borderline mentally retarded — yet went on to become icons in their respective fields.
When did IQ tests begin? What do the tests measure? Can IQ tests accurately predict success? What other factors apart from IQ help achieve success in life? This article answers all these key questions and tells the stories of people who succeeded despite having modest IQs and those who failed despite having high IQs.
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Are IQ Tests Good or Bad?
The history of intelligence tests is muddled in controversy. When the first Intelligence Quotient test was designed by French Psychologists Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905, their purpose was well-intentioned—to identify school children needing extra help. The Binet-Simon tests became the model upon which subsequent IQ tests were designed.
The United States military adopted and modified these IQ tests during World War 1 to help identify qualified candidates who were fit to serve in the military and fight in battles and to determine the tasks suitable for each recruit.
Like all well-intentioned things, there is always a potential for horrible people to use them for evil. The earlier IQ tests favored those with access to education and a particular cultural upbringing. They failed to account for several environmental factors that might skew the results. So naturally, racial minorities, the poor, and socially deprived people had lower IQ scores on these intelligence tests.
Of course, the reason didn't matter to racists who weaponized the intelligence test results to assert racial superiority over some racial groups and Nazis who used the IQ scores to defend their claim that some ethnicities were subhuman.
Eugenicists in the United States, who believed "feeble-mindedness" — a term used for low IQ people — was caused by heredity, took advantage of the intelligence tests to propose laws for the forced sterilization of people with low IQ scores. These laws were upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1927 and applied to over 60,000 people in different states.
Despite their messy history, IQ tests are useful for assessing human intelligence. Several studies have attempted to find the correlation between IQ and academic achievement, job performance, career success, income, crime, health and mortality, serious credit card debt, unplanned pregnancy, socioeconomic status, and personal fulfillment.
So, judging by their history and application, are IQ tests good or bad? The answer is it depends. IQ tests are valuable tools that can provide insights into cognitive abilities, but their effectiveness and fairness depend heavily on how they are used and interpreted by individuals and institutions.
What Does an IQ Test Measure?
Due to the misconceptions surrounding IQ tests, it's necessary to enlighten IQ test takers and the general public on what IQ tests measure and what they don't. IQ tests measure your learning ability, reasoning potential, and working memory capacity. The standardized tests measure how well and quickly you can use logic and the information provided to answer questions and predict occurrences.
Most IQ tests assess a person's quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, ability to solve puzzles, short-term and working memory, fluid intelligence, verbal reasoning, pattern recognition, spatial visualization, crystallized intelligence, and logical reasoning.
Although IQ tests were designed to measure a person's intelligence, expert psychologists have argued that they only measure a specific range of mental abilities. Such tests are too narrow to assess all forms of intelligence and determine a person's overall cognitive prowess.
While IQ tests measure a person's reasoning ability and general intelligence, they do not measure the following.
- A person's ability to react to real-life situations.
- A person's creativity.
- A person's ability to manage their emotions and that of others.
- A person's raw brain power.
- A person's rational thinking skills
Why a High IQ Doesn't Mean You're Smart
Does a high IQ mean you're very smart? In 2009, Shane Frederick wrote an article titled "Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart," arguing that high IQ alone is not enough to guarantee smartness.
The article agrees that IQ tests measure an important domain of cognitive functioning but fail to measure the abilities crucial to making smart decisions in real-life situations. Even with a high IQ, you still need rational thinking to make smart decisions and override the cognitive biases that might mislead you in real life.
And yes, people with high intelligence can still do dumb things!
How Much Does IQ Matter? 5 People with High IQ Scores Who Did Below Expectations
There is a universal belief that people with high IQs go on to change the world.
They significantly contribute to their chosen fields and deal with the universe's complexities. For example, the Elon Musk's, Bill Gates', and Albert Einstein's of this world. These are just a few of the amazing geniuses who many view in awe because of their accomplishments.
But did you know that high IQ test scores do not automatically guarantee success in any or all aspects of life? And there is such a thing as an evil genius.
Let's examine five people with high IQs who underachieved in life.
1. Christopher Michael Langan
ABC's 20/20 estimated Langan's IQ to be between 195 and 210 after he scored so highly on a test they conducted. However, having worked for most of his life as a laborer, farmer, cowboy, doorman, and construction worker, it's safe to say his incredible brain hasn't brought him much success.
According to reports, Langan was a child prodigy who could read at age three and got a perfect score on his SAT even though he fell asleep during the test. However, despite earning two scholarships to study in college, he has no academic degree or a significant contribution to the world.
2. Theodore John Kaczynski - The Unabomber
Ted gained admission into Harvard at 16 and became the youngest assistant professor in the history of the University of California, Berkeley, when he was 25. The world was at his feet, and there was little doubt that he was on a fast track to success.
Despite an estimated IQ of 167, his students disliked his teaching methods, claiming Ted was uncomfortable teaching and refused to answer questions. Two years later, his world began to unravel when he resigned from the university, started living as a hermit, and entered a world of crime.
His crimes ranged from arson to a series of sophisticated homemade bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995. He was apprehended by a team of 40 FBI agents in 1996.
3. Richard Rosner
If you want a guide on how not to use your IQ, you should study Richard Rosner's life. Despite having an Intelligence Quotient of over 190, he worked as a bouncer, stripper, and naked model, which are not exactly professions that require a lot of intelligence.
Richard Rosner is an American television writer and producer famous for his alleged high intelligence test scores. He is unofficially credited with the world's second-highest Intelligence Quotient. According to him, he has taken over 30 of the world's most difficult IQ tests and scored the highest ever on 20 of them. There aren't many better IQ test takers in the world.
4. Marilyn vos Savant
Marilyn held the record for the highest IQ in the Guinness Book of World Records between 1985 and 1989 before the category was retired in 1990 after the publication decided that the "Highest IQ" category was too unreliable to have a single record holder. Her 1937 Stanford-Binet IQ test, which yielded a 228 score, was enough to place her in the Guinness Book of World Records Hall of Fame in 1988.
With such a high IQ score, you would expect that she would have made several groundbreaking contributions to the world, but her most significant accomplishment remains her high Intelligence Quotient.
5. William James Sidis
With his father, a famous psychologist, and his mother, a doctor, Sidis had the perfect mentors to nurture his amazing intellect. However, Sidis described his parents as pushy and aggressive people who believed "you could make a genius." Sidis was so special that he learned to read the New York Times before he was two and had learned eight languages at age 6.
He was accepted into Harvard at age nine but didn't enroll until two years later. After graduation, Sidis worked briefly as a mathematics professor and then went into hiding from public scrutiny. The rest of his life was uneventful, as he moved from city to city and worked different jobs using different names. He hated the media attention he received as a child prodigy and had an unhappy childhood.
His uneventful adulthood was reportedly more fulfilling for him until he died at 46 in 1944, but we all expected so much more from someone estimated to be 50 to 100 Intelligence Quotient points higher than Albert Einstein.
Does a Low IQ Doom You to Failure? 7 Successful People with Low or Average IQ
How worried should you be if you have a low score on your IQ test? Does it automatically mean you're destined for mediocrity? The answer is No. A low IQ score doesn't eliminate your chances of future success.
Even with all the research linking high IQ to prosperity, income, and well-being, experts on IQ tests remain skeptical about their ability to assess overall individual intelligence, much less guarantee their life trajectory. If low IQ scores guaranteed failure, how do you explain people described as unintelligent who went on to achieve incredible things?
Let's examine three examples of high achievers with modest IQs. Keep in mind that this is just a sampling to give you inspiration!
1. Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali may have only gotten an IQ test score of 78 in his United States Army entrance exam, but it ultimately didn't affect him as he became the greatest boxer in sporting history. In 1999, Sports Illustrated Magazine named him the top sportsman of the 20th century.
Ali's boxing career was exemplary. He often displayed an incredible tactical understanding of the game and strategic thinking to outsmart his opponents. He was also a master at psychologically weakening his opponents through trash talk and clever wordplay. Outside the boxing ring, Ali was an accomplished poet and social activist who constantly leveraged his popularity and charisma to speak out against inequality and injustice.
Addressing the 78 IQ score in his autobiography, he famously wrote, "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." No arguments about his greatness. But he is much smarter than his IQ test score suggests.
2. Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, with an estimated IQ of 86, defied traditional IQ measures and left an indelible mark on human society. Despite his modest intellectual ability, Warhol's creative genius revolutionized the art world through his unique approach to visual art, leading the Pop Art movement. His iconic use of commercial and popular culture imagery, such as Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe portraits, challenged the notion of what art could be and made it accessible to the vast majority.
Warhol's impact extended beyond the canvas; he was a prolific filmmaker, author, and cultural icon. The Factory, his studio, became a hub for creative minds, influencing various art forms and attracting smart people from different fields. Warhol's success illustrates that traditional IQ tests fail to measure the full spectrum of human intelligence and brain functions. His ability to innovate and influence despite average intelligence scores showcases that a person's score on an IQ test is not the sole determinant of their potential to shape and inspire human minds.
3. Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the iconic entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, has an estimated IQ that falls within the average range. However, his extraordinary success underscores the importance of qualities beyond traditional IQ measures. Despite his dyslexia, which he considers a strength, Branson has thrived by leveraging his emotional intelligence. He famously stated, "I think being emotionally intelligent is more important in every aspect of life -- and this includes business." This belief reflects his understanding that general mental ability and intellectual capability extend beyond the confines of conventional tests.
Branson's career exemplifies how emotional intelligence can drive success, influencing everything from leadership to innovation. His ventures have reshaped industries, demonstrating that empathy, interpersonal skills, and adaptability are crucial for effective brain functions and business acumen.
Branson's journey challenges the widely misunderstood notion that a higher IQ is the sole predictor of success, highlighting the diverse aspects of human minds that contribute to achieving remarkable goals. His dyslexia has fostered creativity and problem-solving skills, proving that average intelligence scores and genetic differences in brain development do not limit one's potential.
4. Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson was reportedly classified as "borderline mentally retarded" back in his school days due to his IQ range between 70 to 79. While it's unclear how much effect his challenging upbringing and other environmental factors had on his academics, you only had to take a look at his skills within the boxing ring, how he read opponents, anticipated their moves, and struck with accuracy to understand that he is an intelligent person, even if his IQ score doesn't show it.
As one of the greatest professional boxers, "Iron" Mike has shown you can excel even if your IQ test score is low.
5. Gordan Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay, the world-renowned chef and television personality, has an estimated IQ that is often speculated to be around 85 (other estimates have him around 100, which is still in the average range). Despite this, Ramsay's success story is a testament to the fact that IQ measures do not encompass the full spectrum of human potential. Known for his fiery personality and exceptional culinary skills, Ramsay has built a global empire of restaurants and television shows. He has often emphasized the importance of hard work, passion, and resilience, which have been crucial in his journey to becoming one of the most successful chefs in the world.
Ramsay's career showcases that general mental ability and emotional intelligence can play significant roles in achieving success. His ability to lead, inspire, and innovate in the culinary world demonstrates that intellectual ability is not confined to traditional academic measures. Ramsay's success highlights how human minds can excel in diverse fields, challenging the widely misunderstood notion that a higher IQ is the sole predictor of success. His journey also underscores the importance of practical skills and the relentless pursuit of excellence in one's craft.
6. Richard Feynman
Feynman's reported IQ of 125 isn't exactly low, but it is a modest score for someone widely regarded as one of his generation's most creative and fastest-thinking theorists. As a famous physicist and Nobel Prize-winning scientist, his IQ of 125 is closer to the average than the genius level.
If predictions about IQ being the main determinant of success are anything to go by, Feynman shouldn't have achieved so much and made significant contributions to science. Feynman loved joking about his "modest" IQ, but it's clear that he didn't let the test score dictate his life trajectory.
7. Tom Cruise
The renowned actor and producer Tom Cruise has had various IQ estimates attributed to him, ranging from 94 to 125. The wide disparity in these estimates makes it challenging to determine his exact IQ. Some sources report a lower estimate of 94, while others suggest a higher figure of 125, which would place him in the above-average intelligence range.
Despite these conflicting estimates, Cruise's success in his career is undeniable. Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, Cruise struggled academically and was labeled a "functional illiterate." However, he overcame these challenges through relentless effort and the adoption of specific learning techniques. His career achievements, from iconic roles in films like "Top Gun" and the "Mission: Impossible" series to his status as one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors, demonstrate that traditional IQ measures do not fully capture his talents and contributions.
Cruise's journey highlights the importance of emotional intelligence, determination, and hard work in achieving success, regardless of one's IQ score.
How Important Is IQ? 5 Things That Matter As Much as Your IQ Score
Malcolm Gladwell perfectly captured IQ's significance in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. He explained that IQ is like height in basketball; the higher, the better until it reaches a certain threshold. According to him, basketball has a point when height stops giving you a genuine advantage, and other skills become more important.
Gladwell also explained that the IQ threshold is around the average IQ score. After that point, more intelligence won't automatically help you be more successful, and other factors come into play. A high IQ doesn't guarantee you'll have better rational thinking skills than your peers or that you'll have the opportunities social connections bring.
Here are some factors that matter just as much as your IQ in determining success.
- Personality
- Practical Intelligence and Hands-On Technical Skills
- Experience
- Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
- Grit
- Hard work
- Family Background/ Opportunity
- Luck
- Creativity
- Self-belief and Determination
- Resilience and Persistence
1. Personality
Did you know highly conscientious people have a 20% higher chance of landing a high-paying job? Or that highly extroverted people have more chance of success than those who are less outgoing because they tend to be more confident, sociable, and assertive? No matter how high your IQ is, choosing a career unsuitable for your personality greatly reduces your chances of success.
How does high intelligence help an introvert survive in a workplace that requires constant interaction and socializing with clients, co-workers, and supervisors? Understanding your personality and choosing a career that aligns with it is important for career success.
2. Practical Intelligence and Hands-On Technical Skills
How well can you apply your intelligence or skills to solve real-life problems? IQ tests measure some forms of intelligence, like fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence, but they do not measure how well you can apply your knowledge or skills in real-life situations. This type of intelligence is called practical intelligence, and it is arguably the most critical to success in the real world.
3. Resilience and Perseverance
We all remember Thomas Edison's lightbulb story. He was reportedly a high-IQ individual who failed about 10,000 times before successfully inventing the lightbulb.
His intelligence was the main factor in conceiving the idea, but intelligence was far from the only reason he succeeded; otherwise, it wouldn't have taken him about 10,000 tries. That's where skills like resilience and perseverance show their importance. Without those skills, he would have quit long before he succeeded.
4. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
While IQ deals with our reasoning ability and problem-solving potential, emotional intelligence determines our ability to understand and manage our emotions and those of others. Emotional Intelligence becomes especially crucial when you need to build connections at work.
Someone with high EQ is likelier to help others, empathize with them, defend the weak, be mindful of the present, and build meaningful personal and professional relationships.
5. Family Background and Opportunity
You're automatically one step ahead of the rest when you come from a well-to-do family with connections and wealth. In his book The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell compared two geniuses, Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer became one of the most important icons of the 20th century due to his work on the atomic bomb, Langan only flattered to deceive.
Gladwell pointed out that their family background played a vital role as Oppenheimer's family was well-off and gave him the necessary support and connections to fulfill his potential. On the other hand, Langan faced too many problems due to poverty, lost his college scholarship, and never achieved anything significant.
Avoid Limiting Yourself Based on Your IQ Score
Even though people tend to overuse this quote, we still feel it is appropriate to remind you that you can be everything you want—even if your IQ score isn't all that high.
Take a page from the books of Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Mike Tyson, Richard Branson, Andy Warhol, Richard Feynman, and Tom Cruise. Imagine if they had limited themselves to menial jobs because of their relatively low to average IQ scores or learning difficulties. The world would have been deprived of some of the greatest talents to have been born.
Similarly, don't believe success will come easily to you just because your IQ is high. This article provided examples of people with incredibly high Intelligence Quotients who failed to live up to their potential. This doesn't mean your IQ doesn't matter, though.
Understand that there is much more to success than IQ, and avoid limiting yourself based on your score on a particular test. And remember, there is more than one kind of intelligence!
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