IQ's

Water Cooler
#1

Someone in another thread made mention of his average IQ of 101. That got me to thinking…who is really smart? Here is a list of celebrity IQ’s. (All of this was found on the internet, so we know it must be true. Nobody can post anything on the internet that isn’t true.)

Remember, 100 is the mean (by definition) and the standard deviation is 15.

Scott Levy, professional wrestler Raven - 145

Asia Carrera, adult film actress - 155

Quentin Tarantino, film producer - 160

Steve Martin, actor - 145

Geena Davis, actress - 145

Dolph Ludgren, actor - 160

Stephen Hawking, scientist - 160

Albert Einstein, scientist - 160

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft - 160

Bobby Fischer, chess champion - 187

Garry Kasparov, chess champion - 190

Madonna, singer/actress - 140

Reggie Jackson, MLB player - 160

Sharon Stone, actress - 154

Shakira, singer - 140

Isaac Newton, inventor of calculus - 190

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governator - 135

Charles Darwin, evolutionary theorist - 165

W.A. Mozart, classical composer - 165

J.S. Bach, classical composer - 165

Greenman72, awesomest guy on AF - 140

Jimmy Carter is supposedly the smartest-ever president. His IQ is 175.

George H.W. Bush is supposedly one of the dumbest. His IQ is 98.

“W” Bush’s is 126.

Obama’s is estimated to be 125.

#2

I think the test has changed a bit since Bach and Newton took it. It’s probably different from the test in Mozart and Darwin’s time too.

#3

“Greenman72, awesomest guy on AF - 140”

Dude you are 110 MAX and that is being generous. I consider you to be mildly retarded.

#4

I hate it when I have to agree with Blake.

sigh

#5

I believe IQ’s are normally distributed around 100 with a standard deviation of 15. I took a quick online test once and got 132… I doubt Madonna and Shikira have IQ’s of 140. I would think Einstein’s is higher than 4 sigma btw… that means if you go to a University of Michigan football game 3 of the people in stands are going to have IQ’s as high, if not higher*

*This assumes population average participants and isnt adjusted for the fact that the U of M students and Alum are prolly smarter on average than the population in general.

Source: =(1-NORMDIST(160,100,15,TRUE))*100000

#6

I took several online IQ tests and got 130 on average.

#7

I think you need creativity in addition to high IQ to be a good theoretical physicist. High IQ = predicting 100 possible combinations of chess moves. Creativity = coming up with new ideas that no one else has thought about. If you are the guy who comes up with new models to describe the universe, you probably need a workable combination of IQ and creativity, while not necessarily being the best at either. So maybe Einstein was “only” a 4 sigma IQ person. However, you need to combine that with a high level of creative thinking ability.

#8

I think IQ is a good way to judge people against each other, in terms of what IQ measures (although there are known race and social biases). What does IQ actually measure – that is a different question. Interestingly some studies show IQs increasing just by introducing mindfuless meditation.

#9

Only MENSAssholes care about IQ.

High IQ is like a long floppy dick. Potential greatness exists, but needs to be demonstarted. And there are plenty of growers who are not showers and vice versa.

#10

i think science is still unable to measure IQ or some sort of natural intelligence horsepower. I’ve taken plenty of on-line IQ tests and for all of them I believe that you can improve your score with studying. Even memory improves with practice.

#11

What is the cutoff on IQ before you basically have difficulty dealing with normal humans?

#12

FTFY.

#13

I think the correlation between IQ and EQ (so-called “emotional intelligence quotient,” i.e. the ability to deal with normal humans) is a lot weaker than one thinks. There are plenty of brilliant IQs that are socially awkward or even mildly insane (remember that physicist who flew to Argentina for the swimsuit model?), and there are plenty of dopey, uninformed folk who get along well with people, or are even charming. If you’re smarter, you may be more likely to be able to manipulate people or soothe things, but that’s probably a synergy between high IQ and high EQ.

Personally, I suspect that many high IQ people feel a bit lonely, because they find it difficult to find people that they can talk to on their level and/or relate to those who they feel can’t see as far or deep into things. I think that is one reason that the MENSA people are so gung-ho on MENSA. It’s also why a lot of high IQ people are socially awkward.

The causality can go the other way, though. If you are socially awkward, then that also means less distraction from learning things, because you aren’t busy socializing.

So there may be some correlation between IQ and EQ, but it’s probably not too strong.

#14

I suspect that there is a strong correlation between IQ and EQ, since both are affected by education and environment. Maybe at the extremes, the correlation breaks down. However, in general, I bet the kids who have opportunities to fulfill their IQ potential also have opportunities to develop their communication skills and such.

#15

Good point, the extremes probably are different than the middle, where you may see a stronger correlation.

Education, of course, isn’t just about learning facts, but also about learning customs and interactions. I think one of the big values of business school is to learn how things are organized and done inside of organizations like a business.

By knowing what the customs and expectations are, you can be more effective at getting things done, and when you break those customs, you need to do it with a cost/benefit calculation in mind of what you gain/risk by doing so. It is true that you don’t necessarily need to go to school to learn these things, but there is probably value in learning a bunch of these things over one or two years in school, versus learning the same thing over 5 or 10 years through trial-and-error in the workplace. Particularly, for those kinds of things that happen at more senior levels of an organization.

#16

Numi and I are still waiting on you to answer our questions. For Numi, it’s a challenge. For me, it was just a simple question.

#17

Blake’s soft skills shine through again!

#18

"Greenman72, awesomest guy on AF - 140

Jimmy Carter is supposedly the smartest-ever president. His IQ is 175.

George H.W. Bush is supposedly one of the dumbest. His IQ is 98.

“W” Bush’s is 126.

Obama’s is estimated to be 125. "

You seriously expect us to believe this? HW headed the CIA with an IQ of 98 while W, who was a Christian nut, started the Iraq war, fucked up the economy, was ostracized by his own party and basically achieved all of bin Laden’s goals, is smarter than Daddy?

Also, Jimmy Carter must be the smartest invertebrate on the planet. Crying pussy.

I do believe Clinton’s IQ must be up there in the stratosphere. If we could divide EQ between “social skills” and “genuine emotions”; his “social skills” EQ would blow off the top as well.

#19

People that link IQ or simple tests to decision making capablities and policy decisions or business acumen dumbfound me. The world is a simple place to simple people I guess. Keep drinking the kool-aid.

edit: I can’t even believe we’re still debating the merits of this stupid internet list.

#20

Adjust for the Flynn effect and Newton’s IQ would probably be even higher (not that they even had IQ tests in Newton’s time or that it could be meaningfully measured by tests when 70% of the population was illiterate).