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High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

scientificamerican.com

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Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moreover, you don't even need to pass an IQ test to join MENSA US. https://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/

I struggle to see how a list of accepted IQ tests supports the idea that you don't need to pass an IQ test to join.

I haven't taken an IQ test since... A billion years ago, so maybe it's the same, but having taken the LSAT, you can certainly learn them. My first LSAT I ever took was 78 percentile, whereas by the end I was scoring 95-98 with relative ease.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#42
Aside from this being particularly focused around Mensa members rather than the population at large, it's unsurprising to me that there's a correlation between IQ and anxiety/depression. I'm reminded of a quote from Jiddu Krishnamurti:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#43

> Although the reasons are not fully understood, they also tend to live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience negative life events such as bankruptcy. I’ll tell you why. Smart people listen to experts. Dumb people listen to other dumb people based on feeling. Case in point, the current pandemic. High-IQ people will get vaccinated. The people who won’t because of various conspiracy theories and mi…

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand rick and morty...

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#44
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am normal, healthy, and a Mensa member. What exactly do you mean by that?

>> would posit that most normal, healthy, high-IQ folks never bother, and there's a selection bias at >I am normal, healthy, and a Mensa member What exactly do you mean by that? This is not very high-IQ :)

You have to frame it in familiar terms for Mensa members:

What conclusions can you draw from the following sentence?

"I would posit that most normal, healthy, high-IQ folks never bother, and there's a selection bias at play."

  a) All Mensa members are unhealthy.

  b) There may exist some normal, healthy, high-IQ folks in Mensa.

  c) All Mensa members have high IQ.

  d) No Mensa member has high IQ.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#45

> Although the reasons are not fully understood, they also tend to live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience negative life events such as bankruptcy. I’ll tell you why. Smart people listen to experts. Dumb people listen to other dumb people based on feeling. Case in point, the current pandemic. High-IQ people will get vaccinated. The people who won’t because of various conspiracy theories and mi…

Conspiracy thinking doesn't seem to correlate with IQ. I suspect it is an emotional issue.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#46

> Although the reasons are not fully understood, they also tend to live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience negative life events such as bankruptcy. I’ll tell you why. Smart people listen to experts. Dumb people listen to other dumb people based on feeling. Case in point, the current pandemic. High-IQ people will get vaccinated. The people who won’t because of various conspiracy theories and mi…

Not a member of Mensa but I’m going to posit that inoculation is caused by more than iq.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#47
post #5

> It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health. Is Mensa really an "intellectual pursuit"? I'm not sure exactly what Mensa does…

Update: I'm reading people with (more) negative experiences. I guess YMMV :) Still, I wouldn't draw absolute conclusions based on this.

I was a Mensa associate, and participated to evening meetings in two countries (evening meetings are only part of the activities).

You're assuming, with "people insecure enough to join an IQ-restricted club", that associates sit on a high horse due to their IQ. It was quite the opposite; the clubs are very friendly, and what I remember is actually, fun nights playing board and social games (it's amusing to think that a significant part of a "high IQ" club is games :)). Definitely, nobody would recognize it was a Mensa meeeting if they didn't know it already.

In my personal view, joining the club because of (relatively) high IQ was no different than joining, say, a chess club - meeting people who have something in common.

Needless to say, there were lots of programmers :)

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I struggle to see how a list of accepted IQ tests supports the idea that you don't need to pass an IQ test to join.

It is a list of different aptitude tests, e.g. LSATs, GREs and so on.

Aptitude tests are IQ tests in a socially acceptable disguise.

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#49
post #25
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find interesting on that page is that the more recent (past 2-3 decades) college preparatory tests (e.g. SAT) are not accepted as substitutes to IQ tests. Shows the trend of dumbing down the tests, I guess.

That is odd. If the tests were simply dumbed down, wouldn't Mensa just raise the required score? The implication is that these tests have become less IQ-correlated. I'd be interested to see a comparison in the type of questions from the 70s vs today.

Responding in a vacuum, but the other explanation could be that these tests fail to discriminate at the high-end. If everyone with a high score is squished together, raising the floor just amplifies relative noise

Re: High IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders

#50
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It's a weird bunch (not in a bad way!). I went to their meetings a couple times by invitation, and it never really "clicked" - for many of their members, their MENSA membership and related activities are a big part of their identity and their life, and I wasn't able to connect. I heard the same thing from a couple of friends who also met their entrance criteria, and there's certainly a lot of selection bias. Whi…

Where are all of the satisfied Mensa members? Every time Mensa gets brought up a whole swarm of dissatisfied former members shows up to explain how it's not worth attending, and yet the organization persists. What's the other side of the story?

I know of two Mensa members. They don't seem to be dissatisfied, but they don't seem to be active in it either. Maybe it depends on the expectations one has before joining.
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