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Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#51

Post by warent »

dhimes wrote: post #31
Alex3917 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm the control here, because I was briefly a member of ISPE. Not because I have an IQ in the 99.9+% (as far as I know), but because they couldn't figure out how to password protect their Ning group. Based on the posts though, the members didn't seem any smarter than the average person on HN and the discussions were generally less interesting.

For those like me who use duck duck go: https://www.thethousand.com/

The slideshow on that website seems to be missing one on humility

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#52

Post by wl »

dqpb wrote: post #36

People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence—IQ tests—tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace. Where is everyone taking these IQ tests? In my entire life I've never come across one in the wild, just SAT, GRE, etc.

You may have taken such a test in school without knowing what it was. Raven's Progressive Matrices is a common one that you may remember.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven%27s_Progressive_Matrices

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#53

Post by cromulent »

alexasmyths wrote: post #46
colek42 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that people reading HN are above average intelligence is probably accurate.

"but if you can’t reasonably quantify it based on anything empirical," Simply the writing quality, grammar and sentence structure of the comments on HN would easily be enough to prove that HN readers (well, commenters) are above average. I spend enough time glazing over headlines, stories and comments from other sites out of casual interest and I'll bet any amount of money this is true.

Glazing over?

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#54

Post by codingdave »

dqpb wrote: post #36

People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence—IQ tests—tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace. Where is everyone taking these IQ tests? In my entire life I've never come across one in the wild, just SAT, GRE, etc.

We were given standardized tests every year growing up, then the PSAT and the SAT at the end of high school. So that amounts to a minimum of 12 tests just from the public school system.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#56

Post by sametmax »

dsacco wrote: post #40
colek42 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that people reading HN are above average intelligence is probably accurate.

It’s easy to believe that, but if you can’t reasonably quantify it based on anything empirical, why bother? It’s a cognitive blind spot to assume communities you’re a part of have a higher mean intelligence than the general population :)

I'm part of a lot of communities, and clearly HN is one of the rare where I am, more often than not, answered in comments by people more intelligent than me. So even if I'd consider myself an average Joe, it seems a good sign that HN has quite a lot of intelligent people. At least more than average.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#57

Post by kurthr »

torstenvl wrote: post #19
oppositelock wrote: post #4

I've met plenty of incredibly intelligent people in my life, and very few mentioned Mensa. Those who did had a yearning for being recognized as smart or exceptional. Perhaps using Mensa membership to draw inferences about smart people in general isn't statistically applicable. It could be that people who want to be recognized as smart have those mental issues, which other smart people don't.

Mensa is not exceptionally smart. It's 2% of all people. [removed a distracting point about social group size.] Most people are likely to know someone who could qualify for Mensa. Mensa is quite smart, but I wouldn't use the word "exceptional." If you write a method that throws an exception on 2% of all inputs, I think maybe you're doing it wrong. 2% is still too common, in my opinion, to be considered an exception.

Indeed... there are many more selective: http://miyaguchi.4sigma.org/BloodyHistory/history.html

Some might wonder what relevance this soap-opera-ish tale has to the stated goals of the high-IQ societies. I would argue that in order to understand what these societies are about, one should understand their history, including the very human motivations that drove their foundings.

Although I agree that depending on your circles (college anyone?) 98th %ile isn't much of a stretch. Further, not having a 2% one-sided outlier in your 30-60 person uncorrelated sample set ranges from 45-70%... but you're not likely to know it, and they're not likely to be Mensa members. Wanting to be a member, may be a bigger indicator for the disorders question.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#58

Post by mrfusion »

sametmax wrote: post #56
dsacco wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to believe that, but if you can’t reasonably quantify it based on anything empirical, why bother? It’s a cognitive blind spot to assume communities you’re a part of have a higher mean intelligence than the general population :)

I'm part of a lot of communities, and clearly HN is one of the rare where I am, more often than not, answered in comments by people more intelligent than me. So even if I'd consider myself an average Joe, it seems a good sign that HN has quite a lot of intelligent people. At least more than average.

Hi!

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#59

Post by zamalek »

warent wrote: post #3

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

There is another possible causation: people with mental disorders tend to have high IQ (whatever it is that IQ actually measures).

The blind typically have incredible touch for reading Braille. Some also have incredible hearing. These are not physiological benefits that they get at birth; their coping mechanisms train them.

Re: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests

#60

Post by jamesrcole »

_8j50 wrote: post #41

I have a different theory, most cultures tell a kid that has mental issues or is unattractive that he's "smart" even if that isn't the case.because, after all,even with a good body and looks you can only go so far and if your social and emotional intelligence is low that only leaves academic intelligence. So,my theory is that people prone to developing mental disorders tend to also get encouragement from their parent…

> most cultures tell a kid that has mental issues or is unattractive that he's "smart" even if that isn't the case

It's that really true? It doesn't ring true to my experience (which, in general terms, is born in the late 70s in Australia)

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