New research suggests that gifted men are less conservative in their political views than men of average cognitive ability. A study conducted in Germany found that men with higher IQs are less incline...

A study conducted in Germany found that men with higher IQs are less inclined to traditional values, but the lead author, psychologist and intelligence researcher Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University, said the researchers did not find these differences among women.

  • MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5311·
    2 days ago

    IQ testing is pseudoscience. It’s one of the preferred methods of the far right to try to differentiate between races for that very reason. Pseudoscience is a lot more malleable for their purposes than the settled science that says race doesn’t exist biologically.

    Having a “high IQ” is only proof that you’re good at IQ tests.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
      4·
      20 hours ago

      [H]owever much all this soothes my vanity, and however much I appreciate being vice-president of Mensa, an organization which bases admission to its membership on IQ, I must, in all honesty, maintain that it means nothing.

      What, after all, does such an intelligence test measure but those skills that are associated with intelligence by the individuals designing the test? And those individuals are subject to the cultural pressures and prejudices that force a subjective definition of intelligence. […]

      The whole thing is a self-perpetuating device. Men in intellectual control of a dominating section of society define themselves as intelligent, then design tests that are a series of clever little doors that can let through only minds like their own, thus giving them more evidence of “intelligence” and more examples of “intelligent people” and therefore more reason to devise additional tests of the same kind. More circular reasoning!

      –Isaac Asimov, “Thinking About Thinking,” 1975

    • Zacryon@feddit.orgEnglish
      222·
      2 days ago

      Veritasium made a video talking about IQ tests, their validity and so on. https://youtu.be/FkKPsLxgpuY

      One of my key takeaways: IQ tests have some validity as a diagnostic tool for asessing cognitive disabilities or illnesses, but they should not be taken as serious and significant as many less informed people seem to do.

      • odelik@lemmy.today
        13·
        2 days ago

        For your own privacy, and the privacy of everybody else interacting with you.

        When you share a YouTube link, if you don’t remove the si=ID, anybody that clicks on that link will then be associated with you. It’s one of the tools Google uses to track your internet usage.

      • 1D10@lemmy.world
        102·
        2 days ago

        Veritasium is the puppet of an investment firm.

        Your takeaway on IQ is accurate.

      • fenrasulfr@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        Also see it as a tool, I do think that tool has to be adapted to the region to be usefull. A Dutch or French IQ test (not even language related) would not be usefull in Brazil or Namibia. As far as I know to be usefull it needs to be based on local education and living situations.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        One of my key takeaways is that it may have some value in aggregate, like this study, but does not tell an individual how smart they are

    • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
      52·
      2 days ago

      I think that extreme upper and lower bounds do say something, but few point differences are entirely worthless. Scoring a 70 is rather significant, and 160 probably is too, but 100 vs 90 vs 110? Meaningless.