People who know me personally think I'm joking when I say I'm doing a PhD. Obviously they don't think I'm that clever. Oh well. It doesn't offend me though. I agree that there are plenty more intelligent people than me. I'm just really lucky I think.

KB,

The fact that this man in your department has an IQ of 180 is useless.

Nevermind saying it anonymously on a forum like Cleverclogs, but saying things like that to people in real life (unless asked) is actually NOT smart. It's the best way I know to attract jealousy, contempt and hostility. I mean, I saw a documentary not long ago about a girl who went about saying she was just so beautiful, and it was so hard to be as beautiful as her because men looked at her all the time and so on, and she was surprised when she only reaped people's spite. It's the exact same thing as insisting on the fact your IQ is higher than average.

It turns out I am one of those who do not believe that IQs mean much at all, and I objected to having mine tested for a long time - my school back in the days kept insisting I had it tested, they said if it was as high as they imagined they could get me transferred to some kind of school for geniuses where I could 'integrate' better... I fail to see how singling me out even more was an answer to the problems I had then... and I'm now fairly sure I would not have scored as high as they expected.

I mean, if you take an IQ test online, it will not be precise, but it will give you an idea of what an IQ test can test. Maybe it is called intelligence, but it is only one form of it. If you're a scientist you may find it difficult to accept, but there surely is a big gap between being able to think logically and being clever. It doesn't seem so because admittedly, most people who can think logically are clever, but also because our conception of intelligence is a discourse governed by science. And evaluated officially by it, in the form of IQ tests...

A river has both mouth and bed. :-)

haha... I thought they were two separate questions.

Guess I'm really not that clever. :$

I remember an ex-boyfriend of mine being fixated on this IQ test he'd done online, because it rated him as "close to genius" or some such nonsense. He badgered me for days to do it, no doubt so he could show how great his cleverness truly was. Eventually I gave in and took it - yup I scored higher and he sulked for days, hehe, load of nonsense but it amused me no end. Truth is that natural ability only gets you so far, I'm not massively dim but I really feel it some days with the PhD.

Haha Nadia, I think you are right...except this guy is not really the source of jealousy, his reputation is just one of an arrogant and self-important idiot! We were sitting in the pub one day and he announced (in a very serious tone) that he must easily be the most intelligent person in the pub because he has an IQ of 180...normally I would not be so bold as to argue the toss with him but he was really annoying me so I did that time! He is constantly putting other people's research down and arguing about how useless it is, or how boring it must be to do that research, or whatever. He just makes himself look like a prize idiot to be honest! If that's what genius is then I can't be bothered with it lol! KB

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Keenbean that kind of comment would crack me up! Seriously, I'd have laughed right in the guy's face. I knew a guy during my MA who frequently told everyone how incredibly important and difficult his work was. Once I noticed he was reading Jacques Lacan, and I pointed to the book on his desk and said to him "How are you getting on with that!?" (Because I found it horrendous to read). He looked at me in all seriousness and replied "Maria, this is light-reading. I find it very basic - almost childish. And by the way, Lacan will not feature in my dissertation. I will be consulting much more complex materials than that." After a few moments I realised he wasn't joking and I had to move computers to one further away from him, because I couldn't stop giggling to myself.

I think people I know who have done PhDs, or are doing one, are impressed by my stamina and tenacity, rather than intelligence. Friends who haven't done PhDs seem more taken with the whole Dr title thing and act as if I've been officially certified brainy, but they also seem rather amused by the novelty of it all for some reason. I quite like being a novelty, but I'm definitely not a genius. :-)

The IQ 180 guy sounds like a complete plonker. Being smart isn't about having a high IQ it's about using what one has to contribute to society. If having a high IQ leads to introversion and over-analysis instead of action then it's a burden. Malcolm Gladwell wrote an awesome book on this stuff called 'Outliers'.

Like anyone who actually has a basic understanding about IQ measures, I always find it funny when people talk about IQs of 160+. Most conventional valid and empirical measures of IQ lose effectiveness above 130 (e.g. WAIS, Catell, SB) and ought to be interpreted by a qualified psychologist with substantial experience. Remember most validated standardised cognitive ability tests are designed to measure DEFICITS (e.g. dementia, aquired brain injury) not the opposite.

To give you some perspective the mean population score of most measures is 100 with a standard deviation of most measures is 15. To have an IQ of 130 would mean that you are in the top 2%, An IQ of 145 top 0.13% of the population. Stated IQs like 170-180 are 0.00003% of the population (99.99997th percentile) and are likely to be meaningless as no known test is valid at those levels. You may as well say "I am the most loveable person on earth".

IQ tests are useful in some clinical and educational settings when looking for deficits or individual strengths and weaknesses. To cite them in the contexts mentioned in this thread is basically a pissing contest.

Maria1 I nearly snorted my tea out reading that! Where do these people come from?!

And badhaircut I quite agree, pissing contest sums it up nicely.

KB... I can't blame you for your reaction. I think I would have spat my beer out in his face as I chocked with laughter...