It is generally accepted that IQ is the best measure of intelligence that we have, because people who perform at the highest levels in life are usually found to be of significantly higher IQ than average, and those of below average IQ are rarely found in intellectually demanding professions. Yet, we all know that intelligence has many different faces and is sometimes manifest in ways that don’t register on IQ tests. Among various skills that IQ tests do not measure are intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that combine to constitute what is called emotional intelligence (EQ).
Many people of high intelligence (IQ) also have excellent social skills or EQ. This is generally recognized as relatively common in people in the 125–135 IQ range. Such people are significantly more intelligent than average, but they are close enough to the average to be able to self-reference to understand how others feel. This enables empathy and the ability to connect socially. Such people have both high IQ and high EQ and can be considered “smart” in terms of their ability to deal with issues in everyday life.
However, we do know that many people of extremely high IQ, with IQs of 145 or more, are introverts and are prone to social awkwardness. The difference in their way of thinking relative to the average person makes it more difficult for them to self-reference to determine how others feel in a particular situation. This conundrum has been caricatured in the television sitcom The Big Bang Theory, in which the gifted intellect, Dr. Sheldon Cooper has difficulty relating to others. Real world examples of people of high IQ with some EQ challenges are Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
Highly intelligent people often display good judgment, but when they make mistakes, they are sometimes “whoppers.” The reason for this is a mindset that has been called, “the intelligence trap.”–a tendency of experts to overreach the limits of their expertise. One of the most dramatic examples of this occurred in 1998 with the failure of the investment firm Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) generally attributed to the prevailing hubris among its senior partners who seemed to believe in their public persona as “financial geniuses.” Buoyed by their successes, they continued to increase leverage while failing to test the assumptions underpinning their mathematical model. Since these highly intelligent people were used to being right much more often than being wrong, they may have been especially susceptible to this cognitive trap. Eventually LTCM collapsed because the senior partners continued to trust their original assumptions. For the story of the rise and fall of LTCM,E read Lowenstein’s book When Genius Failed.* For an interesting example of a high IQ, top-rated physicist who fell into a “honey trap,” visit What is an Example of a Hi-Q Person who is not Wise? – Intelligence and IQ .
High emotional intelligence spans the full range of IQs, but its “sweet spot” would likely fall in the range from 125 to 135, because a higher than average IQ makes it easier to assimilate patterns in human behavior, to problem solve and to navigate through life. This range is close enough to average to allow for self-referencing in order to understand how most people think. However, as IQ moves into the stratosphere, it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire social skills and to accept things that most people assume are “common sense.”
*Lowenstein, Roger. 2000. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management. New York: Random House.
