A common misunderstanding of IQ is that it’s an absolute measure like time or distance. Actually, IQ is a comparative measure that expresses your performance on an IQ test relative to all the others who have taken the same test. People like to attribute high IQ’s to brilliant people. For example, the Terence Tao a brilliant Professor of Mathematics at UCLA, has a reputed IQ of 230, but this cannot be true. Why?
IQ tests are normed so that IQ scores are distributed on a normal curve with mean 100 and standard deviation 15 (Wechsler) or 16 (Stanford-Binet), as shown in the graph below. Someone with IQ of 200 is at the 99.999999987th percentile. This means that (for the Weschler test) only about 1 out of 76 billion people, would score higher. Since the world population is less than 10 billion, the concept of IQ has no meaning at or above 200. Today, the world population is about 8 billion, so IQ as measured on Weschler has no meaning above 195. Similarly, the IQ as measured on the Stanford-Binet has no meaning above 202. The concept of IQ is a reasonable estimate of intelligence only in the range between 70 and 130, above that it is less clear how to compare IQ’s except to say that the people are highly intelligent.
There is no question that IQ is the best measure of intelligence that we have, because it correlates strongly with the academic skills required for many top-level professions and careers. (See What is the average IQ of students by their chosen degree? I just found an old statistic. – Intelligence and IQ ) However, there are several dimensions of intelligence that are not measured by IQ tests, including creativity, long-term problem-solving ability and wisdom. Furthermore, the correlation between IQ test scores and intelligence is strongest in the range of IQs between 70 and 130, but beyond 130, they are more difficult to determine. British psychologist Liam Hudson states*:
It is amply proved that someone with an IQ of 170 is more likely to think well than someone whose IQ is 70, and this holds true where the comparison is much closer–between IQs of, say, 100 and 130. But the relation seems to break down when one is making comparisons between two people both of whom have IQs which are relatively high…A mature scientist with an adult IQ of 130 is as likely to win a Nobel Prize as is one whose IQ is 180.
I, personally, have always felt that sharing one’s IQ was a no-win situation. If your IQ is high, your accomplishments will speak for themselves and you won’t have to self-promote. If your IQ is low, you don’t want to share that knowledge and confirm what others already suspect.
*Hudson, Liam. 1967 Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy. Penguin Books.
