Brendan Kelly Ph.D.

Brendan Kelly is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He is author of over 50 books including the recent "Intelligence, IQ & Perception", and "Intelligence: Where we Were, Where we Are & Where we’re Going." He holds two doctorate degrees: a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Number Theory) from U. of T. and an Ed.D. in Computer Applications from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and he curates his site on Quora titled, “IQ & Intelligence.”

Are the so-called Intellectuals Falling into the Politically Motivated Reasoning Trap?

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In his seminal book *Thinking, Fast and Slow*, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman wrote: Social scientists in the 1970s broadly accepted two ideas about human nature. First, people are generally rational, and their thinking is normally sound. Second, emotions such as fear, affection, and hatred explain most of the occasions on which people depart from rationality. …

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Many people proclaim that intelligence stems from hard work alone. I would argue however that genetics certainly play a role as well. Am I correct?

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Today’s post is an answer to the question above posed by Kay C. An overwhelming amount of research supports your assertion that intelligence has a strong genetic component. In 1990, Thomas J. Bouchard et al. published a seminal article titled, Sources of Human Psychological Differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart in which they assembled …

Many people proclaim that intelligence stems from hard work alone. I would argue however that genetics certainly play a role as well. Am I correct? Read More »

What Nations have the Most Intelligent Populations?

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The United States is the world’s strongest economy and contains more Nobel Prize winners by far than any other nation in the world, but is its population as intelligent as the populations of other nations? According to a report on Forbes at Ranked: The 25 Smartest Countries In The World, the American population ranks 4th in intelligence among …

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Is the World becoming more Hostile, or is this just a Perception?

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 The media moguls understand that bad news sells more than good news. Consequently, we obtain a disproportionate amount of negative information in our newspapers, radio and television programs, prompting us to perceive the world as more hostile and dangerous than it is. A headline such as Alan Schmidlap achieved a Perfect Score in the International Mathematics …

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Why do we think some people are geniuses and others are not? Don’t we all possess the power to be one?

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It has been a popular notion that we are all intellectual equals. Several bestselling books have been published asserting that we all have genius within us and it’s just a matter of developing a passion and working hard to reach that status. This belief is comforting because it relieves us of the feeling that we …

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Is there anything wrong with this question that appears on an IQ test: “if it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long does it take for 100 machines to make 100 widgets?”

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This is an excellent item for testing analytical thinking and has been used in a variety of different guises for decades. While there are different ways to approach this question, a common form of reasoning proceeds as follows: • If it takes 5 minutes for 5 machines to make 5 widgets, then it will take …

Is there anything wrong with this question that appears on an IQ test: “if it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long does it take for 100 machines to make 100 widgets?” Read More »

What is your basis of certainty in your opinion of “X”?

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One characteristic I’ve observed in the highly intelligent is their reluctance to form an opinion until they’ve gathered a substantial amount of information. Having reached an opinion, they continue to reserve judgment pending new evidence that challenges their belief. This contrasts with the behavior of those of lower intelligence whom I have observed to reach …

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A July 4 Tribute

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Happy July 4 to all Americans! In spite of all the criticism levelled by various groups, denigrating America, the fact that people from everywhere in the world are coming to the U.S. for a better life speaks volumes. Today, C-SPAN gave its 2021 rankings of the 44 former US Presidents in terms of overall performance. …

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