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 are intellectually inferior to others who achieve at ultrahigh levels.
Egalitarian ideologies such as those in socialist countries, such as Russia, traditionally embraced this belief because it removes intellectual differences as a basis for forming a class structure. For similar reasons, many of the psychologists In the United States, throughout the latter half of the 20th century asserted that there was little or no hereditary component to intelligence. They believed that the human brain enters the world as a blank slate (tabula rasa) to be written upon by life’s experiences.
However, near the end of the 20th century, studies of identical twins who were raised apart revealed that there was a strong correlation in their IQs, in spite of the fact that they were raised in different environments. Furthermore, recent biological research has revealed that large numbers of SNPs in the human genome contribute to intelligence. It is now believed that about 70% of the variance in IQ is attributable to genetic differences. In short, achievement at a genius level requires a high IQ.
The question, “How high an IQ is required for genius performance?” is still a topic of considerable debate. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success asserts:
The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.
He observes that many Nobel Prize winners had IQs that were not in the stratosphere. Then what is it that qualifies someone as a genius? In this brief post, there is not enough room to elaborate, but you can find more details in a freechapter of my book (no strings attached) at: Free Downloads – Intelligence and IQ I hope you enjoy the read.
