Me: *sees religious leader on the list for interpersonal* Hey (teacher’s name) I know it says religious leader but do you think I’d be a good cult leader?

My teacher: *shocked/mildly horrified/can’t tell if I’m joking so half smile face* SaM?!?!?!

Me: so... do you think so?

SO, nearly everyone you know has probably heard of an IQ test, whether it’s been via ‘official’ tests, or more likely, online quizzes. They all aim to quantify an individual’s intelligence, though it is much harder to actually do so than one may think. This is because, like almost all things about human beings, intelligence is more complicated than people believe it to be.

Though the idea of IQ, or intelligence quotient, was coined in 1912 by psychologist William Stern, it wasn’t the first instance in which a test had been created to determine someone’s wits. The first IQ test was actually made in France, by Albert Binet, in 1904, a way to measure children’s level of preparedness for school. However, while this was a measure of intelligence, it wasn’t quite what they defined as IQ at the time. Only when Lewis Terman, an American psychologist, created the Stanford-Benet Intelligence Scales based on Binet’s work, that IQ was popularly defined as the tests result, mental age, divided by the age of the test taker. This is where common reference of an IQ below 70 being particularly moronic originated, as below 70 was the lowest classification you could give. This test was notably created only with a basis upon white American citizens. This would not be a problem, were this trend not present in tests applied to people from different cultures.

           During the time period in which these tests were created, there was a general consensus that some  races were inferior in an inherent manner, though it was only certain in theory. As this was also a period of great scientific expansion, people leapt at the idea of having this theory corroborated by hard data, and thus the IQ test was set to fill this gap. This way of measuring IQ was directly tied in with the idea that people of color such as Native Americans, Indians, and African Americans were less evolved than those who were pale skinned, and thus data would naturally prove this as fact. One of these early pseudoscientific publications claimed that reaction time was fastest in people of fair skin, thus proving that reaction time increased with evolution, furthermore, another ‘study’ in, coincidentally, 1912, claimed that “the mental qualities of the Negro…shows a woeful lack of power of sustained activity and constructive conduct.” (Bruner, Frank G. (1912),   It was only a matter of time until more official IQ tests were to come into the equation.

           By the 1920’s, IQ tests were gaining popularity, especially in the US, and these tests were quite common, they took a lot of time to complete. Thus they adapted as a written test for the army, with positions given to those of higher IQ. These tests were also implemented in US studies of immigrants, even though some of the participants taking the test may not have known English, making it fairly impossible to get a decent score. The strict Immigration Act of 1924 was put into effect using mainly this study, citing a need to ensure that the IQ of the nation would not be dragged downward. As an result, Ann Frank’s father was likely denied entrance to the US because of these restrictions.

Even though this shit may seem like parts of the past, questions and inconsistencies in culture still are relevant for evaluating whether IQ tests are really accurate, or even measuring intelligence, especially in a world where people still place enormous importance on ‘intelligence’ tests, and often judge people based upon their scores. This is why research by Richard Lynn, a psychologist who’s a known supporter, is still important to pay attention to and discredit. While Lynn is generally not respected by members of his field, his research, at first glance, may seem credible, especially for people who want to believe his theories, and only glance once without considering the reliability of his work. Lynn is the author of several racially slanted IQ studies; his works have been discredited several times by examination of his data, which has been found to be poorly collected and evaluated. His studies often claim that people of darker skin have lower intelligence, making their purpose in propaganda very clear. On top of this, his statements have the tendency to evaluate the worth of people based on the studies which he conducted.

           For one, those original ‘intelligence’ tests were not meant to measure intelligence, but to measure the abilities of French children in order to catch any which were falling behind. The original Binet test was created because of concerns that children would fall behind in the elementary education that had recently became compulsory in France. Much of this was due to the rates of illiteracy, especially in older children. In fact, the whole idea that you can definitely measure intelligence is shaky at best. The idea of intelligence is very nebulous. For example, can you say that this sample question of a modern Binet test, “Why do we have houses?”, is something that measures ‘intelligence’? Or, general knowledge/’common sense’? Also, while there are technically 14 answers (S. M. Mohsin 2002) to this question, there is no doubt that there are other ‘incorrect’ answers that would make sense, especially in cultures that are further removed from Western civilization. It gets even more complicated when you add in the idea of multiple intelligences, such as spatial reasoning vs verbal intelligence.  While it is true that there are definite differences between people’s intelligence (or intelligences), it’s akin to comparing emotional pains in that each is both intimately scaled, and impossible to accurately compare.

The common concept of IQ is inherently flawed. If you took a test only to be disappointed, remember what it is claiming to find is likely not accurate, nor even the correct subject matter, and that trying to compare intelligence is like trying to compare who has gone through the worst in life; it’s an inherently prideful and pointless endeavor, as often no true conclusion can be reached.

Anyway that’s it.

Some stuff referenced...

"The primitive races in America", Psychological Bulletin, 9: 380–390, http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1926-02217-001

Mohsin, Mahsher Abidi Syed Mohammad. Elementary psychology. pg. 210. Asia Pub. House, 1967.