How often do people lie about their IQ's online?

[lightningandsnow]

Whenever a "What's your IQ?" discussion pops up on a forum, here or anywhere else, I pretty much assume a good chunk of people are exaggerating.

Here's why. IQ's of 150+ are extremely rare - in the top 0.1% of the population or so. And, usually, in these discussions, a good chunk of people claim to have IQs of 150 or higher. Unless I've been hanging around on the MENSA forums, I'd have to say this is very unlikely.

And, nobody has the guts to say their IQ is average, or *gasp* below average! Like I said, statistically, not everyone who posts on message boards is a genius. Where, pray tell, are all these average/below average people? Do none of them have internet access or something? Geez.

[skygazer]

1. You forgot to mention what your IQ is

:evilgrin:

[flvegan]

2. Hell, in GD it happens roughly every quarter.

Matter of fact, we're due one fairly shortly.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. I Googled MENSA the other day and it just brought me to GD. Weird.

[hobbit709]

3. Mine's a bit higher than average but it ain't no 150.

And no, I'm not telling. It's not exactly something worth bragging about

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Couple things to offer here -

One is that probably a lot of people don't actually know their IQ, or they've taken some 20 question test on the Internet that gave them an IQ score.

But another is that since you are a liberal, you probably frequent fora that other liberals, progressives, etc. hang out at - and those people tend to be better educated than those who hang out at conservative/Republican websites.

And also, those who wish to frequent said boards are probably the people who are more into thought, ideas, and discussion than their less intelligent brothers and sisters. The dumb just aren't going to go to those places.

And, lastly, the below average probably have a higher percentage of their demographic that isn't even on-line to begin with.

So there's a certain self-selectiveness going on that would, I'm sure, skew the ratio of geniuses-to-proles on discussion fora than occurs in regular life.

But even so, I think a lot of so-called high IQ people are either lying intentionally, or have taken some dumb-ass poorly done test that gave them a score of 150 when they really don't deserve it.

[Steerpike]

5. They gave us IQ tests in 3rd grade.

In california they used to do that.

[surrealAmerican]

33. They did that when I was a child in New York.

Then they refused to tell us the results of the test.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. If anything, I would lie upward.

My current score went down from my school days. :shrug:

[NJmaverick]

8. It's always a safe bet to subtract 50 from any publicly stated IQs

That's always been my cyber rule. The fact of the matter is, smart people don't need a number to make themselves look smart. They look smart by their logic, reason and command of facts.

[MajorChode]

9. Like most guys who post on the internet I have a high IQ and I'm independently wealthy...

I'm also very well hung, although I rarely brag about any of that.

I think it's ridiculous that you think anyone would lie about any of those things. What possible motivation could anyone have?

[Critters2]

40. And I have to homeschool my children, because they're such geniuses

that a) the public school just doesn't know how to teach them or b)they're bored to tears in the classroom, or c)some combination of a and b.

[TZ]

10. about as often as guys lie about

the size of their "package"...:rofl:

[old mark]

20. TZ, you can't believe that - no guy would lie about something like that.

That's like saying a may would lie to a woman to get sex.

I've never heard of anything like that!

mark


:evilgrin:

[Iggo]

11. My guess would be....Every Time.

So like a hundred percent.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. I didn't. Not by a single digit.

:shrug:

[gmoney]

12. the online tests are worthless...

was bored and took one of the online ones, and there were 10 questions that were just sort of general knowledge, like how many states are there, and it seems to have factored in the speed of your response. I got all the questions right fairly quickly, so it gave me a score of like 158. But nowhere in there was any problem solving or even basic math, so it's measuring your trivia skills and reading speed evidently.

It's like when I took placement tests at my college. The math test had basic arithmetic, some geometry and algebra, and maybe a dash of trigonometry for flavor. So, I take it, and they tell me I'd tested into Calculus 3, even though there wasn't a single calculus question on the test. I'd had Calculus 1 in high school but really struggled with it, so I declined their kind invitation to try Calc 3, took Calc 1 again and did much better with it.

Of course, you put a calculus problem in front of me now, and I'd say "oh, look at the funny squiggles."

[FloridaJudy]

28. Yeah. According to those on-line "tests", I'm smarter than Obama

And there is no way that is true. He can think rings around me with his frontal lobes tied behind his back: he wrote a project paper on case law and chaos theory, for heavinsake! I'm hard pressed to even describe either without resorting to Google.

I think the population of DU is probably a heckuva lot smarter and more educated than average: I wouldn't be surprised if we averaged in the top 10%. Still success is not so much about raw brain power as about how we use it. I've literally known rocket scientists and brain surgeons I wouldn't trust to take care of my cat.

[surrealAmerican]

34. I'm convinced that those ads are just making up ...

... the figures for Obama's IQ (and those of others who appear in their ads). They don't always use the same number, for one thing.

[FloridaJudy]

43. I don't have to take a test to know

That I'm smart enough to recognize when someone else is a helluva lot smarter than I am. And we've got the smartest guy in the room as CIC! Sure beats electing a guy "you'd like to have a beer with"! Though anyone who wants to buy an alcoholic a beer is not going to be asked to bring the coleslaw to the Mensa pot luck.

And I've been to a Mensa party. Boooooring. Waste of perfectly good coleslaw.

[jobycom]

13. When you have a 195 IQ, like me, you don't have to lie.

:smoke:

seriously, though, there is a filter involved. The average IQ is probably higher online than as a whole of the population because there are monetary and intelligence requirements to getting online. Narrow that further to online discussion boards, especially politics, and the average probably goes up a little.

But yeah, people lie about everything online.

For the record, I've tested everywhere between 115 and 148 on IQ tests, and according to MENSA, my test scores on the GRE indicate significantly above 150. So which do I believe? Depends on who I'm trying to impress. I was a lucky guesser on the GRE, and I was in third grade when I tested 115. The 148 was on a test I had taken previously, so I knew the types of questions if not the actual answers. So I've probably dropped the "genius level IQ" label on myself at times, when I've been more full of myself than normal, or more frustrated with the idiots I was arguing with. People want to be taken more seriously, and that's one way to do it--except of course that no one believes anyone on such matters. :)

[grace0418]

17. I'm really good at tests that measure stuff like that. I always did extremely well on

standardized tests, IQ tests, SAT, ACT, GRE. So I don't know what that means. I supposedly have an IQ of 141, but is that just a function of having a special knack for test-taking or really being intelligent? I tend to think I'm far from genius level.

[spinbaby]

14. All the time!

For instance, my IQ is about a hundred billion.

[snooper2]

15. You can tell by the posts....

People saying "I have 147 IQ" and continual to wright there thoughts down at an third grade leval.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Urban Prairie]

18. No matter what your true IQ really is

It gets a boost of at least 5 pts if you think Rush Limbaugh is a douchebag, IMO.

Another 5 pts is awarded if you never have read any of Ann Coulter's books.

Another 5 pts if you aren't a freeper.

Another 5 pts if the thought of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from POTUS sent icy chills down your spine last fall.


I could go on, but then we would quickly look like comparative geniouses.

[DerekG]

19. Mine is average--and I don't give a rat's tuckus

All I want is to do a little good, read great books, win the love of a kind woman and have a few fat babies. Doesn't matter if I'm a bit of a dunderhead.

[tigereye]

22. great post!

:thumbsup:


Having an above average IQ doesn't guarantee success, anyway, or anything else for that matter.

[FedUpWithIt All]

31. Excellent.

Wishing those things for you. :hug:

[Mutley]

21. I know I don't.

Mine is over 9,000.

:yoiks:

[lightningandsnow]

25. IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!

:rofl:

[DarkTirade]

26. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI

:P

[Mutley]

27. Exactly.

:rofl:

[DarkTirade]

23. I could claim my IQ is over 150...

but I'd be lyin'.

Actually it's pretty close. Just not over. :)

[Mendocino]

24. I'm somewhere between Forrest Gump

and Einstein.

[Career Prole]

29. Don't need to be a genius to answer this.

Where, pray tell, are all these average/below average people?

Wait...don't tell me...


Lemme just put on ma thinkin' cap...


That's it!!!



They're at dubya dubya dubya freerepublic.com!

[FedUpWithIt All]

30. I have never taken an IQ test but i am certain i fall in the average range.

:hi:
It does not limit me in any way.

I don't get the stigma associated with average intelligence. Maybe if i was smarter it would make more sense...:P

[NewJeffCT]

32. Not only is my IQ over 200

I'm also better looking than Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and George Clooney put together, and I'm also a multi-billionaire who owns more homes than John & Cindy McCain.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

35. I've never even been IQ tested.

So take that. :P

Only thing I've ever done was the CogAt, and that was not difficult at all...very silly.

[qb]

36. My boyfriend & I took an online IQ test together.

We got 198 points, but he said he gets 120 of them so I guess that leaves me about as smart as Sarah Palin.

[leftofthedial]

37. who the hell even knows what their IQ is?

My theory is that most people are tested for IQ during high school, that is, their teen years.

Everyone knows that teenagers know everything, hence the elevated IQs.

[moggie]

38. Boasting about your IQ always seems so, well, dumb

Truly intelligent people rarely mention their IQ, because they don't need to: they demonstrate their intelligence. So I figure that people who boast about their IQ online are either lying, or they're underachievers: bright, but with nothing to show for it.

I took an IQ test when I was 19, mumble years ago, and I'd actually be scared to take one again now, because I'm sure it'd show a calamitous decline in whatever it is that IQ measures (I refuse to believe that intelligence can be measured as a one-dimensional property).

[applegrove]

39. When I test online I get a result of 135. That is because I'm great a spacial relationships. I

suspect my real IQ would be somewhat lower but still above the average IQ of 100.

[dembotoz]

41. lake woebegone--where all the kids are above average

[Burma Jones]

42. I took an IQ test and correctly identified each letter..........

[FloridaJudy]

44. Mine goes to eleven. eom