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queencallipygos (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} queencallipygos) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} fandom_wank, |
Top 1% on IQ DOES mean "genius."
What is it with this persistent delusion that being in the top 1% of intelligence is remotely comparable to genius? 1 in 100 people are bright, but they're far removed from Einstein, Tesla, or other geniuses.
Actually, there's a credible thing that they're probably mangling to get that - the high-IQ society MENSA limits membership to people who are in the upper 2% of IQ scorers, or who score similarly on other similar intelligence assessment tests. In the minds of many, "MENSA" means "that club for geniuses," so it's understandable that if you score in that percentage on an IQ test, then...yeah. And, "genius" is in fact the term for people whose IQ is above a certain score as well.
Of course, those particular definitions of "genius" are only technicalities, and the common understanding of what "genius" is depends on a hell of a lot more than just what your IQ score is. I mean, technically, I'm a genius too -- I qualified for MENSA myself and was a member a few years back. But, as I told everyone at the time, IQ only measures potential - if you have an IQ like that and don't do much with it, then....so what.
I only joined for the social aspect ("I'll meet people I wouldn't have met otherwise, what the hell"), but quit when I got a little sick of running into people who thought that their IQ score meant that their shit didn't stink. Yeah, they were technically geniuses like me, but...they weren't doing a hell of a lot with it other than bullshitting at member meetings, so who cares?
What is it with this persistent delusion that being in the top 1% of intelligence is remotely comparable to genius? 1 in 100 people are bright, but they're far removed from Einstein, Tesla, or other geniuses.
Actually, there's a credible thing that they're probably mangling to get that - the high-IQ society MENSA limits membership to people who are in the upper 2% of IQ scorers, or who score similarly on other similar intelligence assessment tests. In the minds of many, "MENSA" means "that club for geniuses," so it's understandable that if you score in that percentage on an IQ test, then...yeah. And, "genius" is in fact the term for people whose IQ is above a certain score as well.
Of course, those particular definitions of "genius" are only technicalities, and the common understanding of what "genius" is depends on a hell of a lot more than just what your IQ score is. I mean, technically, I'm a genius too -- I qualified for MENSA myself and was a member a few years back. But, as I told everyone at the time, IQ only measures potential - if you have an IQ like that and don't do much with it, then....so what.
I only joined for the social aspect ("I'll meet people I wouldn't have met otherwise, what the hell"), but quit when I got a little sick of running into people who thought that their IQ score meant that their shit didn't stink. Yeah, they were technically geniuses like me, but...they weren't doing a hell of a lot with it other than bullshitting at member meetings, so who cares?
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