# The presidential elections say we live in a divided country, when did we not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 15, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidential-elections-say-we-live-in-a-divided-country-when-did-we-not/229361 "2004-02-15T16:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidential-elections-say-we-live-in-a-divided-country-when-did-we-not/229361/21 "2004-02-16T04:12:04Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I apologize for the hijack, but this is not true. IQ tests are designed so that the most common single score will always be 100. The “average” range (normal intelligence) is 90-110, and about half the population falls into _that_ category. If, for some strange reason, you wanted to disregard the whole purpose of IQ tests and their scoring system and count even people with a score of 99 as “below average intelligence” then you’d still come out with less than 50% of the population in that group because the highest point of the bell curve is at exactly 100. Assuming the measurement is dead-on accurate, which is open to debate, and that the group is perfectly normed, yes, I suppose just UNDER 50% of those being evaluated will be below the statistical score of 100. I didn’t say “below average.” Although that’s the semi-humorous point I was trying to make: Only in Lake Wobegon are all the children above average! We sometimes forget that an IQ of 100 (whatever that means), or anybody within 10 or so points of that, is a normal, average person. If one ususally associates with people who are above average (like the contributors to the SDMB) 😉 then one starts to think more highly of the vast majority of the world than is appropriate. That is all. As you were. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidential-elections-say-we-live-in-a-divided-country-when-did-we-not/229361.md?page=1)