# What is the difference of Low, Average or High IQ in people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576 "2016-05-01T05:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/21 "2016-05-02T02:27:22Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > So, someone with a high IQ is able to embiggen their vocabulary by reading books on their own? Now you’re on the trolley. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/22 "2016-05-02T02:55:09Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Yea like people smoking and drinking and have no money. A smarter person will know smoking and drinking is bad habit and is not good for you and you have no money. > > Higher IQ normally do get into alcoholic, borderline alcoholic and bad vice. > > Normally IQ below 100 you see bad habit and vice . > > Not sure what you mean by this? You mean math problems? > > 5+ (unknown number) ? = 10 > > And guessing the steps. > > And getting steps 5+5=10. You sure do like making up your own “facts” out of nothing at all. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/23 "2016-05-02T05:30:28Z")
There are different types of brain function just as there are different types of muscle function. Who is stronger? The muscle-bound man who can lift a bench-press a huge weight, or the 110lb woman who can run a marathon? In the comments above we’ve seen - memory, language skills/vocabulary, problem solving, and mathematics; not to mention the ability to process what you see or hear properly. Some people excel at some but not others. An IQ test measures a bit of each of these. It’s like a “how fit are you?” number, or a BMI number. In general, good in one probably means good in most - but not necessarily. So can you tell? Yes and no. SOme people are very good at “social engineering” and may appear far smarter than they are, particularly depending on expectations (Seen the movie “Being There”?). Some smart people may be socially inept and appear stupid. But again, dedcuing someone else’s intelligence from what is essentially their Turing Test audition with you is essentially a problem-solving exercise. From this, we may be sure that (in general, most) smarter people are better able to observe, understand, and piece together the information that leads to a conclusion about intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/24 "2016-05-02T09:06:15Z")
This thread is evidence excessively high IQ is no immediate danger. > [@D18](#): > > So looking at the jobs with the lowest average IQ (janitors and sextons) Just how old are these IQ Tests ? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/25 "2016-05-02T09:34:07Z")
The I.Q. scores for specific jobs came from this webpage: [http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/Occupations.aspx](http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/Occupations.aspx) These scores were taken from a 2002 paper: > **[Center for Demography and Ecology](https://cde.wisc.edu)** > > The Center for Demography and Ecology (CDE) is a multi-disciplinary cooperative for social scientific demographic research and graduate training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. CDE affiliates produce demographic research and data in the... In that paper the jobs were the ones held by the subjects of the research in 1992 to 1994. They had taken a test called the Henmon-Nelson Test of Mental Ability in their junior year of high school. It appears from what the paper says that this means that the I.Q. tests were given between 1957 and 1975. No, I don’t know how many people who declared their job as being a sexton there are. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/26 "2016-05-02T09:52:59Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Not sure what you mean by this? You mean math problems? > > 5+ (unknown number) ? = 10 > > And guessing the steps. > > And getting steps 5+5=10. No, Mr. IFailedAlgebra, not only math problems. Logical steps, of which math would be a subset. “What would be necessary to turn collecting underwear into profit?” was actually a better example. That mess you wrote should be 5 + x = 10 x = 10 -5 x = 5 ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/27 "2016-05-02T12:36:00Z")
I’ve never met a sexton. Even verger’s duties are now done by church volunteers now in England. Many are the professions of the past. Still, I could not be persuaded a sexton, nor a janitor, was obviously less mentally equipped than the priest or rabbi etc., who directed him. I’m sure that even in such mentally abstruse vocations there have been dumb priests. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/28 "2016-05-02T12:45:53Z")
The claim of the paper was not that all members of profession X were smarter than all members of profession Y, but that the average I.Q. of all members of profession X was higher than the average I.Q. of profession Y. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/29 "2016-05-02T13:59:41Z")
And the other take-away is the huge overlap. If one just plotted the averages, it would look like IQ explains a whole lot. But looking at the overlaps in the ranges, it’s clear that there is much more to the picture than whatever IQ is measuring. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/30 "2016-05-02T20:02:58Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > > [@Me\_Billy](#): > > > > A person of lower IQ is not capable of recognizing a person of greater IQ. > > I doubt this is true. While this is an oversimplification, there have been studies that suggest this is true. [Dunning–Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/31 "2016-05-02T20:11:29Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#): > > A person of lower IQ is not capable of recognizing a person of greater IQ. I’m not so sure about that. Just the other day, a stupid person asked me, “Why are you so damn smart?” ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/32 "2016-05-02T20:27:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Is this more obvious of IQ below 90 or below 80? > A greater belief in the unproven and/or unproveable, including conspiracy theories. > A tendency towards blinder (non-skeptical) belief in general. > A lesser degree of intellectual curiosity. > Less appreciation of fine arts. > Don’t know much about the world or what is going on around them. > Hate to read books and hardly read if ever. > Fascination with reality TV than reading book or doing any thing where you have to use your brain or is intellectual. > Complaining that other people use “big words” > Have a small working memory so have difficulty with multi-step tasks, instructions, procedures and recalling events. > Hate science and math > Not into reading and learning. > > Do not do well in school??? > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > But really you need to read up on the difference between IQ and intelligence. Lots of the things you list in the bulleted list aren’t necessarily the signs of a low intelligence (I’m not sure that Alex Jones or Dr. Oz are stupid, per se). And how does one define “fine arts”? Or why would memory involve intelligence? Or assume that reality TV is automatically dumb? Or think that some physics genius is stupid because he doesn’t pay attention to politics or world news? May be I’m confusing social class ( rich, upper class vs lower class, lower middle class and working class) and personality traits with IQ? Unless those traits people with average IQ. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/33 "2016-05-02T20:29:46Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > No, Mr. IFailedAlgebra, not only math problems. Logical steps, of which math would be a subset. “What would be necessary to turn collecting underwear into profit?” was actually a better example. > > That mess you wrote should be > 5 + x = 10 > x = 10 -5 > x = 5 What do you mean by logical steps with missing information? ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/34 "2016-05-02T21:06:38Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I’m not so sure about that. Just the other day, a stupid person asked me, “Why are you so damn smart?” Are you sure they didn’t ask “Why are you such a damned smartass?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/35 "2016-05-02T21:25:53Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > What do you mean by logical steps with missing information? Example: Bosses: “We want to send you to Germany and have a German come here as a researcher’s exchange”. Researcher: “Oh nice… if we both travel at the same time we can exchange homes and don’t need to worry about getting renta… uh, what did I say?” The bosses had been part of that exchange program for 9 year, but neither had latched onto “exchange” and come up with something which allowed the exchange to last 3 months, rather than its usual 1. A smart person will understand that traveling at the same time makes more sense than sequentially without needing every little detail explained. A not so smart one will need it explained, but will eventually see it. A dumb one will keep asking the same question, not seeing it no matter how it’s explained. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/36 "2016-05-02T22:25:58Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#): > > While this is an oversimplification, there have been studies that suggest this is true. > > [Dunning–Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect) Not quite the same thing tho. Overestimating ones own intelligence doesn’t necessarily preclude the ability to make some general observations of others. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/37 "2016-05-02T22:53:17Z")
I think the Downing Effect is more what **RedSwinglineOne** may have been getting at. See link in post 4, and skip down to the section on IQ. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/38 "2016-05-03T15:11:21Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Not quite the same thing tho. Overestimating ones own intelligence doesn’t necessarily preclude the ability to make some general observations of others. I think it does. > [@](#): > > “If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent.… [T]he skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.” > > Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will: > > fail to recognize their own lack of skill > fail to recognize the extent of their inadequacy > **fail to accurately gauge skill in others** > recognize and acknowledge their own lack of skill only after they are exposed to training for that skill Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/39 "2016-05-03T15:27:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > No, Mr. IFailedAlgebra, not only math problems. Personal insults are obviously not permitted in this forum, and this was close enough. No warning, but don’t do this again. RickJay Moderator ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/40 "2016-05-03T18:13:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Example: > Bosses: “We want to send you to Germany and have a German come here as a researcher’s exchange”. > Researcher: “Oh nice… if we both travel at the same time we can exchange homes and don’t need to worry about getting renta… uh, what did I say?” > The bosses had been part of that exchange program for 9 year, but neither had latched onto “exchange” and come up with something which allowed the exchange to last 3 months, rather than its usual 1. > > A smart person will understand that traveling at the same time makes more sense than sequentially without needing every little detail explained. A not so smart one will need it explained, but will eventually see it. A dumb one will keep asking the same question, not seeing it no matter how it’s explained. A 15 point IQ difference is probably not enough to notice. A 20 to 25 point IQ difference probably very little well a 25 to 30 point IQ difference you will probably notice some things here and there. A 30 to 40 point IQ difference will probably be very obvious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576.md?page=3)