# 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:** 3
**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, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/41 "2016-05-03T18:24:02Z")
> [@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 A easier math way is to use subtraction to get the unknown number. 5+?=10 Just subtract. 10-5=5 5+?=11 Just subtract. 11-5=6 ---
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/42 "2016-05-03T18:42:30Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#): > > A person of lower IQ is not capable of recognizing a person of greater IQ. Like a color blind person would not know if something he was looking at had a particular color - he is just not capable of recognizing it. > > However, a person of higher IQ can easily recognize persons of higher intelligence as well as persons of lower intelligence. May not know the exact number, but can generally guess a level. For example… > > -A smarter person may place forms for pouring an outside patio concrete floor so the floor slopes away from the house - rain water will run away from the house. But a less intelligent person might have the forms laid out so the floor will slope toward the house, will not understand why it needs to slope away, and will argue that the forms are just fine if the error is pointed out. to him! > > -A less intelligent person may buy a soda pop costing $1 each day, then not have enough money at the end of the month to pay a $28 bill. And not know what to do. If it is suggested that the person stop buying $1 soda pops each day, the person “does not get it” that doing so will save $30 each month! > > -More intelligent people can go from step A to step C without needing to do step B. And other intelligent people can see this being done and recognize a higher intelligence at work! > > -More intelligent people understand that if you are not looking at where you are driving (texting), your car can easily run of the road in a couple of seconds when driving at higher speeds. > > -More intelligent people understand stopping distance when driving and understand the following distance needs to be increased with speed. Idiots do not get it! (Want to see an idiot? Look in your rear view mirror.) This is such a gross generalization as to be meaningless. There are multiple ways to describe intelligence. Some highly intelligent people could never learn to drive safely or build a house. Various TV shows such as Canada’s Smartest Person (the BBC had a show too) test a variety of intelligences. The winner is never the person you think. There is no easy way to define intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/43 "2016-05-03T20:34:19Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > A easier math way is to use subtraction to get the unknown number. > > 5+?=10 > > Just subtract. > > 10-5=5 > 5+?=11 > > Just subtract. > > 11-5=6 That is exactly the same as what I wrote, only you’re now using “?” to represent your variable where I used the more traditional “x”. You’re using algebra. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/44 "2016-05-04T00:16:02Z")
> [@blood63](#): > > This is such a gross generalization as to be meaningless. There are multiple ways to describe intelligence. Some highly intelligent people could never learn to drive safely or build a house. Various TV shows such as Canada’s Smartest Person (the BBC had a show too) test a variety of intelligences. The winner is never the person you think. There is no easy way to define intelligence. **I think he was just giving some examples below on logical reasoning.** There are three times of logical reasoning. Deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and Abductive reasoning. > **[Logical reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_reasoning)** > > Sound > Unsound > Unsound For every day life you probably never use this unless you are a Scientist, Chemist, Engineer, physicists or construction worker. > [@](#): > > -A smarter person may place forms for pouring an outside patio concrete floor so the floor slopes away from the house - rain water will run away from the house. But a less intelligent person might have the forms laid out so the floor will slope toward the house, will not understand why it needs to slope away, and will argue that the forms are just fine if the error is pointed out. to him! > > -A less intelligent person may buy a soda pop costing $1 each day, then not have enough money at the end of the month to pay a $28 bill. And not know what to do. If it is suggested that the person stop buying $1 soda pops each day, the person “does not get it” that doing so will save $30 each month! > > -More intelligent people can go from step A to step C without needing to do step B. And other intelligent people can see this being done and recognize a higher intelligence at work! > > -More intelligent people understand that if you are not looking at where you are driving (texting), your car can easily run of the road in a couple of seconds when driving at higher speeds. > > -More intelligent people understand stopping distance when driving and understand the following distance needs to be increased with speed. Idiots do not get it! (Want to see an idiot? Look in your rear view mirror.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/45 "2016-05-04T10:15:58Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > **I think he was just giving some examples below on logical reasoning.** > > There are three times of logical reasoning. > > Deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and Abductive reasoning. > > [Logical reasoning - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_reasoning) > > For every day life you probably never use this unless you are a Scientist, Chemist, Engineer, physicists or construction worker. If by “this” you mean logic, most people use it all the time. They don’t think about every single step, nor start by saying “I shall now use some deductive reasoning, interpolation and proportional rules to calculate every resource I need to cook this dish”, but they do use all those things. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/46 "2016-05-05T19:56:27Z")
> [@D18](#): > > 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. For example someone with a poor vocabulary might listen to this exchange > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > O > Also IQ is [correlated](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15773700) with vocabulary. So someone more intelligent will likely have a larger vocabulary full of more cromulent words. > [@robert\_columbia](#): > > So, someone with a high IQ is able to embiggen their vocabulary by reading books on their own? and be impressed with Wesley and Robert for knowing so many big words. In my opinion the Dunning Kruger effect is entirely responsible for the success of Marilyn Vos Savant’s columns. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/47 "2016-05-05T20:39:09Z")
All I’ve ever noticed is that smarter people tend to be faster at grasping concepts, seeing their downstream implications and suggesting alternatives and modifications than their less intelligent colleagues. It’s like being in a meeting with a really smart person. You’ll suggest something, and they’ll very quickly suggest an alternative based on an implication 2-3 steps down the path. Meanwhile, everyone else is just grasping what you just suggested, and the particularly dumb ones aren’t even getting it yet. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/48 "2016-05-05T21:41:36Z")
**Buck** , or at least they’d be culturally aware enough to figure out that **Wesley** and **robert** know how to allude to the Simpsons! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/49 "2016-05-05T22:32:09Z")
S-m-r-t people know that the Chocotastic and Congealed food groups are the best for your brain and that by eating them every day, you too can major in Nu-cular Physics at Bovine University. ---
**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 5, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/50 "2016-05-05T23:50:03Z")
I love the direction this thread is taking. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/51 "2016-05-05T23:56:12Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > [li]A greater belief in the unproven and/or unproveable, including conspiracy theories.[/li] > [li]A tendency towards blinder (non-skeptical) belief in general.[/li] Actually, it seems less intelligent people are more immune to this than more intelligent people. Just look at all the anti-GMO / anti-vax nonsense many liberal intellectuals subscribe to. > [@sweat209](#): > > [li]A lesser degree of intellectual curiosity.[/li] > [li]Don’t know much about the world or what is going on around them.[/li] > [li]Hate to read books and hardly read if ever.[/li] Yes, these seem to have a strong correlation with intelligence. I’ve always wondered how much raw intelligence a good dose of intellectual curiosity can make up for. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/52 "2016-05-06T00:52:43Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Actually, it seems less intelligent people are more immune to this than more intelligent people. Just look at all the anti-GMO / anti-vax nonsense many liberal intellectuals subscribe to… A lot of woo proponents are engineers by profession or training. This is especially so in Creationist circles, where they love parading the fact that they are supported by people with “degrees”. How many prominent Creationists can you find that 1) Have a “real” accredited degree (i.e. not from a diploma mill or an unaccredited religious school) and 2) where that degree _isn’t_ an engineering degree? Engineers tend to get the brunt of this because you need a high IQ to become one and succeed as one, but engineers (and engineering education programs) tend to be focused on results in preference to rigor. The programs give one just enough science to realize that we don’t have all the answers, without also instilling the rigor and skepticism that one would get by, say, doing a PhD in theoretical astrophysics or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/53 "2016-05-06T02:56:32Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Actually, it seems less intelligent people are more immune to this than more intelligent people. Just look at all the anti-GMO / anti-vax nonsense many liberal intellectuals subscribe to. > > Yes, these seem to have a strong correlation with intelligence. > > I’ve always wondered how much raw intelligence a good dose of intellectual curiosity can make up for. Because not everyone can go to school or get PHD in many areas of study. Books can be wrong and web sites can be wrong:( there is lack of proper source. ☹ When people are losing faith with the scientists or the government they more likely to subscribe to blinder beliefs. When every politician turns out to be be same they more likely to belief in Illuminati conspiracy or shadow government running and controlling the government and media. People want an answers to many things in life and when people don’t get answer they look for answers in things or start some conspiracy thing. Unfortunately we live in very complex world and answer to problem or question can’t be explain by reading some books:(:(☹ but require a PHD and even then some topics may require going to school for life. Some problems even the experts don’t have answers to yet. Smarter people know answers to question cannot be learned by reading books or going on the internet but by going to school. Smarter people know that every thing you read on the internet needs a source. In college or university every thing needs a source. Saying there is Illuminati or shadow government running and controlling the government and media does not cut it in college or university . What evidence and facts do you have that x is running and controlling Y. Other problem public have is internet has many stories and articles and it is hard to know what is proper source. Example if I type in cancer or global warming you going to find fraud websites, crackpot ideas, political bias, extreme views,too optimistic views, too pessimistic views so on and so on. It is very hard for the public to know the difference and can get confuse and have blinder ideas or belief . In college or university every thing must have sources. Anyone in college or university or any smart person knows any thing you read could be wrong.And what to read or where to read it. If we all lived in a perfect world and simple world and if people where perfect we would not need conspiracy theories. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/54 "2016-05-06T03:38:44Z")
Belief in the government just because it’s the government isn’t particularly good by itself, or believing what someone says because they’ve got a big degree. That belief is called “faith in authority”; thing is, someone can be in a position of authority (mayor) or an authority in his field (doctor) and that doesn’t mean they always know what they’re talking about (neither being an elected officer nor a degree in medicine mean you will be a particularly good cook). Knowing when to listen and accept what someone has said and when to take it with a grain of salt is very important. People with lower IQs tend to be extreme in this regard: either they accept anything that comes from an Authority, or they reject everything (“I only believe what I have seen or tested by myself!” “would you like to test if a solution of potasium cyanide is poisonous?”). And not having every answer is good. Means there are still things to learn! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/55 "2016-05-06T05:33:54Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > A lot of woo proponents are engineers by profession or training. This is especially so in Creationist circles, where they love parading the fact that they are supported by people with “degrees”. How many prominent Creationists can you find that 1) Have a “real” accredited degree (i.e. not from a diploma mill or an unaccredited religious school) and 2) where that degree _isn’t_ an engineering degree? One major creationist was a leading professor of law at Berkeley. I really don’t think he was stupid, but allowed his religious views to distort his thinking in areas outside his expertise. I think in most cases of creationism the religion comes first. And if you work with manufactured things, perhaps it is easier to see the world as manufactured. Biologists aren’t any more rigorous than engineers, but see how life works a lot better. > [@](#): > > Engineers tend to get the brunt of this because you need a high IQ to become one and succeed as one, but engineers (and engineering education programs) tend to be focused on results in preference to rigor. The programs give one just enough science to realize that we don’t have all the answers, without also instilling the rigor and skepticism that one would get by, say, doing a PhD in theoretical astrophysics or something like that. Ahem. To get things to work repeatedly takes a great deal of rigor. The engineering papers I review for archival journals have a great deal of rigor also. On the other hand, when I was a freshman at MIT when they had a theoretical physicist fill in for a demo at the introductory physics class (8.01) he managed to get g to come out negative. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/56 "2016-05-06T08:42:58Z")
I want to push against the idea that to do X you need to have \>=N IQ. For example that to be an Engineer you need an above-average IQ. In my life I’ve seen that determination, culture, access to the right learning materials, networks etc are far, far more important factors. While of course there is a bottom line for IQ under which someone could not master a particular field within their working life, I think that line is way lower than most people assume. While for many jobs an above-average IQ is a nice to have, I doubt there’s _any_ job where it’s a prerequisite. OK, apart from maybe IQ Tests Tester 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/57 "2016-05-06T14:28:33Z")
Note people who have more education (which I consider to be different from intelligence), tend to know _what they don’t know_! Let’s just say I knew everything there was to know when I graduated high school, but after 4 years of college, I felt quite dumb! (Learned about how much more there is to learn about out there…) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/58 "2016-05-06T18:13:54Z")
> [@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 I think where the “skip a step” comes in is that many of us (you too, I suspect) can simply look at “5 + x = 10” and we think “5. It’s 5.” We don’t need to actually do the problem anymore. We’ve achieved some level of math literacy akin to reading literacy where you no longer have to sound out letters to decipher a familiar word. There are people on my Facebook feed who _can’t do that._ They’re usually the ones railing against “Common Core Math.” I suspect their IQs are also to the left of center. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/59 "2016-05-06T18:59:11Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I want to push against the idea that to do X you need to have \>=N IQ. > For example that to be an Engineer you need an above-average IQ. > > In my life I’ve seen that determination, culture, access to the right learning materials, networks etc are far, far more important factors. While of course there is a bottom line for IQ under which someone could not master a particular field within their working life, I think that line is way lower than most people assume. > > While for many jobs an above-average IQ is a nice to have, I doubt there’s _any_ job where it’s a prerequisite. OK, apart from maybe IQ Tests Tester 🙂 Well, yes, and there’s data to support your belief - see post 4. The survey I linked to found that every one of the putative higher-intelligence occupations except for MDs had practitioners with below-average IQs. So yes, with the possible exception of physicians, you’re correct that the lower threshold is lower than many would assume. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576/60 "2016-05-06T20:03:43Z")
Here is average IQ of most common jobs. [http://anepigone.blogspot.ca/2011/01/average-iq-by-occupation-estimated-from.html](http://anepigone.blogspot.ca/2011/01/average-iq-by-occupation-estimated-from.html) The lowest. Some of the low IQ. Dishwasher 87 Cashier 87 Waiter 87 Bartender 87 Maid 88 Child care worker 88 Retail salesman 88 Taxi driver 89 Chauffeur 89 Janitor 89 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-of-low-average-or-high-iq-in-people/753576.md?page=4)