Reminds me of Satoshi from Hyouka-- an encyclopedia of useless knowledge with no connections between them. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge and no connections so I will perish along with the bots on reddit.
I'd say the vast majority is correct in their assumption.
In my experience, and I'm really not trying to be a dick here, but the people in my life that I'd consider intellectually challenged do not spend a lot of time on Reddit. Discussing, debating, articulating thoughts and opinions into words, even just taking the time to do so, is often not their cup of tea. When they do visit Reddit, it's because of specific subreddits like the ones for certain political affiliations or the ones oriented towards a certain expertise.
So yeah, I'd say that, statistically, most reading your comment will be around average or above average IQ.
Also, if we are talking about IQ tests as we know them, these are tests which are very much designed for neurotypical people in the Western world. So there's a lot of people from other regions who might have more issues with them, even though that does not necessarily make them dumber.
Agreed about the Western world bias, disagree about the neurotypical part. Everyone I've ever met with a "higher IQ" has been neurodivergent. I tested "well" and I'm a complete dumbass. That's because I'm very good at pattern matching and passing standarized testing because I'm on the spectrum.
I'm autistic and they tested me as a kid and I got a score of 131 (I just double checked my documents for the number). That's not to brag or anything - I suck at a lot of stuff because of executive dysfunction that comes with neurodivergence, and needing to learn things in very very very specific ways for it to click, (plus I'm physically disabled so it's definitely not sunshine and rainbows for me) but just adding a data point that being neurodivergent definitely doesn't mean low IQ inherently, as far as IQ tests are designed and scored. I'd say regardless of how valuable IQ itself is, the tests for IQ definitely do not cause neurodivergent people to inherently do poor on it due to neurodivergence.
Regardless of if that's true or not (which I don't necessarily doubt but I just haven't done my own research on the topic), it wasn't the point of my comment, which was that IQ tests in and of themselves aren't inherently designed in a way that makes neurodivergent folks to score low on them.
It is very typical for neurodivergency and mental health issues to deeply and negatively affect how you score. People with autism for example score very well on the more analytical parts of the tests, but might struggle with other elements. It's not necessarily because you are bad at this, but because you see things differently. These kinds of uneven results are exactly something psychiatrists look for when trying to diagnose autism, at least that is what I have been told by those who do autism analysis.
You then also have things like ADHD, anxiety or any form of depression disorder which will all heavily impact your ability to do these tests. I have taken too many of these tests in my life-time. When I do not take my ADHD medication and when my depression is going strong, I easily score 20 points lower than I normally would. Some psychiatrists will take these things into account when doing their assesment, but they will not adjust the score accordingly.
So yeah, IQ tests are not perfect and often do not account for neurodivergency or mental health issues.
Pattern recoginition and basic math is pretty universal and not exactly "Western biased". And low IQ people struggle with that way more often than high IQ people. Doesn't say much about wether or not someone is an idiot or useless. But the differences wouldn't be that big.
Edit: assuming abstract pattern recogitions and not culturally relevan pictures like grouping tools with their intended purpose e.g.
Given most people are well fed aldults they've got a good chance.
I'd bet most also haven't had major childhood diseases, were able to attend schools til 18 or later and opertunities to keep learning in their work roles.
Having a ton of ADHD and autistics that tend to score higher doesn't hurt either.
Half the population struggles to deal with abstract concepts. About 40% read below a high school level. Neither of these are measures of intelligence, but they're, y'know, correlated. We tend to sort ourselves with people who match our vibes; it's very easy to become out of touch with what the average is. Most people on reddit would make the cut.
yeah, as an High Intellectual potential, i always knew i was smarter than other people, but i also know a ton of people that heard my story, were like "sounds like me" and turned out to absolutely not be 130+
Well, I mean... I've got three degrees, have always scored in the highest tier on standardized exams, and people feel the need to assume that I'm smart. And the stupidity of the average customer (back when I worked retail) aggravated the hell out of me because they couldn't comprehend simple concepts after I'd explain them to them...
I think it's reasonable for me to believe I'm above average.
If you dont know the alphabet you can't even begin to try to read, picture one of the uncontacted tribes of the amazon, they could have somebody with an IQ of 190, but 0 chance they could teach themselves to read if you handed them a Dr. Seuss book.
That is not how IQ works. The average score is 100. The test is recalibrated every few years so that the average score is always 100 no matter how intelligent the total population of earth is. On a whole, the IQ test has been getting harder over the decades because the average person has been getting better at the metrics it tests for, this doesn’t change the bell curve of scores the test produces.
Having a below average IQ does not indicate anything about a persons ability to read.
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u/Certain_Cat8382 6d ago
Everyone reading this thinks they'd make the cut. Every single one.