IS GEORGE W. BUSH stupid? It’s a question that occupied a good many minds of all political persuasions during his turbulent eight-year presidency. The strict answer is no. Bush’s IQ score is estimated to be above 120, which suggests an intelligence in the top 10 per cent of the population. But this, surely, does not tell the whole story. Even those sympathetic to the former president have acknowledged that as a thinker and decision-maker he is not all there.
Even his loyal speechwriter David Frum called him glib, incurious and “as a result ill-informed”. The political pundit and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough accused him of lacking intellectual depth, claiming that compared with other US presidents whose intellect had been questioned, Bush junior was “in a league by himself”. Bush himself has described his thinking style as “not very analytical”.
How can someone with a high IQ have these kinds of intellectual deficiencies? Put another way, how can a “smart” person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity – how much information you can hold in mind.
But the tests fall down when it comes to measuring those abilities crucial to making good judgements in real-life situations. That’s because they are unable to assess things such as a person’s ability to critically weigh up information, or whether an individual can override the intuitive cognitive biases that can lead us astray.
Full Article at New Scientist
this goes along with what i claim!
see, there are intelligent people, and people with common sense. sadly, we cant have both
apart from Derren
- he’s special
Also, the more you practice IQ-style tests, the better your IQ will be as you will be used to the format of the questions.
About time someone made it clear. IQ is a real bias way to mesure someones overall intelleligence. Btw, I wonder if mr george had any problems saying he was not very ‘analytical’. Annanalytticiksical.
well, that sure splains my problem!
IQ tests may have their uses (e.g. diagnosing educational problems in young children) but as a tool for assessing actual ‘intelligence’, or for selecting people for educational and vocational opportunities, they are very deeply flawed, and culturally biased. The inglorious history of IQ testing, racial segregation and eugenics is a good illustration of the harm that can be done when bad science meets politics.
I know quite a few people with pretty good IQs but some of them are totally daft!
A high IQ doesnt give you sense does it! I cant wait to tell my Mum, shes got a higher IQ than me but shes really daft! hahahahaha
Everyone has their talents and are clever/smart at different things.
LC x
Thanks heavens for that, I no longer have to feel like a social outcast … I can still be dumb and interesting.
Not that I’m a believer in IQ tests as it is… but the writer of this article seems to be making a lot of assumptions himself. Suggesting that IQ tests cannot test whether someone can make “good judgements” and can override intuitive “cognitive biases.”
First he assumes that there really *are* such things as right or wrong answers for every situation. Then he assumes that bad decisions on the part of Bush junior were intellectual errors as opposed to collusion. Lastly he assumes that anyone is capable of reliably being able to distance themselves from themselves. I don’t like IQ either, but I also don’t like his conclusions.
Uhh this might sound crazy, but maybe, they lied about his IQ, like pretty much everything else in the Bush Administration.
Obviously though, high IQ’s don’t mean everything
When I joined MENSA some years ago I was amazed at the indifferent levels of intelligence of some of my fellow members. Especially when it started to be reported that more and more people were passing the test – meaning that more people were in the top 2 percentile of the population than ever before. D’oh!
Mine’s in the 150s and I’m stupid for sure.
Hmmm.
Well I’ve done quite well at IQ tests. Saying this, I will openly claim that I am pretty damn stupid in many cases.
Do I get extra points for acknowledging this?
Pax, amor et concordia.
x
in a fit of insecurity whilst waiting for my Ph.D viva I joined Mensa. I quit shortly after my first meeting where I discovered that most of them were opinionated idiots who would nevertheless struggle to dress themselves without help. Now I’m haunted by the possibility that I could be one of the “people least desirable to be stuck in a lift with”!
Can I also reinforce the point by admitting that the first time I took the test, I turned up on the wrong day?
OMG, a few sentences in this article … it is beyond belief …
It’s better not to spill to many on those anymore … they are lost .. why they went to the university is still a mystery to me .. they dont seem to have picked up anything more than normal people who did not need university for that. I think, they don’t do their job at all anymore. University does not seem to boost someone’s iq .. it seems more the opposite.
Whaa??
totally agree!! like all the wasters who go to university (just to say they have a meaningless) degree and get graduate jobs and have not got a clue how to put socks on!!
And then you have the ones who are not really into studying subjects which have no use…(ie shakespeare in english class, or history) but could quite easily do any job available with a few weeks of training….
The problem is the idea that 120 is all that smart. Bush is about, or slightly more, than one standard deviation above average. The president should be 160 – or if you like, in that percentile of intelligence, if not IQ. To put it another way the top 10% would allow us to choose from 30M people in the US. Generally they are middle managers. The top 1% ( about 145+) would give a choice from 3M. Thats a lot if people who are not setting the world aflame. The top 0.1 % would be about 160 – 300K. And amongst that bunch, pick the most energetic, best read charasmatic. 150-160 is necessary but not suficient. ( Obama is probably in that ballpark)
My sister has an IQ of 176 but to everyday life she is actually quite thick. Simple things like driving tests and the like she is crap at but something like Physics and Maths she is brilliant. Personally, I think the importance and knowledge of everyday life is more important than IQ. Unless you are Derren himself and do actually have both anyway. My IQ is 121 but I have common sense too (I hope!!) That IQ was when I was 14 too!! Will do it now actually (With 2 bottles of Rose Wine down my neck, oops!!) Will let you know the results I’m sure you will be enthrawled!! Xxx
@Andrew I did worse than that. I arrived at the appropriate door, gave the handle a good tug and it didn’t open. I told everyone who came along that it was still locked for some reason, despite being about 1 minute to the appointed hour. Eventually someone came along and pushed the door open and we were all late.
IS GEORGE W. BUSH stupid? – yes, next question…
Must be sth true cos in these all stupid tests I didn’t score much and was classified as a average”. so far I am doing great I think and never had any problems of consuming and processing information. I consider myself quite quick learner.. the only problem I have is memory but just recently as I have not attended school for years now, so it’s out of practice ;D ;P
Well I managed to get into Mensa, but personally think that the people that turn up to the meetings are all geeks, you know the ones with the full pack of pens in their top pocket. I so didn’t fit in. I am crap with mental arithmatics but am good at pulling things apart and working them out. I also have loads of common sense (yet am still tempted to touch a hot stove/kettle/iron to see if it is hot!!) Yet I am stuck in a low paid job and will more than likely be till I retire with no money!!
Someone who does very well on IQ and other standardized tests (and in the top 10% is not very well, I’m talking top 1% or higher) is generally very smart. There are people just as smart who do less well on these tests, though. Therefore, within the set of smart people, there is a subset of high test scorers and so high tests is a sufficient but not necessary reason to generally consider someone intelligent. The idea that very high test scorers typically lack common sense is a myth. Athletic ability, health, reaction time, income, and other things are all positively correlated with IQ. The very smart people I know all have more real common sense than most others. The myth I mentioned was started by average people and a PC culture.