The Inappropriately Excluded, by Michael Ferguson.
The probability of entering and remaining in an intellectually elite profession such as Physician, Judge, Professor, Scientist, Corporate Executive, etc. increases with IQ to about 133. It then falls by about 1/3 at 140. By 150 IQ the probability has fallen from its peak by 97%! In other words, a significant percentage of people with IQs over 140 are being systematically and, most likely inappropriately, excluded from the population that addresses the biggest problems of our time or who are responsible for assuring the efficient operation of social, scientific, political and economic institutions. This benefits neither the excluded group nor society in general. …
In the popular culture, IQ has become a point of contention. Many people credulously accept that the eminent have very high IQs and that people of ordinary accomplishment have ordinary IQs. For example, it was widely reported that Garry Kasparov has an IQ of 190. In truth, his IQ is verified to be 135. …
Robert Sternberg and others have mentioned an inverse correlation by observing the absence of very high IQ individuals in intellectual settings. However, the observation has not led to any deep investigation. Typically, it is mentioned with an implication that very high IQ people routinely possess some compensating negative trait that eliminates their intellectual advantage. An example is the assertion that very high IQ people lack ‘common sense’. …
While increasing IQ, especially over 140, is inversely correlated with elite membership, 140-150 IQ is also characteristic of eminence (Nobelists, Fields Medalists, etc.). …
To provide perspective for readers, one in 261 people have IQs over 140 and one in 2,331 have IQs over 150. …
Btw, the incidence of genuine transgender is about 0.04%, or about 1 in 2500. About the same incidence as geniuses.
D.K. Simonton found that persuasiveness is at its maximum when the IQ differential between speaker and audience is about 20 points. .. We already know that elites have an average IQ of about 125 which implies that the audience that is to be convinced by the elites has a mean IQ of 108. People with IQs below 98, after Hollingworth, are not effective followers and in a modern meritocracy are essentially disenfranchised and in the public discourse, essentially ‘The Clueless’. It means that the ‘The Followers’ in the public discourse have a IQ mode of 108 IQ and ‘The Leaders’ have aIQ mode of 128. These calculations provide us with a theoretical understanding of why the intellectually elite professions so consistently have mean IQs of 125.
In free markets people choose to whom they listen. In other words, in audiences dominated by high school graduates, who average around 105 IQ, the successful leaders will have an average IQ of 105+20=125. Speakers with IQs over 105+30=135 will be cancelled from radio, fired from TV and print or not elected because they confuse rather than enlighten their audience. A college educated audience (115 IQ) will be most convinced by a IQ of 115+20=135 and confused by a 115+30=145 IQ.
Effective leaders recognize that they need the counsel of those smarter than themselves. They will be most convinced by advisors with IQs of 128+20=148. …
A Leader needs to be persuasive within the community of Leaders which limits the IQ to 128+20=148 which is the same as the mode for Advisors. However, the 148 IQ Leader becomes incomprehensible to most Followers, which limits their effectiveness and encourages them to become an Advisor. Because Leaders become ineffective above an IQ of 148, Advisors won’t find clients if their IQ is over 148+20=168=155 IQ.
People with IQs over 150 are effectively ‘The Excluded’, routinely finding their thoughts to be unconvincing in the public discourse and in productive environments. If placed in a leadership position, they will not succeed.
So, while Sternberg et alia search for personal flaws to explain professional and social failings for people with IQs > 150, the simple fact is that it is an artifact of a culture that fails to provide them with audience or followers. They are not a natural fit as advisors because the leaders are not persuaded and often won’t even understand the advice. …
So if you’re too smart to be an Advisor, you become a Blogger! Ha ha, nice theory!
Educational abuse:
Miraca Gross has done a long-term longitudinal study of 60, 160+ IQ Australian children. 17 of the children were radically accelerated, 10 were accelerated one or two years and the remaining 33 were mainstreamed. The results were astonishing with every radically accelerated student reported as educationally and professionally successful and emotionally and socially satisfied. The group that was not accelerated she characterizes as follows: ‘With few exceptions, they have very jaded views of their education. Two dropped out of high school and a number have dropped out of university. Several more have had ongoing difficulties at university, not because of a lack of ability but because they have found it difficult to commit to undergraduate study that is less than stimulating’. These children have IQs similar to Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, etc., so the loss from unrealized potential is enormous.
Gross also did a wonderful comparative case study of a 133 IQ girl who had great educational success and a 169 IQ boy who was completely destroyed by an uncaring school system. It provides some enlightening examples of precisely how the educational system thwarts children in the 140+ IQ range. …
The problem stems from the misconception among educators that the intellectual gulf between moderately and highly gifted children is not that great. In fact, depending upon the conceptual content, Professor Gross suggests that the exceptionally gifted children and above may learn 4-5 times faster than the midrange students.
It is often stated that gifted children become bored in mainstream classes. However, that is too passive a description. Often they are frustrated and even angered by the slow pace. …
Because of all the above, many, perhaps most, 150+ D15IQ children reach college age with a bad grade transcript and even worse attitude. Even if they manage to perform near their potential in their educational careers, it will likely not matter since adult society is not structured for them, anyway.
And as society dumbs down generally (smart women having relative fewer kids, insufficiently selective immigration), the lower threshold of troublesome IQ keeps dropping, and more minds are wasted. …
As IQ increases above 140, people become progressively more excluded from educational, productive and social opportunities until by 160 IQ the exclusion is nearly complete. Individuals with IQs of more than 160 are rare, comprising just 0.0032% of the population. They possess at least one trait in common with many of the greatest minds in history. Yet only a vanishingly small percentage will find a proper environment within which they may thrive intellectually, socially and productively.
