Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [intelligence]

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.

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Does the US Armed Forces refuse to recruit anyone with an IQ less than 83?

In this video, Jordan Peterson claims the following. You can't induct someone into the Armed Forces in the US if they have an IQ of less than 83. He claims that the armed forces needs an accurate predictor of intelligence in order to be able to…
Mason Wheeler
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Is low emotional intelligence associated with right-wing and prejudiced attitudes?

Accordiing to Diply, Researchers in Belgium have linked a lack of emotional intelligence with right-wing political views, reports PsyPost. The study, published in Emotion, found that those who lack the ability to understand and manage emotions are…
Jerome Viveiros
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Did the CIA blow up the Nordstream 1 pipeline, using BALTOPS 22 as cover?

In September 2022, the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines off the coast of Denmark were sabotaged Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist, recently published a blog post, How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline…
seldon
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Are IQ tests reliable?

Some of the more common types of IQ tests are: Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (SBIS-V) (Ages 2–90+)An update of the SB-IV. In addition to providing a Full Scale score, it assesses Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative…
Monkey Tuesday
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Are men smarter than women?

I recently stumbled across the following article: Sorry, men ARE more brainy than women (and more stupid too!) It's a simple scientific fact, says one of Britain's top dons, in which the author claims: 1. That men are on average smarter than…
Kenshin
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Is IQ hereditary? If so, to what degree?

The movie Idiocracy suggests that intelligence is hereditary; this idea has also been perpetrated by German author Thilo Sarrazin, who claims that due to the higher fertility of Islamic immigrants and their allegedly lower intellect, Germany was…
Lagerbaer
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Does IQ testing show that blacks on average score worse than whites?

James Watson Nobel Prize winner for his discovery of the structure of DNA made the following claim in a 2007 Sunday Times interview: "[I am] inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that…
user1873
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Does watching TV make you stupid?

I haven't watched TV since 1969. I worked in it for decades, and knew enough not to watch it. It makes you stupid, and my colleagues in the networks agree! Some of them would point out what a verbal beating they'd get from friends who actually saw…
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Does extremely high intelligence correlate with poorer social skills?

The Psychology.Wikia page Correlation between intelligence and social deficiency states: Abnormally high intelligence, 3 or more standard deviations above the mean, tends to correlate strongly with poor social skills. Is this claim backed by…
Christian
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Are exams getting easier, or are students getting smarter?

There is an interesting trend in test scores in exams (GCSE and A-level) in the UK: they are increasing, or so the trend in the grades would tend to show. This is known as grade inflation and affects other countries, too. Why is this? I have heard…
Thomas O
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Are there more people with genius IQs living in China than there are people total in the U.S.?

This claim was made popular by being said in the movie The Social Network. It exactly says: Did you know there are more people with genius IQs living in China than there are people of any kind living in the United States?
isJustMe
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Are non-religious people smarter than religious people?

There are quite a few studies that confirm this, the most recent one: http://onefuriousllama.com/2011/09/11/another-study-links-intelligence-to-lack-of-religiosity/ Are non-religious people smarter than religious people? If yes, is this a…
Alex
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Drop in IQ due to immigration?

An alt-right web site, "Red Ice" (apparently belonging to Henrik Palmgren), proposes that there's a nearly worldwide decrease in IQ due to immigration. The Red Ice piece apparently originated from unz.com so clearly this story was more widely…
Fizz
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Do non-educated people tend more to the right/conservative political wing?

This is a common prejudice in my social environment, but is it true? Are educated people more likely to vote for a social/left wing party? Examples: [1]; [2].
Stephan Schielke
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Are Ashkenazi Jews smarter?

I just received an email entitled "Why are Jews So Smart". You can read an article here. I also found a similar article in New York Magazine. Did Jewish intelligence evolve in tandem with Jewish diseases as a result of discrimination in the ghettos…
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