I read it on the web so it must be true...

[denny]

Adults in England and Wales have an [average] IQ of 100.5, higher than Ireland and Scotland, both with 97. People living in London and the South East average 102.

Also, the Germans, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Italians, Austrians and Swiss are all smarter than the British (which is actually the main point of the article).


Edit:
Dear Denny De La Haye,

Thank you for your interest in the test at IQTest.com.

Your general IQ score is: 143

Comments

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Personally I'd be more inclined to say that thinking increases your ability to use your innate intelligence. You could easily fail to live up to your potential if you didn't ever try, but I don't think you could exercise your brain beyond a certain built-in level of ability no matter how hard you tried.

I suspect that a more accurate assessment of intelligence would use multiple scales (as iqtest.com claims to do in the extra analysis they try to sell you), but I don't think combining these into one line as an overall score is an invalid approach... I have three fairly functional limbs and one weak one, but you can still get a reasonable picture of my overall strength by adding them all up and dividing by four.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I don't think you could exercise your brain beyond a certain built-in level of ability

It's a plausible suggestion, but how would you ever know?

Also obviously IQ tests should be as wide-ranging as possible, but the decision about what constitutes "intelligence" is culturally dependent. The idea that it has to do with logic and reasoning is a Western one. What about cunning? What about rhetorical ability? What about the facility to think in original ways? What about the ability to make intuitive yet accurate connections without using logic? Or the ability to work out and understand what motivates people? Logic is not the only way the human brain makes connections; there are other forms of reasoning than being able to visualise and accurately describe shapes. I appreciate that the logic/reasoning method of arriving at conclusions is still a useful rough indicator, but I don't think it's very interesting. Then again, I am an arts student :) It's my job to think in emotionally-appealing bendy ways rather than straight lines.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, emotionally-appealing bendy ways.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Miss you... *kisses* Sloppy lipstick marks for you!

Boo, now I am wistful.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I love how our intellectual debate is so clearly just foreplay.