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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Do the mother's genes almost exclusively determine the sons' intelligence?

According to this paper: Intelligence and the X chromosome by Gillian Turner, published by The Lancet (a highly regarded medical journal) in 1996, the X chromosome is dominantly responsible for coding ...
user69715's user avatar
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45 votes
4 answers
15k views

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:...
Kenshin's user avatar
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43 votes
2 answers
4k views

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 ...
Lagerbaer's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are people getting smarter or stupider in North America?

I've heard that people are complaining everyone are getting dumber because of popular culture and the Internet. I read an article in cracked that said people are actually getting smarter because of ...
Ming-Tang's user avatar
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50 votes
1 answer
10k views

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 ...
Monkey Tuesday's user avatar
42 votes
2 answers
4k views

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” ...
user1873's user avatar
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31 votes
1 answer
3k views

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 ...
Alex's user avatar
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29 votes
4 answers
6k views

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's user avatar
28 votes
2 answers
5k views

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 ...
smUsamaShah's user avatar
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27 votes
2 answers
10k views

Do men show greater variance in the distribution of their IQ than women?

It is frequently claimed that men show greater variance in the distribution of their general intelligence factor (g) ("IQ") than women. Is that claim accepted by the scientific community?
knorv's user avatar
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25 votes
1 answer
21k views

Does solving Sudoku puzzles improve your mental abilities?

A lot of people I know see solving Sudoku puzzles as a way to train their minds. howtoincreasememorypower.com recommends doing a Sudoku puzzle a day to increase brain power. Researchers rank ...
Christian's user avatar
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24 votes
1 answer
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Are intelligent people more nocturnal than people not considered intelligent?

Some sites claim that people with higher intelligence tend to go to bed later. For example: People with higher IQs are more apt to be nocturnal night-owls. Those with lower IQs tend to restrict ...
OmnipresentAbsence's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
8k views

Is global IQ dropping over time?

Global IQ: 1950–2050 Essentially the idea is that while smart people are getting wealthier, their birth-rate tends to drop. On the other hand poor countries, which are generally populated by less ...
Alex's user avatar
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19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does Modafinil make you smarter?

Modafinil (Wikipedia link) is a drug approved in many countries for specific medical conditions such as narcolepsy. We don't, however, have a good idea how it works. But is is one of several drugs (...
matt_black's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
4k views

Are liberal/left-wing people more intelligent than conservative/right-wing people?

A quick DuckDuckGo search on "are liberal people more intelligent" or "are left wing people more intelligent" leads to many blogs/articles claiming that they are (same search on the opposite claim ("...
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68 votes
3 answers
15k views

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 ...
Jerome Viveiros's user avatar
40 votes
1 answer
3k views

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 ...
Sklivvz's user avatar
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38 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
Thomas O's user avatar
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26 votes
1 answer
2k views

Were our recent ancestors as intelligent as we are?

A good friend of mine made the following claim: If we would have a time machine and use it to gather newborns from different eras of human history and would put them in normal and nurturing ...
Andreas H's user avatar
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21 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is self-discipline more important than IQ in predicting academic performance?

There is one highly cited (>1K citations in Google Scholar) study titled "Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents", and quoting from its abstract: Self-...
Fizz's user avatar
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20 votes
3 answers
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Does long-term marijuana use lead to a significant drop in IQ?

This article claims that marijuana (cannabis) is linked to a drop in IQ. Specifically: Participants who used cannabis heavily in their teens and continued through adulthood showed a significant ...
dsollen's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
3k views

Are blondes dumb or is it just a sarcastic saying?

Many a times in hollywood, blondes are projected as unitellegent, stupid and dull-witted. In fact a perception around the world can be realized about the same. In friends circle, TV shows and social ...
Pankaj Upadhyay's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
3k views

Are people with a high IQ not allowed to become police officers in New London?

This 2000 ABC News report says: A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city. [.....
SAH's user avatar
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16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does consuming fluoridated water reduce IQ?

Related: Is fluoride in water an industry waste product? Is water fluoridation harmful? Dr. Mercola is at it again with a new article: 25 Studies Prove This Reduces Your IQ. The Fluoride Action ...
Hendy's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
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Does LSD provide a creativity boost?

The claim is of course widely known: LSD "broadens your thinking" and makes you "more creative". The last incarnation was Steve Jobs' biography taking a swipe at Bill Gates: “He’d be a broader ...
user5341's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
5k views

Does playing popular video games improve a child's IQ?

This article claims a study shows that the cognitive abilities of 60-77 year olds can be helped by playing two weeks of World of Warcraft. This article quotes a navy researcher as saying adults ...
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11 votes
1 answer
12k views

Do Australian Aboriginal people have low intelligence and sexual control?

Margaret Sanger wrote in What Every Girl Should Know: Sexual Impulses--Part II New York Call 29 December 1912 and also in her 1916 What Every Girl Should Know at page 47 and a 1920 version and in ...
DavePhD's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
632 views

Is breastfeeding associated with a higher IQ?

In 2015, there were two conflicting studies about this subject. CNN reported in March, 2015: "Breast is best" -- you could call it a mantra of sorts that sums up much of today's research on ...
Sakib Arifin's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
81k views

Does James Woods have an IQ of 180?

An article claimed that the Actor James Woods has an IQ of 180: Woods aced his SATs, got into MIT (but dropped out to pursue acting) and has a reported IQ of 180. After doing some research, I ...
kl78's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Can one be naturally better at computers than English or Maths?

I think everybody heard this claim, and its opposite, a million times. Students or teachers commonly speak about having talents for a particular subject or another. The subject is debated, for example,...
Sklivvz's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
968 views

Are there large scale studies investigating relationship between IQ and autism spectrum disorders (especially Aspergers)?

There's a lately-somewhat-widely held belief that there's a strong correlation (and to a certain extent, a fairly obvious causation) between Asperger's syndrome (or Autism spectrum disorders in ...
user5341's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
6k views

Are mixed-blood children smarter than their non mixed-blood parents?

I have heard and read on the Internet the disputed claim that mixed blood* children are smarter than their (non-mixed blood) parents. The general idea of "hybrid vigour" is known as heterosis and ...
Persian Cat's user avatar
  • 1,066
5 votes
0 answers
548 views

Is approximately 80% of a child's intelligence acquired from the mother? [duplicate]

Uberfacts, a Twitter account with 9.43M followers claims that 80% of a child's intelligence is acquired from the mother. How true is this? Gizmodo doesn't do a very good job of debunking this: ...
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5 votes
3 answers
992 views

Do people's IQs change?

In a 1968 study of the Pygmalion Effect: Rosenthal and Jacobson gave an intelligence test to all of the students at an elementary school at the beginning of the school year. Then, they randomly ...
Celeritas's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Did Asian countries top an IQ survey of 50 countries?

This article in the China Daily makes the claim that several Asian countries topped a survey of intelligence: Asians dominated the survey compiled by Austrian researchers who drew on a variety of ...
YUASK's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
466 views

Are we getting smarter? [closed]

I've asked a similar question some time ago and people mentioned the "Flynn effect". But after watching this video from James Flynn I'm having doubts about the relevance of IQ tests. In short, that ...
Alex's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
13k views

Is 80% of childs intelligence acquired from mother? [duplicate]

Several articles on internet claim that 80% of child's intelligence is acquired from mother. however not providing any scientific publications. Is it really true? source: http://brooklynmutt.com/post/...
Headshota's user avatar
  • 149
-3 votes
1 answer
352 views

Did this study on British pupil intelligence include all ethnic groups?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chinese#Education The proportion of British Chinese achieving 5 or more good GCSEs stood at 70%, where it remained the highest out of all ethnic groups in the ...
Wen Li's user avatar
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