4Chan post: Picture of a bell curve with right wing extremists one the right, portrayed as stupid, centrists in the middle portrayed as smart and left extremist on the left portrayed as stupid. Reply: "That's not how a bell curve works you fucking imbecile"
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[+] -7 points 2 months ago (24 children)
  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    Not really, it's highly misleading and is used to justify bigotry.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (7 children)

    I've seen enough court cases where people did not have the reasoning capability to understand the situations they were in. Not bigotry, I do believe IQ can be increased and has a lot to do with upbringing, access to info, and opportunity.

    But there are people who are unfortunately dumb. Not to mock them, but understand we need to come along the simple to assist them. Because it makes for a better society.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    People can have less or greater cognitive ability and understanding. Trying to quantify it as IQ does, however, results in extremely misleading outcomes.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    Yup. But it is not a horrid starting point. There is always a better everything.

    Just because one finds fault does not mean that one can not also find use.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    The problem is with how it's used in general, which results in ableism and bigotry.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    By a few. Don't let a few bad apples ruin the bunch.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Problem is there are better ways, more specific ways.

    Frankly, in my life experience people with cognitive disabilities don't need a specific numerical grade, a broader categorization is good. So the IQ metric just doesn't tell us enough (no indication of specifically how the impairment would be, nor indication about potential other developmental issues that may require accommodation).

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Lots of things are used to justify bigotry. If you assume that subjectively negative attributes are a result of heritage rather than upbringing, you can use anything to justify bigotry.

    For native English speakers, IQ largely correlates with general intellectual ability. People with higher IQs are generally more capable of understanding more complicated topics. It's not a moral failing to have a low IQ, and there's no reason to assume it's genetically heritable or innate and immutable.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    The problem is that IQ is very poor at actually identifying "general intellectual ability," as "general intellectual ability" is not a linear spectrum but a highly complex and multi-faceted phenomena.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    Yeah, it is a single one dimensional number that attempts to represent a multidimensional system. But also you can pretty well predict whether someone is capable of, like, standing trial or something if that single number is particularly low. It does correlate with a real phenomenon, if not perfectly.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Not really, as we can dramatically increase iq with wealth.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] -3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    If a younger kid has a lower IQ then figuring out what skills they are lacking in to help them improve. For an adult if their low IQ score comes from lack of reading comprehension then you can assist that. The tests can help target the areas of lack.

    It is not a static part of you like your height or wingspan. It can increase and decrease because of a variety of factors.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, absolutely. But how does an IQ test help with that? If someone has a low score, you then need to figure out what skill is lacking. That requires another test, no? How is assigning a point score helpful?

    I don't know of any education system that relies on IQ scores, yet they are usually set up to address shortcoming in skill or education. They do this via targeted tests and education programs. I don't personally see what adding IQ would add.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Agreed, indicating deficiency requires more nuance than a single score. The only thing IQ by itself has been used to is to either "give up" on a person because low IQ or to falsely elevate a person for being "super smart" and breed obnoxious elitism. Mensa itching to tell folks with a high score on a single test that they are better than everyone else.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    You can't even tell what is wrong with the presumption that you can universalize childhood development, can you? "Target areas of lack...?" You mean like, any other fucking assessment that isn't rooted in racist, sexist, and ableist notions of universal standards of knowledge or intelligence?

    What a circular argument.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    If you speak english poorly, you'll probably score low on an IQ test. If the test uses cultural motifs that you're unfamiliar with, you're more likely to score low on an IQ test. There's many ways that IQ tests can give terrible results, so it's not really that great at gathering reliable data about someone's intelligince.

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