Poll: Do you think you're more intelligent than the average person? (Be honest)

[RJ Dalton]

It depends on how you define intelligence. If you define it as possession of facts, then yes, I'm probably smarter than a lot of people. If you define it according to the usefulness of those facts, then no probably not.
On the other hand, I do have quite a few people beat on basic pattern recognition. I don't trust the political parties and I expect all Hollywood movies to be shit.

 

[Luxatrum]

I am terribly guilty at this. I always assume I'm smarter then someone during an argument unless I have argued with or against them.

It makes it pretty glaring when they prove me wrong and I just don't want to admit to myself I'm nothing really special.

 

[Lieju]

Going by my IQ, I'm well above average, but I'd be rather doubtful of that.
And in any case, there are areas where I am rather stupid mostly having to do with social situations. And occasionally seeing the complete picture, I tend to get tangled in detail.
And I'm sometimes unable to spot associations.
I'm kinda better at the kind of puzzles that the IQ tests have, so I score well at that stuff.

But over the years I've learned to cope and compensate to cover for my weaknesses.

 

[mortalsatsuma]

Well, I wouldn't say that i'm smarter than the average person, as my grades will prove, but I tend to find that I am just far more self-aware and have a much higher common sense than most people, especially in my school. Seriously, there are so many people at my school who are getting for example all As in their A-levels, yet they can't tell the time or tie up their own shoelaces. For example, a girl i sit with in history is getting all As yet she frequently asks stupid question like "Who is John F. Kennedy?" or "OMG! he was assassinated?!" with no sense of irony. Meanwhile It just furthers my view that people are no longer judged via intelligence or natural ability but instead by their ability to pass exams. So yeah, I'm clever than the average person in the sense of I have common sense and self-awareness. Seriously, common sense is so uncommon nowadays It should be renamed rare sense.

 

[Talshere]

BSc (Hons) officially says I am. Soon MSc will agree.

See, not a single nancy pantsy arts degree in sight.

In all seriousness though its impossible to say really. We have no real intelligence test to speak of. Most people like to tout the IQ test, especially if they have a high IQ, but the test itself is flawed. The US military declared in the early 1900's that no black people had an IQ of over like 30. What do you expect when you give a written test to people who were never taught to read? My own personal IQ has been take once at 92. With that IQ I should never have gotten out of secondary school, never mind finish, college, then uni, then get onto a masters. Officially, I'm not much smarter than some species of dog.

It has been a long standing problem of "What "is" intelligence". Is it academia? Well in the popular sense yes. But I cant draw for shit. Im not even convinced I could learn. Some people can build a rocked using stuff they find in a bin. A feat Im sure many rocket scientists wouldnt attempt.

Do I think I'm smarter. Yeah, I'm an arrogant prick like that. Do I look down on people. Yeah I do that too. But only with people who don't try. If all you ever wanted to be was cleaner, your happy part time, you have a partner kids and that job suits you. More power too you. If your a cleaner because you failed to try in school, never bothered with evening education and are miserable at work then fuck you you lazy drop out. Especially since that is the sort of person who will later complain about being at the bottom of the food chain being crapped on by the government.

You do not have the right to anything but life. The state provides that for everyone. Free health care, free housing and enough money to feed you and your dependants, even in the case of dependants with some left to spare. Basic stuff. If you want more, you work for it.

Back on track, I suppose to test intelligence, you really need to test aptitude, your ability to learn something. But even this is flawed as some people learn quickly but cannot retain, while others learn slowly but never forget. Then you get the problem that just because you can do something doesnt mean you understand it for example people with eidetic memories who will classically ace every academic exam they ever sit, yet fail to grasp even relatively basic concepts.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I'm definitely more intelligent in most efforts of the mind than most people I know. My only real identifiable flaw in regards to my intelligence is my difficulty in communicating aurally. So, I'd say I'm a bit above average at least.

Do I think I'm smarter. Yeah, I'm an arrogant prick like that. Do I look down on people. Yeah I do that too. But only with people who don't try. If all you ever wanted to be was cleaner, your happy part time, you have a partner kids and that job suits you. More power too you. If your a cleaner because you failed to try in school, never bothered with evening education and are miserable at work then fuck you you lazy drop out. Especially since that is the sort of person who will later complain about being at the bottom of the food chain being crapped on by the government.

I hate to not say anything myself but I can't think of anything. This.

 

[Newby_Newb]

I am probably average, maybe a little bit above average.

 

[C F]

I believe you have confused several properties of wisdom with intellect.

It depends on how you define intelligence. If you define it as possession of facts, then yes, I'm probably smarter than a lot of people. If you define it according to the usefulness of those facts, then no probably not.

It just furthers my view that people are no longer judged via intelligence or natural ability but instead by their ability to pass exams.

Well, here's but a few good points already stated on this page alone.

There's kind of a blurred line between concepts such as knowledge, wisdom, and intellect. Part of me wants to try and explain the three, but I doubt my capacity to accurately describe the differences. So, I'll just cut to the chase: Am I more intelligent than the average person?

I'm seventeen. The combined results of various facets of life so far have shaped me into who I am. Domestic experiences, school, church, college; all these have had their effect. I have gathered knowledge from various sources, compared them, learned from them, and yet I see people every day who know things I don't. It's a huge world out there. I'm still learning my strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the various institutions in society. For what it's worth, I always made the honor roll in grade school, but such a title has little meaning.

I know not to judge things based on my (lack of) experience alone. My GPA for college ended up being a 3.73. I'd say that's "above average." But all it means is society's schooling system approves of me. I have an Associate of Arts degree, meaning society has deemed me "educated" to a certain extent. But how well do I really function on the intellectual field? Well, for most of the classes I took, I barely studied. If ever. I sat down in class twice a week, and learned the material they taught. When it came time for tests, I was able to use my newly acquired knowledge to pick out the correct answer. As I did so, a memory from the past lectures rose, and I remember the context of the material being tested. I take this as evidence that I actually know the material to some extent. Enough to pass tests, evidently. I can work mathematical formulas if I need to, and I have a pretty decent memory. If these are the marks of an intelligent person, then yes. I am intelligent. Do I think I'm more intelligent than the average person? I guess I'll say yes. However, there's no way for me to be certain beyond my own capabilities.

 

[Crazy]

I don't think I'm above average, I know I'm above average. Its just the matter of whether you get the fact or not.

 

[twohundredpercent]

On the internet I feel thoroughly average but offline I feel like a fucking genius.

It's like the opposite for me. Youtube commenters am I right?

 

[thelonewolf266]

It amuses me how a lot of the people posting say they are below average or average and yet the poll is massively skewed towards above average.So either people are saying they aren't particularly intelligent when secretly they think they are really smart or there are just loads of people saying they are above average without even trying to justify it.

Snip

I don't think aurally is the right word to use though I may be wrong, but doesn't that mean using your ears to hear something.

 

[aidutcher]

I would consider myself above average, though this thread brings to mind the Dunning-Kruger effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Basically, genuinely competent people tend to underestimate their abilities and genuinely incompetent people tend to overestimate their abilities.

It also brings to mind Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, a personal favorite of mine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

 

[A Shadows Age]

I've heard that on almost all of tests, whether you put in intelligence, attractiveness, skill at something etc... you'll always get well above 50% of responders saying they are above average. We like to think highly of ourselves, and on the Escapist where most posters pride their own perceived intelligence, I expect the "above" result will be far higher still.

For me, I'd love to modest and say I'm average but I go to a highly respected UK university which at the moment hangs around the 9th to 15th top in the country (within top 200 in the world), so even without bias I must be above average.

That very Idea is biased, I guess this isn't a college that holds courses on critical thinking(last paragraph). And I would say my "intelligence" is below average, where as what education I can still call on is genuinely false or just out of date, like having nine inner planets.

I don't see the bias. Unless you're implying that the entire UK has an average intelligence well below the average of the world, I don't see how someone of below average intelligence could beat the majority of his peers in the exams required to get into a top uni. Yes, knowledge =/= intelligence but without some intelligence I wouldn't have obtained so much knowledge in the first place.

The bias is the assumption that because you go to a well respected university you "must" be by association with said student body, above average. Which I will admit is highly likely, just not necessarily an absolute truth. And please don't get nationalistic on me, I have enough highly educated ideology prone people in my own country.

 

[JoJo]

I've heard that on almost all of tests, whether you put in intelligence, attractiveness, skill at something etc... you'll always get well above 50% of responders saying they are above average. We like to think highly of ourselves, and on the Escapist where most posters pride their own perceived intelligence, I expect the "above" result will be far higher still.

For me, I'd love to modest and say I'm average but I go to a highly respected UK university which at the moment hangs around the 9th to 15th top in the country (within top 200 in the world), so even without bias I must be above average.

That very Idea is biased, I guess this isn't a college that holds courses on critical thinking(last paragraph). And I would say my "intelligence" is below average, where as what education I can still call on is genuinely false or just out of date, like having nine inner planets.

I don't see the bias. Unless you're implying that the entire UK has an average intelligence well below the average of the world, I don't see how someone of below average intelligence could beat the majority of his peers in the exams required to get into a top uni. Yes, knowledge =/= intelligence but without some intelligence I wouldn't have obtained so much knowledge in the first place.

The bias is the assumption that because you go to a well respected university you "must" be by association with said student body, above average. Which I will admit is highly likely, just not necessarily an absolute truth. And please don't get nationalistic on me, I have enough highly educated ideology prone people in my own country.

I still don't quite understand your reasoning. I don't know how universities work in the U.S. so maybe it's different over there but here we are judged by grades only. It's no more biased me saying that only those in the top 50% of the population could possibly get the grades to get into one of the most selective institutions in the country than to say only those in the top 50% for physical fitness will end up playing professional football. I know it goes against the whole "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" ethos a lot of schools have but for better or worse we're all limited in some way or other.

 

[Ruedyn]

I'm smarter than Yogi the bear but dumber than most. Although if we go by intelligence based on age, I'm fucking Einstein. However I do like to think I'm more creative.

 

[Commissar Sae]

I went with above average because everything I've seen in both the educational and business spheres of my life has gone to show me this. While I'm no genius I adapt quickly to new information and can absorb things pretty rapidly. Among my closest friends I'm probably in the average, but I tend to hang out with a pretty bright crowd.

 

[Professor James]

I say that I'm perfectly average. Neither below or above, although I guess I will never know if I don't take a few IQ tests.

 

[JBojangles]

Honestly, yeah. At least the median at my school is pretty low I'd say so compared I'm a helluva lot smarter. I don't mean to be arrogant that's just how I see it.

 

[Saulkar]

I definitely am! Not academically (took 4 tries to spell that) but more so in terms of common sense, problem solving, thinking independently, and maintaining my ideologies thoughtfully but not rigidly.