Poll: How smart do you think you are?

[Pat8u]

hmmm I don't really know what my IQ is but the problem with me is that I excel at some things but fail at others since I got an A in maths but a D in art but thats because I called abstract art bad since it doesent present anything but lines and smudges I will accept it as a art when they call games art then the double standards will be gone

AlSO I have taught myself many things so I guess that counts as intelligence

 

[Gulleko]

I'm above average, according to the test I did with my psychologist. Got 133. But that's just math and logical thinking, when it comes to interacting with other human beings or remembering things I don't care about, I'm completely lost...

 

[smithy_2045]

I'm definitely well above average.

 

[Zantos]

I'm currently in line for a 2:1 masters degree in theoretical physics, so I'm gonna say above average.

 

[Colour Scientist]

...I think you're going to see a pretty large number of IQs above 120 around here, because as a gaming forum, The Escapist attracts a lot of nerds, who tend to be pretty intelligent.

Or you know because people lie to feel better about themselves.

Average is average for a reason, and 120 is significantly above average.

I suspect you will find people answering as high as, and above the highest documented IQs. Doesn't make it true. Far, far, far from the truth.

Unless they are using some new fangled system to measure intelligence that actually puts the average around 150. That I would buy.

I thought MENSA was supposed to be exclusive but it seems as though half of The Escapist are in it. Do you get in with a Pub. Club membership or something?

 

[Fetzenfisch]

The only thing thats fairly distributed on earth is intelligence, everyone thinks he has enough of it.


the only thing i can say about myself is that i am more educated and eloquent than the average populace, but i guess thats what being an academic is about.


the only test i ever took was for the military-draft and i got a high above average score there and they wanted me to become an officer (i told them to fuck off , left and served my year in a civil youthcenter doing something helpfull instead) so i guess that makes me significally more intelligent than an average brainless chimp.

 

[franconbean]

I've been told (By my College and former High School) that I "Am an underachiever, but has an above average intelligence". According to a former therapist when I had to do therapy and counselling, I'm an underachiever because of my emotional problems.

Another reason I think I'm slightly above average/above average is because the last time I took an IQ test (Two to three months ago) my score was 153.

That sounds a lot like me.
I took an IQ test at my school. They said tha everyone my age in schools around the country were doing it. My score was in the top 5%, somehow, so i guess that makes me above average of what their idea of intelligence is.

 

[A Raging Emo]

I've been told (By my College and former High School) that I "Am an underachiever, but has an above average intelligence". According to a former therapist when I had to do therapy and counselling, I'm an underachiever because of my emotional problems.

Another reason I think I'm slightly above average/above average is because the last time I took an IQ test (Two to three months ago) my score was 153.

That sounds a lot like me.
I took an IQ test at my school. They said tha everyone my age in schools around the country were doing it. My score was in the top 5%, somehow, so i guess that makes me above average of what their idea of intelligence is.

Well, when these people were unable to "fix" me, they tried to console me in the fact that more intelligent people often have more emotional and psychological issues. I'm unsure as to whether they were just being nice and trying to help, or genuinely meant what they said; I haven't bothered to delve into the matter further.

 

[Communist partisan]

Snip

It's the ego that makes the human believe that, that's why everybody think they are over average.

Personally I'm playing dumb, and I'm really good in school and I'm really "street smart" but if you're asking me a test on school level can't tell you if you're smart or dumb, it's life experience, how you act in different situations how you handle life, the truth and pure chaos.

Being skilled on a educated level is intelligence but not in the same way as knowing how to think freely, come up with new ideas and inventions and being a really wise man with a lot of experience. A educated man can still be blind and dumb if he don't know how to think outside the frames, by free will and is possibly manipulated by a system made for controlling.

A man who lives in the forest like a savage nearly doesn't even know how to count to ten (probably) and is probably technically retarded on a educated scale but he knows how to solve every dilemma he comes across and got a real skill for making up new functions on different objects and surviving.

So if you only have one of the sides you're dumb, you gotta have both to be able to function properly in the regular society in most countries, but I still think the educated knowledge is less needed than the common knowledge and basic intelligence if i need to pick one of them.

Do you see what I'm trying to say?

Yeah, I get you. I think what's interesting about this poll is I bet if I picked a specific intellectual definition (How good at math are you? How much common sense do you have? How good are you at memorizing things?) then answers would be more average.

It seems that because intelligence can be defined many ways, people are using whatever definition puts them above average. I bet that savage thinks he's smart for his hunting skills as much as people like me think they're smart for acing tests.

I guess we're all a bit arrogant, nothing wrong with that.

It's not that we are arrogant, it's the human ego. If you think about it it's really hard for a mans ego to accept loss and having a superior person around it, it wants to be the best and do everything to be the best and one of the ways is to tell itself it's above average and special from the rest. The human ego is pretty much one of your worst enemies because if you fail really hard or loose somebody important for somebody else it questions the egos made up bubble and that's than you break down and feel blue, some people even go insane. It's kinda complicated but it contains a lot of logic if you think about it.

 

[Rainforce]

It's not that we are arrogant, it's the human ego. If you think about it it's really hard for a mans ego to accept loss and having a superior person around it, it wants to be the best and do everything to be the best and one of the ways is to tell itself it's above average and special from the rest. The human ego is pretty much one of your worst enemies because if you fail really hard or loose somebody important for somebody else it questions the egos made up bubble and that's than you break down and feel blue, some people even go insane. It's kinda complicated but it contains a lot of logic if you think about it.

So we're all losers in denial? I can live with that

 

[Communist partisan]

It's not that we are arrogant, it's the human ego. If you think about it it's really hard for a mans ego to accept loss and having a superior person around it, it wants to be the best and do everything to be the best and one of the ways is to tell itself it's above average and special from the rest. The human ego is pretty much one of your worst enemies because if you fail really hard or loose somebody important for somebody else it questions the egos made up bubble and that's than you break down and feel blue, some people even go insane. It's kinda complicated but it contains a lot of logic if you think about it.

So we're all losers in denial? I can live with that

We're not losers in denial but we are significantly less important than we think we are.

 

[ACman]

I have an IQ of 174 so I am actualy very far above average. Yay me!

You really can't measure IQ above 160.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

I recently read an article saying that a very large majority of people think they have above average intelligence. Obviously, it's impossible for everyone to be above average, and it seems people aren't as smart as they like to think they are.

The second sentence isn't related to the first. Obviously it's possible for the majority to have above average intelligence. As an example, say one person has an IQ of 50, and two have an IQ of 110. The mean average is 90, thus the majority are `above average intelligence'.

That's theoretically possible, but probably not reasonable. If you assumed the people in this poll had an average of 100 (which should be the average), then the 6.2% of people who say they are below average have to be 13 times father from 100 as the 84.2% who say they are above average.

For example, the below average people could have an IQ of 48 and the above average people could have an IQ of 104 on average, but considering the amount of people here who claim to have IQs of 150+, this is very unlikely.

These are all just rough estimates, and I'd say you're theoretically right, but in practice, it seems at lease some people are lying.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I would say I'm REGIONALLY above average. I know more stuff about everything compared to the people who live here in this city.

However, I like to watch Cash Cab, which takes place in New York, and I would have to say that compared to some of the contestants, I would be average or below average.
And there's also the fact that I'm too lazy...

I want to say I would have been smarter if perhaps I would have done thing differently when I was a kid. I was a surprisingly smart kid and now I'm neither one of those. But if I am smart at some degree, I don't like to brag about it. Saying that I was always top ten at school or that I know three languages or that I can play two instruments and stuff doesn't mean a thing because there is always someone who can do better than that and happens to be more humble than I can usually be. And that just proves I'm a retard for pretending otherwise. So no.

If you ask me, IQ doesn't mean you're a genius. It means you're smart, yes, but there's more in life than tests. If someone tells me they have an IQ of 1 million but they don't even know how to change a diaper, I won't be surprised. If someone tells me they have an IQ of over 9000 and also teaches me how to fix my car, I will be so surprised, I won't be able to poop for days, maybe.

i also like to watch that show, and i would say quite a few of the questions are era/regional based questions, because some of the questions i have seen on there are ridiculous and not a single person in my area would know what the hell it was, and if they did it was because it was a very "era" specific question, depending on your age, so while i love cash cab and do quite well alot of the time, sometimes those questions are "what the fuck..who...*person with missing bucked teeth and trashy answers immediately* "

But what surprises me is that some of the questions that make me go "What the shit is he talking about?" are the questions people answer oh so casually. For example, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't even make it past the first round of questions despite my knowledge of whatever. But you've seen how most people make it at least past the first round, strikes or not.
So I would say I'm fairly sure New Yorkers are smarter than people in my area, at least. Hands down.

i will agree it seems they have a better overall collective intelligence, maybe thats the positive of having a much tighter community (people per square mile in new york) is they share information/have a much wider grasp on information

 

[Gwarr]

IQ of 160 , the only things I am REALLY got at are videos games ,maths and ( to some degree ) physics , decent at programming too . I also believe these tests are useless if you don't use your intellect for something . Einstein had almost the same IQ as me , yet I doubt I'll ever be able to mark mankind history the way he did . Also , I suck at literature , my high school teacher told me I have the sensibility of a rock.

 

[LuckyClover95]

This is so self loving, guys, no offense, but I hardly believe most of you who voted above average really are. Don't measure your intelligence with IQ score or some shit.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

According to my A Level and GCSE scores, I rank among the top five percent of male students in the country. According to the various I've taken I have anywhere from 130-180 IQ (yeah, they're a load of bullshit aren't they) and according to my degree I'm average for a university student, which is still above average for the rest of the population.

I think my main problem is that if I am intelligent, then it's covered up by my interminable laziness. I have an incredible penchant for retaining facts and figures, I've been told I have a 'gift' for writing, and when i put my mind to it I can get ridiculously high scores on tests, I just don't bother most of the time.

I blame standardised education. It's basically established fact that standardised education is about the worst thing you can do to someone who's intelligent. It doesn't actually teach them how to learn, they just coast through on natural ability until they hit a problem they can't think their way out of, but by that point it's too late for them to unlearn what their entire life has taught them.

This is so self loving, guys, no offense, but I hardly believe most of you who voted above average really are. Don't measure your intelligence with IQ score or some shit.

If you're going to berate people for 'self-loving' because they think they're intelligent, would you be so kind as to define intelligence first? Since you think an IQ test is shit and not suited for measuring intelligence, how would you do it oh wise one?

 

[SoulSalmon]

I'll only say I'm above "average" because the "average" around here is "Good job! you went an entire day without sticking your dick in a power socket" -.-

It's not that we are arrogant, it's the human ego. If you think about it it's really hard for a mans ego to accept loss and having a superior person around it, it wants to be the best and do everything to be the best and one of the ways is to tell itself it's above average and special from the rest. The human ego is pretty much one of your worst enemies because if you fail really hard or loose somebody important for somebody else it questions the egos made up bubble and that's than you break down and feel blue, some people even go insane. It's kinda complicated but it contains a lot of logic if you think about it.

Odd thing about this paragraph is that I feel MUCH better when theres someone around me much better at 'things' in general then I am...
I not only accept that a lot of people are smarter/stronger/faster then myself but actually find peace in that fact :/

 

[Super Toast]

I'd say above average. I seem to know more than most of my family members, at least. Also, I got 112 on an IQ test, so there's that.

 

[fingerbang143]

I think quickly and I'm a champ in arguments and such, but I don't apply myself in school. but then again I still get 80's without applying myself so I'm probably slightly above average