- IQ tests are controversial in the U.S., but are frequently used for school admissions and health decisions.
- Students who are working class often have fewer opportunities at home and at school to learn skills that can help them optimize their test performance.
- A new model for intelligence measurement might involve promoting people who make decisions that better their communities.
Reliance on IQ tests can lead to race and class discrimination, but these intelligence quotient measurements are still routinely used to determine people’s educational opportunities. Some psychologists who study IQ acknowledge that the tests are not perfect, and our models of intelligence could be improved.
The way IQ scores used to be measured was “by comparing a mental age to a chronological age,” Robert Sternberg, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Cornell University, tells Popular Mechanics. “In an earlier conception, a chronological age is the physical age and the mental age was supposed to be the age at which you think and learn. So IQ scores were called quotients because you would divide the mental age by the chronological age and multiply it times 100.”
“Virtually no one uses that system anymore because the so-called ratio IQ has had a lot of problems,” Sternberg continues. “So what’s done today is that IQs are computed by percentiles. IQs tend to form a normal distribution. And so you compute how people compare to each other.”
Most IQ tests have subscores, Sternberg explains. These could be for verbal performance, math performance, or other skills. The total score is a weighted average of the subscores. On tests like the SAT and the ACT, the subscores are weighted equally.
“A lot of proprietary tests don’t go into a lot of detail about their scoring because that’s something they’ve copywritten,” Elizabeth Dworak, Ph.D., research assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University, tells Popular Mechanics. Some current IQ tests include the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, and the Brief Cognitive Status Exam among others.
Sternberg says current IQ tests are narrow and should be replaced with more socially responsible measures. “They don’t measure creative thinking. They don’t measure emotional maturity. They don’t measure emotional intelligence. They don’t measure musical or kinesthetic skills. They don’t measure practical thinking or common sense. You can get people who are very high in IQ, but they never have an original idea. And I see a lot of those in my university experience . . . people who were promoted by having high test scores.”
“What an IQ test measures is whether you’re doing what you’re told to do,” Sternberg continues. “So what you’re doing is creating a leadership class that’s obedient . . . and those are not necessarily the people you want to be in leadership roles.”
As IQ scores have gone up by 30 points during the last century, people in the U.S. have become more narcissistic and aggressive, Sternberg explains. This behavior can reinforce social hierarchies, especially in a competitive economic landscape.
“My research has shown, for example, that the particular skills measured by traditional university admissions tests in the United States tend to favor the skill patterns of white and Asian students and disfavor those of black and Hispanic students,” Sternberg wrote in New Scientist in 2021.
Many variables shape IQ. Although it’s hereditary to some extent, it’s also greatly influenced by one’s cultural environment and social class, including learning opportunities at home and at school. Working-class parents may have less time to teach their children; they also may have less money to pay for tutoring, including preparation for IQ tests. School quality also varies based on the wealth of local school districts in the U.S.
“In any society, people who are privileged make it so that people like them can stay privileged,” Sternberg says. “The tests turn out to correlate very highly with socioeconomic status and it’s sort of a way of laundering that.”
For her part, Dworak believes that people don’t like IQ tests due to mistrust. “I know eugenicists in the past have taken up IQ as one of the things they really care about, which is really unfortunate. Eugenicists, in general, are very unfortunate.”
Low IQ has even been used as an excuse to sterilize people in the U.S., according to Dworak and Sternberg. They both strongly object to this practice.
Instead of current IQ tests, psychologists should create more prosocial measures that promote people who make wise choices that support the common good, Sternberg says.
Kat Friedrich
Kat Friedrich is a former mechanical engineer who started out as an applied math, engineering, and physics major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has a graduate degree in science and environmental journalism and has edited seven news publications, two of which she co-founded. She spends her free time learning about dance and functional fitness, reading science fiction, and exploring music events.
