IQ is normalized to mean 100, standard deviation 15 from a sample population of test takers, usually matched by age. The mean is set to 100, by design.
Technically, since widely used norming populations are usually drawn from developed countries and exclude people with severe disabilities, the “actual” mean IQ, if you were to test everyone in the world, is lower than 100.
The positive manifold between different cognitive tests (which is what IQ actually is) is one of the most widely replicated findings in psychometrics. It predicts everything from your grades in school, to your odds of getting into a graduate program, to your lifetime earnings, to your odds of getting divorced.
It’s more strongly correlated with some things vs others (for example it’s more predictive of school grades than it is of income), but it’s one of the single most important factors influencing the trajectory of your life.
Obviously there are many other important aspects of life, but IQ influences a lot of them!
I was today years old when I found out the average IQ is only 100 and… well, that explains a lot, actually.
Thanks for the post!
IQ is normalized to mean 100, standard deviation 15 from a sample population of test takers, usually matched by age. The mean is set to 100, by design.
Technically, since widely used norming populations are usually drawn from developed countries and exclude people with severe disabilities, the “actual” mean IQ, if you were to test everyone in the world, is lower than 100.
Setting aside whether any of the tests’ narrow set of measures says anything constructive or useful about human beings at all.
The positive manifold between different cognitive tests (which is what IQ actually is) is one of the most widely replicated findings in psychometrics. It predicts everything from your grades in school, to your odds of getting into a graduate program, to your lifetime earnings, to your odds of getting divorced.
It’s more strongly correlated with some things vs others (for example it’s more predictive of school grades than it is of income), but it’s one of the single most important factors influencing the trajectory of your life.
Obviously there are many other important aspects of life, but IQ influences a lot of them!