No matter what cutoff point I choose for the giftedness calculations, it will be argued that it is the wrong cutoff point. There are a lot of definitions of giftedness, and there’s a lot of controversy over how giftedness should be defined. There’s nothing I can do about that.
The reason I chose IQ 132 (or rather the top 2% which can vary from one test to another) is explained in the comment I linked to about this. Briefly: if you have that IQ, you qualify as gifted by most IQ based definitions of giftedness.
The most relevant thing about this IQ is that the research on giftedness tends to be done on people who have IQs over 132. I could have picked 110, but there would be very little research to read about “gifted” people with an IQ of 110. Conversely, had I picked 180, you’d be hard pressed to find any research at all. I looked once and found exactly one book on that IQ range. It’s full of case studies. Those people are so rare, that this is about all they could do.
I picked the top 2% because although there’s no standard, it is as close to a standard as I’ve got.
I decided to do the math anyway, and I’m content with having chosen a number that’s connected to something meaningful: most of the research on giftedness. (Yes there are meaningful connections between IQ and all kinds of things. It’s a common myth to assume IQ is only a number. It’s not.)
Since there really isn’t an IQ threshold that could have been chosen that would not be controversial, what would you have done?
Since there really isn’t an IQ threshold that could have been chosen that would not be controversial, what would you have done?
I would have reported the IQ difference (and possibly some of the figures in this comment, which if you prefer you can also calculate for 132) rather than a dubious measure of distance to the 132 threshold.
In hindsight I regret objecting to the cutoff since my main source of dismay is the second point in my previous comment.
The reason I chose IQ 132 (or rather the top 2% which can vary from one test to another) is explained in the comment I linked to about this. Briefly: if you have that IQ, you qualify as gifted by most IQ based definitions of giftedness.
One user with IQ 120 leaving and one with IQ 100 entering decrease the average IQ, but describing that as “losing giftedness” sounds kind of fucked up to me.
No matter what cutoff point I choose for the giftedness calculations, it will be argued that it is the wrong cutoff point. There are a lot of definitions of giftedness, and there’s a lot of controversy over how giftedness should be defined. There’s nothing I can do about that.
The reason I chose IQ 132 (or rather the top 2% which can vary from one test to another) is explained in the comment I linked to about this. Briefly: if you have that IQ, you qualify as gifted by most IQ based definitions of giftedness.
The most relevant thing about this IQ is that the research on giftedness tends to be done on people who have IQs over 132. I could have picked 110, but there would be very little research to read about “gifted” people with an IQ of 110. Conversely, had I picked 180, you’d be hard pressed to find any research at all. I looked once and found exactly one book on that IQ range. It’s full of case studies. Those people are so rare, that this is about all they could do.
I picked the top 2% because although there’s no standard, it is as close to a standard as I’ve got.
I decided to do the math anyway, and I’m content with having chosen a number that’s connected to something meaningful: most of the research on giftedness. (Yes there are meaningful connections between IQ and all kinds of things. It’s a common myth to assume IQ is only a number. It’s not.)
Since there really isn’t an IQ threshold that could have been chosen that would not be controversial, what would you have done?
I would have reported the IQ difference (and possibly some of the figures in this comment, which if you prefer you can also calculate for 132) rather than a dubious measure of distance to the 132 threshold.
In hindsight I regret objecting to the cutoff since my main source of dismay is the second point in my previous comment.
One user with IQ 120 leaving and one with IQ 100 entering decrease the average IQ, but describing that as “losing giftedness” sounds kind of fucked up to me.
For that matter, it is currently the case that users with IQ 132 entering would also decrease the average IQ (and cause LW to “lose giftedness”).