What is IQ? Thanks for asking !

IQ stands for intelligence quotient and is a test score which indicates a person’s level of intelligence. Some people are concerned that the average IQ is decreasing in Europe. The abbreviation IQ was coined by German psychologist William Stern in 1912, to name a scoring method for intelligence testing at the University of Breslau. Even before that, humans had long been fascinated with classifying people according to their intelligence. Psychologists still use IQ scores today. The most common form of testing is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). The average is set at 100. Half of all people have a score between 90 and 110; 15% score from 110 to 120; and around 3% have a ‘gifted-level’ IQ of over 130.

So, if I got 132, am I brainiac?

Now I’m not saying you’re not smart, but your result from GetMyIQIn5Minutes.com might not be the most...reliable. To find out your IQ, you need to consult a psychologist and carry out dozens of exercises to measure cognitive skills like short-term memory, problem solving and visual processing. The whole process takes several hours and it’s not even a given that the psychologist will agree to give you your score. Many parents insist on IQ tests in the hope of discovering that children are gifted, or have high academic potential. In the worst cases, IQ tests are used to pigeonhole children; stupid on one side and gifted on the other. An IQ score alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and can lead to stigmatisation, rather than having any positive effect. Furthermore, IQ doesn’t give any information on emotional or relational intelligence. That’s why some psychologists now refuse to give out results. Nevertheless, it remains a very common indicator.

So what evidence is there that IQ levels are dropping? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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