Difference between revisions of "High IQ society"

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 16: Line 16:
  
 
Measurements above 99.99997th percentile are ridiculous, since there are insufficient normative cases upon which to base a statistically justified correlation.<ref>[http://olymp.iqsociety.org/?page_id=8 IQ measurement at the 99.99997th percentile]</ref> In 2010, the United States population (ca. 300 million) normal expectation for the number of persons with IQ over 175 (6[[σ]] above average) is about 90.
 
Measurements above 99.99997th percentile are ridiculous, since there are insufficient normative cases upon which to base a statistically justified correlation.<ref>[http://olymp.iqsociety.org/?page_id=8 IQ measurement at the 99.99997th percentile]</ref> In 2010, the United States population (ca. 300 million) normal expectation for the number of persons with IQ over 175 (6[[σ]] above average) is about 90.
 +
 +
== Membership Declaration-Induced Temporary Psychosis (MDITP) ==
 +
Informing a non-member of a high IQ society that you are yourself a member (especially of Mensa) will, in roughly 90% of the population, induce a state of temporary insanity. The patient will instantly begin spouting derogatory claims about membership of such societies, usually among the lines of being pretentous or boring, and then proclaim that they themselves took an IQ test (the origin of which is never specified) and they achieved an extremely high score (well over 150), followed by an excuse as to why they will never take the test and become a member. This psychotic state of mind quickly subsides, and can be calmed with the suggestion of a trip to the local pub.
  
 
== Too many societies ==
 
== Too many societies ==

Revision as of 08:23, 19 May 2010

Bouncywikilogo.gif
There is a broader, perhaps slightly less critical, article on Wikipedia about High IQ society

A high IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who are within a certain high percentile of IQ test results. Insecure people who perform well on standardized tests join them in order to bolster their sense of being really intelligent.

The oldest, largest, and most well-known such society is Mensa International,[1] which was founded by a couple of strangers on a train in 1946, who decided it would be more productive than killing each others' wives. Other early societies are Intertel (founded by Ralph Haines in 1966), the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry (founded by Dr. Christopher Harding in 1974), and some other ego-boosting projects[2] founded by Dr. Ronald K. Hoeflin in 1982.

The purpose of such societies

Before the Internet, meeting reasonably bright people could actually be quite a lot of work, so such societies were socially useful. These days, if you can't find people on the Internet smarter than you are, then you are likely a poster child for the Dunning-Kruger effect.

A typical Mensa meeting consists of ordering dinner and spending the evening arguing about the most logical way to split the bill.

Entry requirements

High IQ societies typically accept a variety of standardized multiple guess tests. IQ is measured by taking a person's score on the test, working out the average, assuming a normal distribution and calling each standard deviation (σ) 15 points. At least two differently designed standardized tests, at least one supervised, should be performed.

The ceiling of most standardized (validated and normed) intelligence tests is around the 99.9th percentile (3.29σ, IQ~=149). Measurements above this level are typically constructed by psychometricians who consider they have IQs in the range they are testing for, writing and grading tests in order to work out who can join their private club.

Measurements above 99.99997th percentile are ridiculous, since there are insufficient normative cases upon which to base a statistically justified correlation.[3] In 2010, the United States population (ca. 300 million) normal expectation for the number of persons with IQ over 175 (6σ above average) is about 90.

Membership Declaration-Induced Temporary Psychosis (MDITP)

Informing a non-member of a high IQ society that you are yourself a member (especially of Mensa) will, in roughly 90% of the population, induce a state of temporary insanity. The patient will instantly begin spouting derogatory claims about membership of such societies, usually among the lines of being pretentous or boring, and then proclaim that they themselves took an IQ test (the origin of which is never specified) and they achieved an extremely high score (well over 150), followed by an excuse as to why they will never take the test and become a member. This psychotic state of mind quickly subsides, and can be calmed with the suggestion of a trip to the local pub.

Too many societies

The entrance criteria for IQ societies varies considerably. Some consider the nature of the tests they accept, i.e., whether the tests are either numerically, spatially, verbally, etc. slanted, and whether they are proctored or not. They all place great importance on how high one must score in order to acquire membership.[4][5]

Some notable examples, which include widely known ones like Mensa, will accept the results of standardized tests taken elsewhere - except possibly online ones, which typically seem to give everyone 130-140 because they're usually pitched to the wrong age group and are non-standardized.[6][7]

The following list is sorted by percentile cutoff point for admission, and assumes the "general intelligence factor", g is normally distributed with μ = 100 and σ =15/16.

Top 5%

  • 95th percentile; 1/20; IQ 124 sd15 / 126 sd16
    • AtlantIQ Society[8] - smart people who can't spell "Atlantic"
    • International High IQ Society - at this range, they barely qualify
    • omIQami Society[9] - smart Japanese people

Top 3%

  • 97th percentile; 1/33; IQ 128 sd15 / 130 sd16
    • Alta Capacidad Hispana[10]
    • Deepbrain Society[11]

Top 2%

  • 98th percentile; 1/50; IQ 130 sd15 / 132 sd16; +2σ
    • AtheistIQ[12]
    • Encefálica Society[13] Smart Spanish people, but too stupid to realize that autoplaying sound on your homepage is not a sign of brilliance
    • Greatest Minds Autoplays music on load LAME, has about 20 members. Features image of Albert Einstein, Smartest Human Ever, as we all know.
    • High Potentials Society[14]
    • Ingenium High IQ Society Their site, at least, appears to be properly spelled and competently designed. They even have at least 50 or so members. They also let more retarded people "observe" them: "If your IQ is close to the 98th percentile you can become a subscriber to the society." How nice. Also also, they have a really nicely crafted favicon.
    • IQual Society[15]
    • Mensa International "Oh, I herd yur in 'Mensu' oh yur so cool I bet you think you got brainz I took a test in 1976 I hav IQ of 212 I'm so smert yer lame why do you need to join klub I can be smert on my own!"
    • Mysterium Society[16]

Top 1%

  • 99th percentile; 1/100; IQ 135 sd15 / 137 sd16
    • Chorium is a site that promotes "intellectual engagement among musicians." Their website is relatively sane, but does include the obligatory email links to he "administrator". Membership requires proof, in many allowed ways, of IQ of roughly 140, but also, a music test.
    • El Ateneo Society[17]
    • Intertel
    • The Mind Society[18]
    • Top One Percent Society
    • UNIQ Society[19]

Top 0.5%

  • 99.5th percentile; 1/200; IQ 139 sd15 / 141 sd16
    • Colloquy
    • Poetic Genius Society[20]

Top 0.37%

  • 99.63rd percentile; 1/270; IQ 140 sd15 / 143 sd16
    • HispanIQ International Society[21]
    • Infinity International Society[22]

Top 0.3%

  • 99.7th percentile; 3/1,000; IQ 141 sd15 / 144 sd16
    • Cerebrals Society

Top 0.2%

  • 99.8th percentile; 1/500; IQ 143 sd15 / 146 sd16

Top 0.13%

  • 99.87th percentile; 13/10,000; IQ 145 sd15 / 148 sd16; +3σ
    • Artistic Minds Society[26]
    • CIVIQ Society

Top 0.1%

  • 99.9th percentile; 1/1,000; IQ 146 sd15 / 149 sd16
    • Glia Society[27]
    • International High IQ Society Milenija[28]
    • International Society for Philosophical Enquiry
    • IQuadrivium Society[29]
    • LOGIQ Society[30]
    • One-in-a-Thousand Society[31]
    • Triple Nine Society

Top 0.07%

  • 99.93th percentile; 7/10,000; IQ 148 sd15 / 151 sd16

Top 0.06%

  • 99.94th percentile; 3/5,000; IQ 149 sd15 / 152 sd16

Top 0.02%

  • 99.98th percentle; 1/5000; IQ 153 sd15 / 157 sd16

Top 0.009%

  • 99.991st percentile; 9/100,000; IQ 156 sd15 / 160 sd16

Top 0.003%

  • 99.997th percentile; 3/100,000; IQ 160 sd15 / 164 sd16; +4σ
    • Epimetheus Society
    • ERGO Society[38]
    • Homo Universalis Society[39]
    • Prometheus Society
    • Tetra Society[40]

Top 0.001%

  • 99.999th percentile; 1/100,000; IQ 164 sd15 / 168 sd16
    • Eximia High IQ Society[41]
    • The Ultranet[42]

Top 0.0001%

  • 99.9999th percentile; 1/1,000,000; IQ 172 sd15 / 176 sd16
    • GenerIQ Society[43]
    • Incognia[44]
    • Mega Society — Their website sends conflicting messages of "I don't realize that most people have broadband connections and it is now okay to use advanced HTML" and "We store everything in PDF so I hope your internet connection chokes!". They are the only high-IQ society pretentious enough to have a constitution.[45] In spite of these shortcomings, they are one of the more well-recognized high-IQ organizations.
    • Omega Society[46]
    • Pi Society — That with a name like "Pi Society" they are not a math club is a crime against all math nerds everywhere. We condemn them for their crappy website. However, we commend them for recognizing that not all smart people speak English and providing select pages in another language.[47] (Specifically, French. Because all smart people may not speak English, but they are most certainly American or European.)

Top 0.00003%

Picture on the front page of the Pars Society website. This raises some interesting questions: Why red? Why the one chair by itself? Is it supposed to represent the isolation and loneliness geniuses feel from general society? Is the coloring contrast supposed to imply that really smart people are a beacon of color in a monotonous society? Why are some of the other chairs stacked up—are they having sex? We could go on all day.
  • 99.99997th percentile; 3/10,000,000; IQ 175 sd15 / 180 sd16; +5σ
    • OLYMPIQ Society — Consists of 13 people.[48] (Seriously people, when your organization is barely a baker's dozen-large and your official website says "powered by WordPress" at the bottom, it's time to suck it up and join MENSA or any of the other well-recognized high-IQ societies.) Its founder, Dr Evangelos G. Katsioulis, MD, MSc, PhD, loves adding "MD, MSc, PhD" at the end of his name, a habit the other twelve have fortunately not picked up—maybe the rest are self-educated smart people? (Interestingly, he is the only confirmed member of the Pars Society listed below.[49])
    • Pars Society — Exists only as a clearly abandoned web site.[50] Which is a pity, because they have lots of things going for them: their main page has an awesome picture on it (a chair surrounded by—get this—more chairs), their logo looks like the deformed cousin of the National Geographic logo, and they enjoy capitalizing random words.[51] The Pars Society claims to represent people from over 17 countries, yet suspiciously fail to provide a membership list.[52] And again, the website is in English only, even though the webmaster is clearly not a native speaker—maybe he assumes English is the language of Smart People?
    • Society Extreme Intelligence[sic] — Claims to be founded by "COSMiQ contactee" Brennan Marti[a]n on February 7th of this year. The website is curiously blog-like in appearance and the text formatting reminds us of Time Cube.

Top 0.000000001%

  • 99.999999999th percentile; 1/1,000,000,000; IQ 190 sd15 / 196 sd16; +6σ
    • Giga Society — Complete with a website straight out of 1990s-era GeoCities, the Giga Society claims to represent approximately 7 people in the entire world.[53][54] This raises some unfortunate questions, since the website is entirely in English, a language only about one billion people speak—thus disregarding about 6/7 of their potential audience. The site is likely a parody as it claims to have "t-mail" from future members sent back in time to the present, which at least is a hilarious read. It also acknowledges on the front page that while "[you] can not join by simply listing your real-life achievements, diplomas and the like, ...you are of course of greater value to society because of those than you would be because of a high test score."

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ The Quest for Genius at CNN, 2008-11-29
  2. ↑ The embarrassingly named Prometheus Society and the Mega Society
  3. ↑ IQ measurement at the 99.99997th percentile
  4. ↑ Entrance Criteria for High IQ Societies
  5. ↑ IQ comparison chart
  6. ↑ Brainy-child.com - Reliability of IQ Scores over Time, by By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu
  7. ↑ A Guide to Psychology and Practice
  8. ↑ AtlantIQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  9. ↑ omIQami society. Retrieved 2010-5-13.
  10. ↑ Alta Capacidad Hispana. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  11. ↑ Deepbrain Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  12. ↑ AtheistIQ. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  13. ↑ Encefálica Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  14. ↑ High Potentials Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  15. ↑ IQual Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  16. ↑ Mysterium Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  17. ↑ El Ateneo Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  18. ↑ The Mind Society. Retrieved 2010-5-01.
  19. ↑ UNIQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  20. ↑ Poetic Genius Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  21. ↑ HispanIQ International Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  22. ↑ Infinity International Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  23. ↑ ePiq Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  24. ↑ Exactiq High IQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  25. ↑ Neurocubo. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  26. ↑ Artistic Minds Society Artistic Minds Society. Retrieved 2010-4-30.
  27. ↑ Glia Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  28. ↑ International High IQ Society Milenija. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  29. ↑ IQuadrivium Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  30. ↑ LOGIQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  31. ↑ One-in-a-Thousand Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  32. ↑ ISI-Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  33. ↑ Epida. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  34. ↑ sPIqr. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  35. ↑ Coeus. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  36. ↑ Hall Of The Ancients. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  37. ↑ Vertex. Retrieved 2010-5-06.
  38. ↑ ERGO Society. Retrieved 2010-5-08.
  39. ↑ Homo Universalis Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  40. ↑ Tetra Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  41. ↑ Eximia High IQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  42. ↑ The Ultranet. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  43. ↑ GenerIQ Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  44. ↑ Incognia. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  45. ↑ Constitution of the Mega Society. Accessed 05-17-2010. If you think that's silly, you should learn what it was like before they had a constitution—they put a bunch of really smart people in the same room, and no one had any idea what to do.
  46. ↑ Omega Society. Retrieved 2010-4-15.
  47. ↑ "M. Classification", for example. Whatever the hell "M. Classification" is.
  48. ↑ Olympians. Retrieved 05-17-2010.
  49. ↑ Dr Evangelos G. Katsioulis, MD, MSc, PhD. Retrieved 05-17-2010.
  50. ↑ It has only three pages—the foyer, the "about us" page, and a page with a list on it.
  51. ↑ "... High Intelligence Society..." Also, "The word "Pars" is the name of The Anatolian Leopard panthera pardus tulliana, which is known for its Power and Rarity. Pars symbolises BrainPower[sic] and Rarity of our Members." From their description page. Retrieved 05-17-2010.
  52. ↑ Our theory? One guy with a lot of passports. Or maybe 8 people with dual citizenship.
  53. ↑ Unless "one in a billion" is a lot more than we think it is.
  54. ↑ Sadly, not one of them knows how to make a decent website.
Retrieved from "https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=High_IQ_society&oldid=588677"