Well, like the joke goes, 50% of the population is dumber than the average. While humans can be really clever, we can also be absolutely fantastically dim.
(Disclaimer before anyone chimes in and says that’s not how averages work: intelligence as a trait – and I don’t mean IQ but intelligence in general, however you define it – is more than likely normally distributed, which means the average is also the median.)
Wasn’t intending on discussing this kind of thing, but I’m not sure this:
intelligence as a trait – and I don’t mean IQ but intelligence in general, however you define it – is more than likely normally distributed
Is true.
IQ is normally distributed, but I’m not sure what evidence there is that intelligence in general is. I’m not even sure how one would go about proving that.
Well you probably wouldn’t be able to directly prove it since defining a metric for it is nontrivial (and IQ’s got its own well known problems as a proxy for intelligence), but a huge chunk of psychological and cognitive traits, and not to mention other biological traits like height or whatever, are normally distributed, so I’d be really surprised if intelligence wasn’t. I’m not out to prove it since I’m not writing an article for a journal, but I do think it’s incredibly likely for the distribution to be normal.
And, I mean, what are the options? A skewed distribution? I sure hope it’s skewed so that there’s more intelligent people. Or a multimodal distribution? How would that even happen? Etc. etc.
I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m just continuously shocked by how stupid people can be.
Well, like the joke goes, 50% of the population is dumber than the average. While humans can be really clever, we can also be absolutely fantastically dim.
(Disclaimer before anyone chimes in and says that’s not how averages work: intelligence as a trait – and I don’t mean IQ but intelligence in general, however you define it – is more than likely normally distributed, which means the average is also the median.)
Wasn’t intending on discussing this kind of thing, but I’m not sure this:
Is true.
IQ is normally distributed, but I’m not sure what evidence there is that intelligence in general is. I’m not even sure how one would go about proving that.
Well you probably wouldn’t be able to directly prove it since defining a metric for it is nontrivial (and IQ’s got its own well known problems as a proxy for intelligence), but a huge chunk of psychological and cognitive traits, and not to mention other biological traits like height or whatever, are normally distributed, so I’d be really surprised if intelligence wasn’t. I’m not out to prove it since I’m not writing an article for a journal, but I do think it’s incredibly likely for the distribution to be normal.
And, I mean, what are the options? A skewed distribution? I sure hope it’s skewed so that there’s more intelligent people. Or a multimodal distribution? How would that even happen? Etc. etc.