Summary: What’s the Point of I.Q. Testing?

Today’s summary features a podcast from Freakonomics Radio’s No Stupid Questions series.

The IQ test was introduced by psychologist Alfred Binet for the French Ministry of Education to identify schoolkids that needed extra help. It measured your mental age versus your actual age. It has now evolved to a measure of relative intellectual ability. Presently, schools use it to select children as young as 4 for “gifted” classes.

Both hosts, Angela Duckworth and Mike Maughan, are against the idea of IQ testing and standardised testing in general.

1. IQ tests are not independent of socioeconomic factors. Performance on a IQ test is influenced by how much learning takes place outside of school. Tests are usually also in English, disadvantaging children of immigrants. The Raven IQ test attempts to be “cultural-free” by having questions on shapes instead of using words. However, Maughan cites first-hand experience of her daughters receiving kindergarten homework in the style of Raven IQ test questions, no doubt giving her daughter an unfair advantage. Furthermore, IQ tests for placement into gifted classes are also selectively recommended by teachers (or in certain places when a parent demands their child to be tested), which is again not free from bias as disadvantaged and minority students are less likely to be referred.
2. Standardised test scores are not static. The simplest way to improve your score is to take it again. Furthermore, the scores create labels. People often think a score reflects their innate ability, preventing a growth mindset. Education and language exposure can increase IQ scores as well.
3. Those labelled as “gifted” simply go on to do better. When teachers are told certain (random) individuals will go on to achieve good grades, the researcher noted that these students actually go on to achieve better grades. This is called the Pygmalion effect.
4. Standardised test scores often test the irrelevant. In an effort to create “independent” tests, novel questions we do not usually encounter in life are set. However, these often bear no relevance to actual ability (such as the Raven test). The NFL also until 2022 used the Wonderlic IQ test, despite evidence it has zero correlation with field performance.
5. Interest matters more than ability in achieving success. Neuroscience studies showed that interest in a topic actually makes us smarter, and boredom dumber.

Original podcast: What’s the Point of I.Q. Testing? also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.