Borne of Eugenics : Why IQ is an Inefficient Measure of Intelligence

IQ, or intelligence quotient, has been used since the turn of the 20th century to determine a person's ability or potential. In 1916, at the behest of the French government, Alfred Binet developed a set of questions to identify children in need of supplemental help.

It was not long before the idea of IQ was co-opted by scheming eugenicists. In 1908, American psychologist Henry Goddard used the tests to produce his evidence of ‘feeblemindedness’ among the poor, validating the widespread upper-class desire to sterilize the prole.  

Previously resorting to measuring children’s craniums and comparing prostitutes’ toes as a way to categorize the poor as imbeciles and morally inept, the tests became the new measure of a person’s worth, not their intelligence, a way to quickly detect who was useless to society. 

IQ can be useful sometimes, for example when organizing students into peer groups of academic potential. Instructing young minds with similar critical thinking skills and cognitive abilities is easier. It may also aid in identifying learners with additional needs.

IQ tests face valid criticisms as to their actual scope. Rewarding skills like short-term memory, reasoning, and verbal comprehension, standardized testing raises questions of whether environment, opportunity, and affluence influence results, as well as nature versus nurture.  

Utilising the results of any IQ test, which can vary wildly over an entire life span based on a vast range of factors, to determine how ‘smart’ an adult is senseless. The IQ test merely addresses how good at taking an IQ test the participant happens to be.  

Some corporations still use IQ tests as part of candidate selection. But what intelligence can predict about job performance is unknown. Other traits such as conscientiousness, awareness, critical thinking, problem-solving and adaptability are not measured by IQ test.

While high IQ scores might imply great intelligence, it does not signal a person’s ability to use any learned information appropriately or to act when action is needed most. Emotional intelligence, the ability to manage emotions, is a more significant indicator of success.

Mensa, the international high IQ society, was incorporated in 1946 to attract the brightest minds from the 98^th percentile of testers. Instead of lively debate with fellow geniuses, forefather R Berrill was ‘unhappy that the majority of members came from working class homes'.

Using standardized IQ tests to measure a person’s so-called intellect is one thing but championing the outdated scale to discriminate based on one single aspect of brain activity is another.

No test can or should attempt to measure a person’s worth, in work or the world.