Modern Wisdom

#978 - Spencer Greenberg - How Much Does IQ Matter?

518 snips
Aug 9, 2025
Guest
Spencer Greenberg
Spencer Greenberg, a mathematician and social scientist, discusses the nuanced world of IQ and its implications. He delves into how IQ has historically been misused and the critical role of personality traits in success. Spencer also tackles the paradox of intelligence and happiness, revealing that a high IQ doesn't guarantee fulfillment. The conversation explores modern challenges like imposter syndrome and misconceptions about personality disorders, creating a rich dialogue on intelligence, self-perception, and societal expectations.
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Large Replication Study Of IQ Claims

  • Spencer Greenberg ran a 3,000+ participant replication of IQ claims.
  • They implemented 62 intelligence tasks and tested ~40 claims.
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People Poorly Estimate Their Own IQ

  • Self-estimated IQ correlates only ~0.23 with measured IQ.
  • Self-estimates beat guessing but remain highly unreliable.
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IQ Captures General Intelligence 'g'

  • IQ measures general intelligence ('g'), the common factor across diverse tasks.
  • Being good at one task raises likelihood of doing well at others.
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