this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'm not saying intelligence is a normal distribution. I'm saying that IQ scores are a normal distribution.

The metric, IQ is a normal distribution because that's how the metric is defined.

I'd like to hear your explanation how an IQ of above 200 is possible and what that would actually mean.

Its only possible if there are about 10x more humans. With a population of around 80 billion, the smartest one person would have a z score of roughly 6.6 and an IQ of roughly 200. This is calculated from a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, which is how it's defined.

Here's a reference from Wikipedia for you, which, itself, references many scientific journals:

" IQ scales are ordinally scaled.[81][82][83][84][85] The raw score of the norming sample is usually (rank order) transformed to a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15.[3] While one standard deviation is 15 points, and two SDs are 30 points, and so on, this does not imply that mental ability is linearly related to IQ, such that IQ 50 would mean half the cognitive ability of IQ 100. In particular, IQ points are not percentage points "

So, as I've been saying, you just put everyone's test scores in order from worst to best, calculate the z score of the person you're interested in, multiply by the SD (15) and add the mean.

It is also the case that for populations over 80 billion, you can have negative IQ scores, using the same logic that was used for a person with an IQ of >=200.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd like to hear your explanation how an IQ of above 200 is possible and what that would actually mean.

It means that the mean and standard distribution have been calibrated to a population, but that the population kurtosis is significantly non-normal

Its only possible if there are about 10x more humans.

Incorrect. It's also possible if human intelligence isn't normally distributed.

With a population of around 80 billion, the smartest one person would have a z score of roughly 6.6 and an IQ of roughly 200. This is calculated from a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, which is how it's defined.

Only if intelligence of the human population is normally distributed.

So, as I've been saying, you just put everyone's test scores in order from worst to best,

No you don't. You have invented this unnecessary step.

calculate the z score of the person you're interested in, multiply by the SD (15) and add the mean.

No, because the "person" and the z score have no link.

It is also the case that for populations over 80 billion, you can have negative IQ scores, using the same logic that was used for a person with an IQ of >=200.

If a rock has zero intelligence, how can something score lower? Negative intelligence is impossible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Look, I'm saying the same thing that I also found on Wikipedia. You just put the scores in order and then you fit them to a normal curve. This is what it means to scale them ordinally and then fit this to a normal distribution.

Its clear that we aren't going to agree on any of this, so I'm going to stop replying.

Additonally, you seem to incorrectly think that an IQ of 0 would mean zero intelligence when I have explained exactly what an IQ of zero would mean.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

It's pretty obvious that a rock can't have an IQ of anything but zero.