• ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I can’t believe I’m saying this to defend the people who most often used it to justify their racism but the IQ test is not an objective measure of intelligence and was designed by eugenicists.

    • snek_boi@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      Totally. The history of intelligence has sadly also been the story of eugenics. Fortunately, there have been process-based theories and contextual theories that have defined intelligence in more humane and useful ways. In this view, IQ tests do not measure an underlying characteristic, but a set of mental skills. Seen this way, intelligence becomes something people can gain with nurturance. If you’re interested, check out Relational Frame Theory.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’ve said this so many times. There’s not even only one kind of intelligence. I once made a music video for what would be the best country fiddle player you ever heard. He literally couldn’t write his own name when he signed the contract.

      We can’t even come up with a test that transcends all cultural biases. If we could come up with an objective test, the smartest person in the world could turn out to be an indigenous Brazilian living a stone-age life in the middle of the Amazon.

      And if the smartest person in the world was from Slovenia, they probably wouldn’t be able to do anywhere near as well in the Amazon as some of the stupidest members of communities who live there.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Also, the difference between the countries with the highest average IQ and the US was 10 points, which is the same kind of increase you can get in IQ testing scores if you tell the tester that they’ll get $10 if they do well.

    • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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      1 month ago

      I don’t think it was destined by eugenicists. I think it was used by eugenicists and the original creator warned against it being used that way. Basically like Darwinism.