The World's Smartest Person is Female or Male?

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The discussion centers on the claim that the person with the highest IQ, Marilyn vos Savant, is female, challenging the stereotype that men have higher IQs on average. Participants debate the validity of IQ tests, suggesting they may not accurately reflect true intelligence or problem-solving abilities. Critics argue that high IQ does not equate to practical intelligence or creativity, citing examples of intelligent individuals who fail in common sense situations. There is skepticism regarding the societal contributions of high-IQ individuals, with some viewing Savant as an opportunist rather than a true genius. The conversation also touches on the complexities of defining intelligence and the limitations of IQ tests, which were originally designed for specific educational assessments rather than ranking individuals. Overall, the thread highlights the nuanced relationship between IQ, gender, and the broader understanding of intelligence.
whatissagar
the person with highest IQ is female.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant

so, the smartest person on Earth is woman?

I thought men have higher IQ than women on average.
 
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I presume you're just being funny.
 
Hence the world's stupidest person must be male
 
:smile: Good one!
 
Shows how accurate IQ tests are, I guess. Her criticisms of Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem are quite funny.
 
phreak said:
Shows how accurate IQ tests are, I guess. Her criticisms of Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem are quite funny.

So that makes her a comic genuis too.
 
So, someone with a smaller IQ must have made the test and confirmed she is the smartest person on earth?
 
I think my troll detector is beeping.
 
Just another example of how asinine and inane the IQ test is. If these people are so smart, then why can't they solve any of the world's problems?
 
  • #10
IQ tests as opposed to intelligence tests tend to average out between the sexes. That said men tend to appear at the end of the scale more often and at the other end too, where as females tend to have a slightly more middlish deviation. But this is most likely to do with men being in general a little better at maths, the English parts of the test really don't test your language skills all that much in any more than a rough sense, language of course is as much about intuition and empathy, something women seem to excel at.

Topher925 said:
Just another example of how asinine and inane the IQ test is. If these people are so smart, then why can't they solve any of the world's problems?

Because IQ smart does not equal creative smarts.
 
  • #11
Topher925 said:
Just another example of how asinine and inane the IQ test is. If these people are so smart, then why can't they solve any of the world's problems?
Because as soon as they are solved, they cease to be problems. Thus what you are looking for is logically impossible.

People have, of course, solved many of the worlds' former problems, though. :wink:
 
  • #12
Anyone with the apparent interest to promote herself as the smartest person looks to me to be more an opportunist than necessarily smart.

With all her brain power is her biggest insight to life figuring out how to make money by claiming to be the smartest person?
 
  • #13
Topher925 said:
Just another example of how asinine and inane the IQ test is. If these people are so smart, then why can't they solve any of the world's problems?

LowlyPion said:
Anyone with the apparent interest to promote herself as the smartest person looks to me to be more an opportunist than necessarily smart.

With all her brain power is her biggest insight to life figuring out how to make money by claiming to be the smartest person?

Having a sense duty to the world is part of having a high IQ?

Making a very good living without really working might be selfish, but it doesn't seem like a very conclusive argument against having a high IQ. In fact, it really doesn't say anything about her IQ one way or the other.

This web page, http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn.html has always been one of my favorites. Note that being wrong isn't a reflection on her intelligence, either, since the content of the answers are provided by her staff. She merely rewords them to make them more entertaining.
 
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  • #14
Note that testing high on an IQ test does not mean that you are smart. I have worked with some very intelligent people who lacked the common sense to avoid really obvious errors, including an engineer who failed to follow protocol in opening a valve feeding a critical additive to the paper machine, and caused at least 1/4 Million dollars in damage and the loss of an entire day's production, plus overtime to double-staff the machine crew and overtime for the maintenance staff to help clean up the mess.
 
  • #15
BobG said:
Having a sense duty to the world is part of having a high IQ?

Making a very good living without really working might be selfish, but it doesn't seem like a very conclusive argument against having a high IQ. In fact, it really doesn't say anything about her IQ one way or the other.

This web page, http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn.html has always been one of my favorites. Note that being wrong isn't a reflection on her intelligence, either, since the content of the answers are provided by her staff. She merely rewords them to make them more entertaining.

She's a performer in the same way a magician is, and I for one don't begrudge her her talents or her ability to make problems seem easier than they might. I do think she really should be doing more than just entertaining the public though. If you're that smart then really you don't need to say it, genius is a title that can only be conveyed on you by others and for what you achieve with it not what you have inborn/acquired.
 
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  • #16
The Dagda said:
I do think she really should be doing more than just entertaining the public though.

She does do more than that.

Vos Savant lives in New York City with her husband Robert Jarvik, the inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, whom she married in August 1987. They have two children. She is Chief Financial Officer of Jarvik Heart, Inc., and is involved in cardiovascular disease research and prevention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant
 
  • #17
Math Is Hard said:
She does do more than that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant

I read that, but what has she actually revolutionised? I mean even "thickos" like Edison revolutionised the world by dint of their efforts, she has a greater expectation than the average moron before anyone should bestow the word genius on her. Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. I don't demean her cranial prowess, it's just we expect more than just a score on a table at point x from the best and brightest.

Think of it this way, if you start at a 1000 points in the game, and you achieve a score of 1456, then the person who started at 200 and got 2000 just owned you.

Stephen Hawking is a good example of someone who started with a good score, and then went on to make an impressive one, as is Einstein or Marie Curie.
 
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  • #18
turbo-1 said:
Note that testing high on an IQ test does not mean that you are smart. I have worked with some very intelligent people who lacked the common sense to avoid really obvious errors, including an engineer who failed to follow protocol in opening a valve feeding a critical additive to the paper machine, and caused at least 1/4 Million dollars in damage and the loss of an entire day's production, plus overtime to double-staff the machine crew and overtime for the maintenance staff to help clean up the mess.

What was his IQ?

Was he good looking?

Not an unreasonable criteria for determining the likelihood of high IQ, by the way. People with high intelligence are more likely to attain success and status and to marry good looking spouses. Both intelligence and good looks can be inherited. Therefore, there should be some increased likelihood that an attractive person is also above average in intelligence.

Well, at least in theory :smile:

I wonder if it's true: Facial Cues to Intelligence and Their Origins
 
  • #19
BobG said:
What was his IQ?

Was he good looking?
He was a geek (Evo would have liked him) with horn-rimmed glasses, pocket protector, and a Mensa sticker on his car. Don't know his IQ, but his common-sense quotient was in the lower range for sure. As an old farmer neighbor of mine used to say, "intelligent, but not too bright".
 
  • #20
Is there no third choice?
 
  • #21
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  • #22
turbo-1 said:
As an old farmer neighbor of mine used to say, "intelligent, but not too bright".

IQ tests have ...changed... over time. Why I can remember when this guy would prolly flunk the Hunt-in-a-pack IQ test.
 
  • #23
Being intelligence and being smart can be two different things. Turbo's example is good one. I know a few genius's who are not very successful. Being particularly intelligent can help you be successful in life but is not necessarily a requirement. There are plenty of successful idiots out there.
 
  • #24
The Dagda said:
I read that, but what has she actually revolutionised? I mean even "thickos" like Edison revolutionised the world by dint of their efforts, she has a greater expectation than the average moron before anyone should bestow the word genius on her. Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. I don't demean her cranial prowess, it's just we expect more than just a score on a table at point x from the best and brightest.
Does she call herself a "genius", though? I haven't seen her do that.
Think of it this way, if you start at a 1000 points in the game, and you achieve a score of 1456, then the person who started at 200 and got 2000 just owned you.

Stephen Hawking is a good example of someone who started with a good score, and then went on to make an impressive one, as is Einstein or Marie Curie.

Life isn't a points game, and we don't go around assigning points to problems. That would all be very meaningless anyway because things will vary in importance to different people. In the society I live in, people generally gravitate toward work that they have an aptitude for and more importantly, work that they find fulfilling.
 
  • #25
Am I totally missing something or is it an astonishing coincidence that her last name is "Savant"?
 
  • #26
Math Is Hard said:
Does she call herself a "genius", though? I haven't seen her do that.


Life isn't a points game, and we don't go around assigning points to problems. That would all be very meaningless anyway because things will vary in importance to different people. In the society I live in, people generally gravitate toward work that they have an aptitude for and more importantly, work that they find fulfilling.

what are you talking about? she is the genius because her IQ is the highest. Einstein, Bill Gates, etc. comes 2nd though.
 
  • #27
whatissagar said:
what are you talking about?

I said, "does she call herself a genius"?

I'm asking if she defines herself that way. I don't see an IQ score as "all there is" to being a "genius". IMHO, "genius" is a better label for a individual's works rather than an individual.

she is the genius because her IQ is the highest. Einstein, Bill Gates, etc. comes 2nd though.

One opinion. There are others... Galileo, Descartes, Da Vinci, etc...
 
  • #28
whatissagar said:
the person with highest IQ is female.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_vos_Savant

so, the smartest person on Earth is woman?

I thought men have higher IQ than women on average.

iq tests are not particularly reliable. besides, not every person in the world has taken an iq test so even by that measure she may not be the most intelligent in the world.
as for the average female iq being lower than the average male iq; even if this is true it does not mean that there are not incredibly intelligent women or incredibly stupid men out there. its only an average.
theoretically the most intelligent person in the world could be a 13 year old black kid slinging dope on a street corner in the ghetto, though it would defy statistics.

as for marilyn doing something for society you could easily say she is making herself a role model for young women. "the best.." or "the most.." on record in the majority of catagories tends to go to men.
 
  • #29
There is such a plethora of IQ tests on the web, and such an obsession with it on this forum, that people tend to forget why IQ tests were developed and why they are used. IQ tests are very helpful in assessing children with developmental delays and and determining what educational resources will be the most beneficial for them. They can also be helpful in evaluating cognitive losses in patients that have had brain damage. They also have been found to give indicators to a decline in general health (see "terminal drop" phenomenon).

They are not that helpful for people with normal and above average intelligence. They were never designed for people with normal and above average intelligence to "rank themselves", or one-up each other, or choose their goals in life based on their score. Aside from that, there is plenty of debate on what "intelligence" is and how it should be measured.
 
  • #30
Math Is Hard said:
I said, "does she call herself a genius"?

I'm asking if she defines herself that way.

From her web site:
Marilyn was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for five years under "Highest IQ" for both childhood and adult scores. She has since been inducted into the *Guinness Hall of Fame*. Marilyn was named by Toastmasters International as the #1 most popular communicator/speaker in the educational and social category.
http://www.marilynvossavant.com/bio.html

Does she say she's a genius? No she doesn't use that word. She embraces what looks to me to be the more narcissistic name of Savant as her own.

Is she guilty of blowing her own horn?

She's her own symphony orchestra.
 
  • #31
LowlyPion said:
From her web site:
http://www.marilynvossavant.com/bio.html

Does she say she's a genius? No she doesn't use that word. She embraces what looks to me to be the more narcissistic name of Savant as her own.

Or maybe she just explains the origin of her name because it is a FAQ.
Is she guilty of blowing her own horn?

She's her own symphony orchestra.

Of course! It's the bio section of her website. Everyone does that. Toot, toot, baby! :biggrin:
 
  • #32
Don't worry. The world's smartest person( me! ) is telling you he is male. Debate resolved.
 
  • #33
And now the thread slides into silliness.

As far as the OP's question, there is a pretty good summary of sex and intelligence studies here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_intelligence

Honestly, I think we have enough IQ threads on PF for the moment.
 

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