Poll: Do you think you're more intelligent than the average person? (Be honest)

[Syzygy23]

Just a little experiment I thought up. Obviously only 50% of people can be above average in anything. My real goal here is to see just how strongly we are affected by personal bias.
So which 50% do you personally think you fall into, the upper or the lower?

Remember, knowledge =/= intelligence. Living in a developed country and getting a good education does not make you inherently smarter, just more learned.

I'd say I'm average, except there's NO OPTION FOR IT WHAT THE I DON'T EVEN... Which is why I'm voting "above average" since the only other option would be to say I'm dumber than average, and I'm not so lacking in self esteem as to choose that option.

 

[Jegsimmons]

overall intelligence? possibly.
on certain subjects? Defiantly.


this is true for most people.

 

[Kotaro]

More intelligent than average people? I don't know.
More intelligent than most people I've met? Yes.

 

[orangeban]

This question trapped me in a paradox loop,

"No, I'm not more intelligent than most people,"

"Most people don't think that, therefore I'm more intelligent than most people,"

"Most people think that, therefore I'm as or less intelligent than most people,"

"I'm not more intelligent than most people,"

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Seeing how this question has been asked here multiple times before, and seeing how my answer has always been the regrettably same "not really", I've started to think this question isn't quite as black and white as it appears to be.

I suck at Math. My average grade in high school was a C+. It's surprising for me when I get a B on any sort of test.

But I am so much more damn intelligent than the 200+ people on my Facebook friends list. I know what's going on in the world, I know how to dissect an argument and have a damn good moral standing with the world. I understand politics, I can foresee what will come of something shitty without the world barking it sown my throat (PIPA, SOPA, etc). I have a great bullshit detector, and I understand that moment when you need to just "shut the fuck up". Not many people I know out there get all that.

I'm just lazy ass shit. And that laziness has literally made me less intelligent. But maybe that's the point. Maybe there is a difference between "Intelligent" and "Smart"

 

[The_Tron]

According to my collective IQ tests I don't have to think I am. I know it. On this topic I think Joe Rogan(of all people right?) made a pretty good statement. "I mean I know I'm dumb, but at least I'm smart enough to recognize that, what about all those really dumb people out there, and you know they're out there, who think they're smart?"

 

[Agayek]

It entirely depends on how one defines "intelligence". If you mean it in the purely informational sense (ie, number of topics one knows and can apply), then I am most certainly above the human average, as I am a college graduate in a first-world country. How much so is hard to tell, as I'm not really sure what the average educational level is. Most likely a substantial amount though.

If you define it as the ability to retain information, I am most certainly below average. My memory is garbage and I have a tendency to space out and forget what I was talking about mid-word. It takes quite a bit for raw information to stick in my brain.

If you define it as pattern recognition and problem solving though, then, from what I've been told and have seen myself, I am in the top 10% or so of people worldwide. I have a very high level of innate ability to analyze problems and apply solutions to similar problems in creative ways. So long as I've seen something kind of like the present problem before, I can solve it in a matter of seconds usually.

 

[omicron1]

I once took an IQ test.

Therefore I am certain of my own above-average intelligence.

(More seriously, though, my test scores, esp. on standardized tests, tend to be in the uppermost echelons of societal achievement. While personal bias certainly plays a factor, I feel reasonably confident in asserting my relative superiority to the baseline spec of humanity's mental capacity)

 

[zhoominator]

There are so many people in Africa, South America, and other areas who have zero education, farm for a living (and while this may not be inherent of unintelligence, strongly correlates to it for lack of education) and they outnumber the educated population. I'd hope that everyone on this site for the most part is on the over.

As was stated in the OP, being educated is not the same as being intelligent. Intelligence is generally something you are born with, education is something privileged people receive. There are plenty of educated stupid people but when it comes to living in an environment where survival is far more difficult, you have to be intelligent to survive.

Intelligence is the ability to have a large capacity to learn. Intelligence is NOT booksmarts. I've met people in poorer areas of my city who are just as intelligent as I am without having any of my academic knowledge. They know which people to avoid, which people are easy targets, where to locate these people and many other skills that I haven't learned. In fact intelligence doesn't just test your ability to learn maths or literature, it also tests your ability to learn skills. I'm willing to bet that there are as many farmers who have a good knack for picking up new skills as there are schoolchildren who have a good knack for picking up knowledge in their favourite subjects.

 

[Edible Avatar]

I'm average :I
...
And i'm content with that

I don't see the point of measuring one's strengths or flaws against others, because in many cases the other person has attributes that compensate for their perceived flaws.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

While I would say that I am Ditsy am have been called mentally challenged as a kid(They ended up being wrong, just advanced form of dyslexia) I look back and find that Yeah I really was above most intellects. While I am no genius and at time refute I'm even smart I attended college at 16(dual enrollment) and did well.

But what I find where I really think that I smarter than the other people around me is my life choices. I realized things at a young age that allowed me to avoid so many bad things. I look at my sister who I will surely say was smarter and much more talented than me, but her life decisions sucked. She was dating at a young age, that through the years had really destroyed a lot of guys(and I mean hair loss at 20 destroyed). She dropped at of college countless times despite her great grades and basically free ride from my parents. She was a bad wife(though the husband wasn't much better she still cheated) and she had a child with a man she now thinks she doesn't love. I love my sister with all my heart but I will not in any way give my support to any of her decisions. She was given all the same advice and love that my parents have to me and heck she was given a good deal more life opportunities than me, but she wasted them.


I don't know where each road leads, but I make it my duty to try and take the high road every time(despite a few slip-ups) and while I kinda hate college I love the rest of my life and I regret absolutely nothing, and would take nothing back that I ever did(I did pirate a few times and took a friends toy once, I may take those back If I could).When I see all the stupid choices people make in there life's for reason no better than greed and laziness I can't help but think I gotta be smarter than them.

 

[Darkwhite]

I'd say i'm a good bit above, but this is England and the way things are going, being literate is almost enough to be ahead of a good chunk of the population.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I would say I am more well versed in topics than the average person who remains fairly clueless. Of course, I don't really care. There is nothing wrong with not knowing something, however willful ignorance can be pretty annoying. Of course, it doesn't apply in all areas. I get my ass kicked in complex math.
Anyway, polls like this are silly because it is a bit subjective.

 

[SD-Fiend]

depends on my self esteem

 

[Legiondude]

I think I'm a mix, more intelligent in some areas of my interest, and lacking in areas I'm usually disinterested in

 

[Zanderinfal]

Well, for my age I would like to think so. Being 13 1/2, the majority of people I hang around can't be stuffed to put proper grammar/punctuation in their sentences on the web.
I'm not going to vote on that, as I'm not sure. I would expect to have an alright IQ (maybe between 120-135 MAX), but yeah. I wouldn't know :/

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Why is there no option for 'average'?

 

[brainslurper]

I don't really think performance in school had anything to do with intelligence, but I have always been a couple grades above where I am in reading. Math not so much.

 

[Random Fella]

Well considering the average person is completely retarded and can't even do long devision, yes I think I am above average.
How far above average? Wouldn't know, but i'd say over 80% of people on this site are above average, since they know how to type on a keyboard.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

I think being human (as complex, overwhelming and uncertain as it is daily) requires significant intelligence,skill,dedication and creativity that most humans definitely have.

Post like this tend to focused on academic and creative intelligence (though emotional intelligence is also tested just as much as IQ).

According to most tests I've been given since childhood that range from "standardized tests" to more specific ones on IQ, comprehension, problem solving ect. I've scored "above average" mostly (specifically in writing skills).

In my old elementary school I was offered a place in the "gifted youth program" many times but I always refused because all they did was take you to a facility 25 minutes away from the main school. It was all for show to the education officials in my school district, they really didn't challenge the children or give them anything to do for those 3 hours away from the school.

I don't think this means too much beyond that writing, comprehension of complex ideas, creativity and a single-minded devotion to analyzing and solving a problem are my strengths. At the same time, my social IQ only seems sharp when I'm observing someone or a situation, but my charisma is lacking significantly because I'm more introverted.

Mathematics and the sciences tend to be where I'm on par with the 'average' person (which isn't a negative for me, I just don't use those skills in my daily life as often) but science is becoming more and more necessary for me now in college as the foundation of psychology, neurology, anthropology and even philosophy.

I think the only thing that separates me from say.. a graduate in engineering or computer science with a higher IQ is that neither of us will spend as much time on a problem from the other's field of expertise as long as we would on our chosen field of interest/fascination/obsession. It's that diligence, to look at something from multiple angles, and sheer dedication that make someone good at...anything.

This is why I take measured pride in my own unique 'intelligence', but not to the extent that I hold myself as being especially more "remarkable" than anyone else.

'Ordinary' or 'average' people are always the ones that do the most extraordinary things.


PS: Took one of those personality tests at my college, it said I was an "architect" but more introverted.