Poll: How intelligent do you think you are?

[Cheery Lunatic]

Well I'm above average according to a lot of the tests I take.

But I take that with a grain of salt.

I grew up in a way nicer neighborhood and went to a way better school than a lot of kids, and those play big factors. I'm willing to bet a lot of kids who get bad grades or fail academically are probably very smart, just in a different kind of way.

 

[jyork89]

Woohoo... another self ego stoking thread... Either the escapist is only frequented by geniuses, which I would like to believe, but highly doubt, or everyone thinks themselves smarter than everyone else. Science says it's the latter and frankly, these threads are just proving the existence of superiority bias.

 

[platinawolf]

Well,,, On some fields I'm smarter, on others I'm much more stupid ^^* I have a very hard time telling a lie unless I go into science mode and start actually researching the subject. And people? Don't get ya at all ^^* Then again, I'm in the university so that has to count for something right?

 

[tavelkyosoba]

Stupid people don't feel stupid and smart people do stupid things.

There, a summary of every problem in the world.


(Edit: by that i mean, it doesn't matter how smart you THINK you are...there are many people smarter and the lot of you will do incredibly stupid things most of the time.)

 

[Yopaz]

Someone made this same exact thread a few days ago. However, since you're new and you want an answer, I think I'm somewhere above average, between 127 and 137.

Sorry about that

Depends on how you quantify intelligence. Being booksmart is a common measure, but often lacks practical application. Are you smarter because you know many things or because you can do many things?

I was mostly referring to testable booksmarts rather than common sense, but I'm assuming the average person here is higher than the average person period, so just IQ scores aren't really reliable.

Intelligence is more than book smart and you can measure more than booksmart or IQ. Let's take a mechanic. He might not know too much about biology or chemistry, but if you put a biologist and a mechanic to fix a car you can bet your ass that in most cases the mechanic will be proven superior. Social intelligence also matters.

I am smarter than average in the areas I'm smart in. I'm fairly good in language, I can discuss a wide variety of subjects, I have good understanding in market economics, chemistry, biology, sociology, psychology, technology and religion.
In high school I got all the answers correct on a math exam, including 2 questions that were so hard that they were removed from the exam all over the country.

All in all I am somewhere above the average. I'm far form a genius, but I'm smarter than the average in my areas. Where literature, art and social intelligence are clearly my weakest areas.

 

[Caffiene]

You should look up the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Basically, most people think they are a little bit above average. People who have low skill dont have the experience to recognise their lack of skill, so they think they are better than they are, while people who have high skill tend to recognise their failings better, and so assess themselves as not as good as they actually are.

So, people with low intelligence tend to think they are intelligent and people who are super intelligence tend to think they are intelligent. Everyone ends up thinking they are reasonably intelligent.


On the other hand, there is also a bit of selection bias. On a forum devoted to discussing a topic, eg gaming, by definition you will get users who are interested in discussion of gaming. People who are interested in discussion of gaming will be statistically more likely to be more informed about gaming than people who are uninterested. A member of a more highly informed minority is more likely to be "intelligent" about the subject than the general public.

 

[Vozati]

On the escapist, all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

 

[tavelkyosoba]

Someone made this same exact thread a few days ago. However, since you're new and you want an answer, I think I'm somewhere above average, between 127 and 137.

Sorry about that

Depends on how you quantify intelligence. Being booksmart is a common measure, but often lacks practical application. Are you smarter because you know many things or because you can do many things?

I was mostly referring to testable booksmarts rather than common sense, but I'm assuming the average person here is higher than the average person period, so just IQ scores aren't really reliable.

Intelligence is more than book smart and you can measure more than booksmart or IQ. Let's take a mechanic. He might not know too much about biology or chemistry, but if you put a biologist and a mechanic to fix a car you can bet your ass that in most cases the mechanic will be proven superior. Social intelligence also matters.

I am smarter than average in the areas I'm smart in. I'm fairly good in language, I can discuss a wide variety of subjects, I have good understanding in market economics, chemistry, biology, sociology, psychology, technology and religion.
In high school I got all the answers correct on a math exam, including 2 questions that were so hard that they were removed from the exam all over the country.

All in all I am somewhere above the average. I'm far form a genius, but I'm smarter than the average in my areas. Where literature, art and social intelligence are clearly my weakest areas.

it has been proven time and time again that a very "street smart" person will perform extremely high on a standard IQ test. So will an artist, or a writer, or an engineer, because the tests measure intelligence, not knowledge.

There are not different kinds of intelligence, there's just different knowledge.

Also, mechanics are dumb, that's why they're mechanics. They pretend they posses some unique and unsearchable knowledge...but they really just have more tools than you.

 

[TheVioletBandit]

I am the smartest one here by far, but seeing as how this is the internet that doesn't really mean anything.

 

[Wuggy]

I am probably the last person you want to ask about my intelligence. I mean, I'm really biased, because I'd LIKE to think I'm above average, but that may just be a skewed self-image, something we all have more or less. You can ask anyone here and pretty much no one will say that they're below average.

 

[Abedeus]

Took tests last summer, above average. I think it was 135 or 137. Or 133... one of the reasons it was low was poor memory unless I try hard to memorize shit.

 

[Steppin Razor]

I was in the advanced classes during school, so above average I suppose. My problem is that I'm far too apathetic to apply myself with most things, so whilst I may have a good base to work from, I can't use that because I just don't care to.

 

[wolf92]

I'd like to think I'm slightly above average. I read a lot, so that helps.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I think I'm slightly above average, but only because I estimate the average to be considerably low.

 

[KingofallCosmos]

Very. It's quite unbearable.

 

[Yopaz]

Someone made this same exact thread a few days ago. However, since you're new and you want an answer, I think I'm somewhere above average, between 127 and 137.

Sorry about that

Depends on how you quantify intelligence. Being booksmart is a common measure, but often lacks practical application. Are you smarter because you know many things or because you can do many things?

I was mostly referring to testable booksmarts rather than common sense, but I'm assuming the average person here is higher than the average person period, so just IQ scores aren't really reliable.

Intelligence is more than book smart and you can measure more than booksmart or IQ. Let's take a mechanic. He might not know too much about biology or chemistry, but if you put a biologist and a mechanic to fix a car you can bet your ass that in most cases the mechanic will be proven superior. Social intelligence also matters.

I am smarter than average in the areas I'm smart in. I'm fairly good in language, I can discuss a wide variety of subjects, I have good understanding in market economics, chemistry, biology, sociology, psychology, technology and religion.
In high school I got all the answers correct on a math exam, including 2 questions that were so hard that they were removed from the exam all over the country.

All in all I am somewhere above the average. I'm far form a genius, but I'm smarter than the average in my areas. Where literature, art and social intelligence are clearly my weakest areas.

it has been proven time and time again that a very "street smart" person will perform extremely high on a standard IQ test. So will an artist, or a writer, or an engineer, because the tests measure intelligence, not knowledge.

There are not different kinds of intelligence, there's just different knowledge.

Also, mechanics are dumb, that's why they're mechanics. They pretend they posses some unique and unsearchable knowledge...but they really just have more tools than you.

There are different kinds of intelligence. Logics is one. Social intelligence is one. If you buy one of those puzzles along the line of getting a ring removed from a jumble a mechanic is more likely to see how to solve it rather than a mathematician because there's mechanical IQ. Some mechanics are simply better at seeing functionality based on the structures rather than logics. However by all means go on believing you are superior to all mechanics and that all mechanics are stupid while ignoring that you do in fact lack social intelligence.

 

[SinisterGehe]

By the test I been in I am way above average, but I lack some basic social interaction skills, I have hard time remembering faces, names of people/things, spot sarcasm and jokes... And so forth, try guessing why. (And it is not because I am geek and always been. Find a medical reason) So I don't know, I have some but lack other - basic skills- so do they compensate each other? Do I drop to average or below because I am a "broken human" in a sense.

 

[Torrasque]

If standardized tests are anything to go by, I'm well above average. I believe it, too.

Samesies. I even took one of those new fangled standardized tests that is standardized for a very select demographic; my university.
In most of my classes, I groan at the overall incompetence I see =/

 

[Bob_Dobb]

Me are speshul my mommy says so. Seriously though, I'm above average. In school I could only really do well in English, Computing, Maths and Science and just passed everything else, except Art.

 

[Viirin]

When I was still in school (graduated), every year I was in the top 3% ability for both Mathematics and English throughout the USA, where I live. When I was young, I took an IQ test to see if I should skip grades or not, and my IQ was registered at 168, genius.
I took the ability tests in grade 4; my math was 15th grade level (college 3rd year) and English at 17th grade level (post-graduate college).
Every class in college I had and every other educational endeavor I was in had one thing in common. Everyone in class, including the teacher, looked at me in admiration of my intellect.

With that said, I realize that I am an idiot. I find that the dumbest people act, behave, or say they know everything. Instead, I realize that no matter how much I learn or how long I live, I'll never know more than the tiniest fraction of the information out there.

So I'd say yes I'm smarter than most people, but if I start treating other people as less than myself, then I immediately go to the bottom of the totem pole. It's... still not going to stop me from being full of myself, though. Clearly!