IQ predicts aptitude, not social ability
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 11:28AM By Amanda Phipps
In light of recent events at the University of Alabama, some people may be wondering if there is a connection between social ability and high IQ.
Biology professor at the University of Alabama Amy Bishop, who says she has an IQ of 180, was charged with capital murder in the shootings at the university that resulted in three deaths and at least three people injured.
Bishop is also remembered for instances such as an attempt at mailing a bomb to a Harvard professor and hitting a woman at IHOP after the woman took the last booster seat, according to a New York Times article.
These events pose the question of whether a high IQ can have effects on a person’s social ability.
IQ measures intelligence and predicts academic ability, not social ability. Therefore, IQ tests are less reliable at predicting other behavior or success, psychology professor Joseph Prus said.
IQ is also the oldest understanding of intelligence, verbal and analytical ability, psychology professor Jeffrey Sinn said.
Prus also said no research clearly connects high IQs with the ability to have or not have interpersonal relations.
As in the case of Bishop, Prus said society may be surprised that a biology professor at a university could do something like commit murder.
“Society holds teachers to a higher standard,” he said. “We are surprised when someone with a noted academic career, and supposedly a high IQ, engages in such terrible behavior.”
Sinn agrees and said he thinks this incident stands out because of society’s stereotype on professors.
“Typically professors may be more introverted and less publicity-seeking,” he said. “This stereotype does not fit with shooting people at random.”
Though a correlation between IQ and social ability may not exist, Sinn said that if such a connection existed, he thinks people with higher IQ would tend to be better socially adjusted and happier.
Genetic makeup also has some effect on peoples’ IQ levels, Sinn said. He said estimates may very but 25-50 percent appears to be genetically determined. This means that the environment and upbringing partly determines IQ while a good chunk depends upon genes.
For someone to be very intelligent, Sinn said, they have to have the right upbringing and genes.
“There are lots of ways people can be dumb,” he said, “but not a lot of ways to be brilliant.”
The shootings show there is a high amount of mental illness in the world, Sinn said.
In the case of Amy Bishop, she may have had mental problems that could have contributed to her actions, Prus said. This is not something specific to people with higher IQs.
“None of us are immune to mental illness,” he said. “But it’s surprising to us because she is a teacher.”
Prus stressed that anyone can have mental illnesses.
“We have to remind ourselves that we may have friends or colleagues that may have a serious mental health problem,” he said. “If we see signs of that, we need to encourage them to get help.”
