5 ms·

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

by warent 9y ago

evilduck 9y ago
That was acknowledged in the article.
- zerostar07 9y ago
  and handwaved away as if it's nothing
Knufen 9y ago
With my very limited experience with Mensa (1 month), I can anecdotally confirm that a lot of members do have a lot of problems. At least the group I spend time with there were mental disorders, workless (for decades) etc.
- nether 9y ago
  Scott Adams said he felt like "fucking Goldfinger" because he was the only employed person in his Mensa group. He was delivering pizzas at the time.
analog31 9y ago
Going further, maybe the inclination to join any social organization correlates with mental and physical disorder. Such organizations, while limiting membership based on specific acceptance criteria, may be generally welcoming to people whose traits are orthogonal to those criteria.
Alex3917 9y ago
I guess I'm the control here, because I was briefly a member of ISPE. Not because I have an IQ in the 99.9+% (as far as I know), but because they couldn't figure out how to password protect their Ning group. Based on the posts though, the members didn't seem any smarter than the average person on HN and the discussions were generally less interesting.
- dhimes 9y ago
  For those like me who use duck duck go: https://www.thethousand.com/ https://www.thethousand.com/
  - warent 9y ago
    The slideshow on that website seems to be missing one on humility
zamalek 9y ago
There is another possible causation: people with mental disorders tend to have high IQ (whatever it is that IQ actually measures). The blind typically have incredible touch for reading Braille. Some also have incredible hearing. These are not physiological benefits that they get at birth; their coping mechanisms train them.
- bjoli 9y ago
  Well, i don't know about specific disorders, but mental health declines rapidly with lower intelligence. The most mentally unhealthy people are the ones that are on the lower end, but still within what we expect to function in society. Source sadly not being verifiable since it is my psychologist wife that works with mental health in school with intelligence testing and extra resources to help those who need it.
  - norlys 9y ago
    That's an individual experience, not scientific proof. An experience limited to school kids of a certain age and location who share their problems with your wife.
    - bjoli 9y ago
      No. She cited what was taught during her studies (she got her license 3 years ago, so the studies have all been within the last 10 years). According to what she was taught, Most mental illnesses correlate positively with lower IQ (apart from neurodevelopmental disorders, which this study measured, and bipolar disease).
zerostar07 9y ago
"Because why not": > While the ideal would be to individually test all participants for IQ we found no scientific data that would give reason to discredit Mensa members in any country from being representative of those with high cognitive ability. https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0160289616303324/1-s2.0-S0160289616303324-main.pdf?_tid=3252c7f8-dd0d-11e7-a53c-00000aacb35e&acdnat=1512843629_92c55c6e6928afbad1a24586df7eda8e https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0160289616303324/1-s2.0-S01602896163... I think this entire paper is bogus, it reeks of lazyness. They did not have a control group either, they used general statistics: > Although the national surveys would likely capture a broad range of intelligence, statistically only 2% of the national data would include those with a gifted cognitive ability such those who qualify for membership in American Mensa, Ltd. Which is false, 2% of the population does not join mensa.

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

by warent 9y ago

Their entire high IQ sample comes from Mensa. So this should be restated something like "Inclination to join Mensa correlates with mental and physical disorder"

evilduck 9y ago

That was acknowledged in the article.

zerostar07 9y ago
and handwaved away as if it's nothing

Knufen 9y ago

With my very limited experience with Mensa (1 month), I can anecdotally confirm that a lot of members do have a lot of problems. At least the group I spend time with there were mental disorders, workless (for decades) etc.

nether 9y ago
Scott Adams said he felt like "fucking Goldfinger" because he was the only employed person in his Mensa group. He was delivering pizzas at the time.

analog31 9y ago

Going further, maybe the inclination to join any social organization correlates with mental and physical disorder. Such organizations, while limiting membership based on specific acceptance criteria, may be generally welcoming to people whose traits are orthogonal to those criteria.

Alex3917 9y ago

I guess I'm the control here, because I was briefly a member of ISPE. Not because I have an IQ in the 99.9+% (as far as I know), but because they couldn't figure out how to password protect their Ning group. Based on the posts though, the members didn't seem any smarter than the average person on HN and the discussions were generally less interesting.

dhimes 9y ago
For those like me who use duck duck go: https://www.thethousand.com/ https://www.thethousand.com/
- warent 9y ago
  The slideshow on that website seems to be missing one on humility

zamalek 9y ago

There is another possible causation: people with mental disorders tend to have high IQ (whatever it is that IQ actually measures). The blind typically have incredible touch for reading Braille. Some also have incredible hearing. These are not physiological benefits that they get at birth; their coping mechanisms train them.

bjoli 9y ago
Well, i don't know about specific disorders, but mental health declines rapidly with lower intelligence. The most mentally unhealthy people are the ones that are on the lower end, but still within what we expect to function in society. Source sadly not being verifiable since it is my psychologist wife that works with mental health in school with intelligence testing and extra resources to help those who need it.
- norlys 9y ago
  That's an individual experience, not scientific proof. An experience limited to school kids of a certain age and location who share their problems with your wife.
  - bjoli 9y ago
    No. She cited what was taught during her studies (she got her license 3 years ago, so the studies have all been within the last 10 years). According to what she was taught, Most mental illnesses correlate positively with lower IQ (apart from neurodevelopmental disorders, which this study measured, and bipolar disease).

zerostar07 9y ago

"Because why not": > While the ideal would be to individually test all participants for IQ we found no scientific data that would give reason to discredit Mensa members in any country from being representative of those with high cognitive ability. https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0160289616303324/1-s2.0-S0160289616303324-main.pdf?_tid=3252c7f8-dd0d-11e7-a53c-00000aacb35e&acdnat=1512843629_92c55c6e6928afbad1a24586df7eda8e https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0160289616303324/1-s2.0-S01602896163... I think this entire paper is bogus, it reeks of lazyness. They did not have a control group either, they used general statistics: > Although the national surveys would likely capture a broad range of intelligence, statistically only 2% of the national data would include those with a gifted cognitive ability such those who qualify for membership in American Mensa, Ltd. Which is false, 2% of the population does not join mensa.