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Genuine question: would anything legally prevent an employer from giving an IQ test as part of the hiring process if they wanted to? The standard interview tech

Genuine question: would anything legally prevent an employer from giving an IQ test as part of the hiring process if they wanted to? The standard interview techniques often discussed on HN don't seem very far from that anyway.

weaksauce 16y ago
Probably not but possibly. IANAL though and I think the HN questions are more about the technology rather than characterizing the innate "intelligence" of an applicant(if it can even be actually measured). I could see there being litigation from a minority group or a different culture saying that the standard IQ test as being racially biased towards white American people; thus, the test would fall under the civil rights act of 1964. There are also cultural differences that minimize the effectiveness of an IQ test being useful across cultural boundaries. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence#Test_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence#Test_bias But really, why would you even want to use the result of a very flawed test that really does not show the true level of intelligence to hire someone? Assuming that the IQ test was perfect, intelligence is not the be all end all to performance at a company. Why not instead interview the candidates using performance tests in the specific areas that you are interested in?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tomstuart 16y ago
  Thank you for the explanation. I didn't know about the racial bias issue. I agree that it would be a stupid thing to do. I was just interested in the idea that companies might be intentionally exploiting the college degree as a sort of IQ-test-by-proxy because colleges are somehow legally permitted to test for "intelligence" (via the SAT) but companies aren't.
tokenadult 16y ago
would anything legally prevent an employer from giving an IQ test as part of the hiring process if they wanted to? Threat of litigation prevents companies from doing a lot of things that they might otherwise do. In many cases, it is the most thriving and most desirable companies to applicants that can hire lawyers enough to be advised to be cautious and not take chances with the law.
parfe 16y ago
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF93AA3575AC0A96F958260 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF... http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/weekinreview/ideas-trends-help-wanted-invoking-the-not-too-high-iq-test.html http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/weekinreview/ideas-trends-... It sure is legal, but not in the direction you'd expect.

weaksauce 16y ago

Probably not but possibly. IANAL though and I think the HN questions are more about the technology rather than characterizing the innate "intelligence" of an applicant(if it can even be actually measured). I could see there being litigation from a minority group or a different culture saying that the standard IQ test as being racially biased towards white American people; thus, the test would fall under the civil rights act of 1964. There are also cultural differences that minimize the effectiveness of an IQ test being useful across cultural boundaries. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence#Test_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence#Test_bias But really, why would you even want to use the result of a very flawed test that really does not show the true level of intelligence to hire someone? Assuming that the IQ test was perfect, intelligence is not the be all end all to performance at a company. Why not instead interview the candidates using performance tests in the specific areas that you are interested in?

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
tomstuart 16y ago
Thank you for the explanation. I didn't know about the racial bias issue. I agree that it would be a stupid thing to do. I was just interested in the idea that companies might be intentionally exploiting the college degree as a sort of IQ-test-by-proxy because colleges are somehow legally permitted to test for "intelligence" (via the SAT) but companies aren't.

tokenadult 16y ago

would anything legally prevent an employer from giving an IQ test as part of the hiring process if they wanted to? Threat of litigation prevents companies from doing a lot of things that they might otherwise do. In many cases, it is the most thriving and most desirable companies to applicants that can hire lawyers enough to be advised to be cautious and not take chances with the law.

parfe 16y ago

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF93AA3575AC0A96F958260 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF... http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/weekinreview/ideas-trends-help-wanted-invoking-the-not-too-high-iq-test.html http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/weekinreview/ideas-trends-... It sure is legal, but not in the direction you'd expect.