Presidents Ranked by IQ: The Real Study and the Hoax
The ranking everyone shares came from a 2001 chain email. The real study covered 42 presidents, and only eight numbers are truly theirs.
The ranking everyone shares came from a 2001 chain email. The real study covered 42 presidents, and only eight numbers are truly theirs.
No test date, no examiner, no score sheet. Yet 135, 145, 165 and 190 all circulate as fact. Here is where each one started.
Neither man ever took an IQ test. One left a SAT score and a published proof; the other left nothing but retrospective guesses.
The famous 160 is his 1590 SAT converted with one statistical step missing. Put it back and the estimate drops to around 145.
Standardised tests stop working above 160, so most famous figures are guesses. Here is which ones have a real source behind them.