re: #83 Hecuba’s daughter

James Woods — continuing to be the perfect example of how high IQ has nothing to do with intelligence or decency or ethics or real education. Maybe he is just a racist?

It does have to do with intelligence, but nothing to do with decency, ethics, or education (he dropped out of college to pursue acting).

The overwhelming majority of members of high-IQ societies do not go around telling you what they scored, even to others in the same society. To those outside such a society they may say they’re a member or talk about the things they do, but not about their specific score on a test.

Most standard IQ tests top out around 160-165, so Mr. Woods’s claim of 180 is questionable. The only source for Mr. Woods’s claim is Mr. Woods. It has been repeated by the media (especially media which covers celebrities), but he has provided no evidence of it (for example, the results of a proctored IQ test).

Lots of people claim to have high IQs, but “I think I have a high IQ” is not the same as having a proctored test by a professional trained in that area (a psychologist).

It’s not always the celebrity who makes the claim though: Sometimes the celebrity media makes the claim up out of whole cloth.

For example, there was a stir when Huffington Post made the claim Shakira is a “genius” because she has a 140 IQ as published by Mensa UK.

Mensa UK has no such published figures; Mensa does not publish them.

Mensa International refutes recent press stories (Goes to Mensa International, debunking the so-called celebrity list which included James Woods)

American Mensa, Ltd. used to give the score to members when they took a Mensa-proctored test, but the American Psychological Association stopped Mensa from doing that, only permitting “accepted” and “not accepted” now. Mensa requires a four-year degree to proctor a test, but not a degree in psychology.

After the HP post was debunked, they updated their article to claim Mensa “denies” they released Shakira’s scores. No other outlet ever updated or corrected their articles about her, James Woods, Madonna, &c.

Interestingly, the source is here:

Tarantino, Madonna y Shakira, entre las personalidades con alto IQ: Mensa International (goes to Sinembargo in Spanish, a Mexican news outlet, citing its own owner Notimex but no other source).