In recent years, intelligence quotient tests, commonly known as IQ tests, have been regarded as a way to quantify an individual’s intellectual capacity.
Generally, there are many opinions suggesting that the higher a person’s IQ, the smarter they are. Naturally, this has sparked debates about who holds the highest IQ in the world — and whether that individual should be considered the smartest person alive.
The name of the famous physicist Top 10 Highest IQs in the World often comes up in such conversations. He has an estimated IQ of 160, but that is not the highest IQ ever recorded.
Born on March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is regarded as one of the greatest minds of all time.
Of course, IQ tests have their limitations and many people have questioned whether they should be used to determine a person’s intelligence. Additionally, there is a dark history behind some IQ tests, as they have been used in the past to discriminate against individuals from certain racial and ethnic groups.
Furthermore, both the reliability and validity of IQ tests are often questioned. Some experts suggest that they may not be indicators of intelligence but rather reflections of motivation, quality of education, health status, and other factors affecting a person’s performance.
Born on August 11, 1946, Marilyn vos Savant is an American magazine columnist who was honored in the Guinness Book of Records in 1986 for having the highest IQ ever recorded: 228. Her intelligence was assessed through two tests, the Stanford-Binet test and the Stanford-Binet test.
The Birth of the First IQ Test
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the scientific community was deeply interested in the study of intelligence. Early works on this subject were published by Sir Francis Galton, the founder of differential psychology, who believed that intelligence was hereditary and could be measured by observing how a person performed interactive tasks.
According to Verywell Mind, these tasks involve the human brain receiving a message and then generating a response (such as slowing down when you see someone ahead of you slowing down).
Around the turn of the century, a French psychologist named Alfred Binet became intrigued by Galton’s research. He also began studying the development of tests to measure intelligence, which came into widespread use in 1904 when the French government sought to identify children who would struggle in school.
Alfred Binet, the French psychologist who developed the first IQ test known as the Binet-Simon scale.
Binet and his colleague Theodore Simon then created a test that included a series of questions focused on skills such as attention and problem-solving — not necessarily skills taught in the classroom, but skills that could affect a child’s learning capabilities. This test of 30 questions was called the Binet-Simon scale, the first officially recognized IQ test.
The Evolution of Intelligence Testing
Over time, the Binet-Simon scale was improved — initially by psychologist Lewis Terman of Stanford University, who standardized the test and used two scales in his revision instead of one, to provide more accurate results. He also translated the test into English in 1916.
A year later, psychologist Robert Yerkes developed two IQ tests for the United States military — the Alpha and Beta tests. The Alpha test was a written exam, while the Beta test included pictures for recruits who were illiterate or not proficient in English. Both tests were designed to help the military determine which recruits would fit specific roles.
Accordingly, such IQ tests were also used to screen immigrants entering the United States during this time, which inadvertently led government officials to impose discriminatory restrictions on groups deemed to have “low IQs”.
Psychologist David Wechsler, who published a new intelligence test in 1955 called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
Then in 1955, American psychologist David Wechsler created a new intelligence test called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). Wechsler strongly believed that intelligence should be measured by comparing scores of test-takers within the same age group.
Several modifications were made to Wechsler’s system, ultimately evolving into WAIS-IV, the modern standard for intelligence testing. Using this standard, the average score is fixed at 100, with two-thirds of test-takers scoring somewhere within the normal range of 85 to 115.
Theoretically, the higher a person’s score, the smarter they are.
Who Has the Highest IQ in the World?
Even with the standardization of IQ tests and numerous revisions over time, determining the highest IQ ever remains a complex task. Certainly, there are individuals with very high scores, but surprisingly, some of the smartest people in the world have much lower IQ scores than one might expect.
For example, Albert Einstein is widely regarded as one of the greatest minds in history; however, his IQ is estimated to be around 160 — still significantly above average, but not among the highest IQs ever recorded. Similarly, Stephen Hawking’s IQ is estimated to be in the same range.
Albert Einstein’s IQ was never officially tested, but some sources estimate it to be around 160.
However, from a purely statistical standpoint, the estimated scores of Einstein and Hawking seem relatively low compared to those of William James Sidis and Marilyn vos Savant. Sidis was a child prodigy with an estimated IQ ranging from 250 to 300; Savant’s IQ has been recorded at 228.
But IQ tests are not a perfect measure of intelligence. Critics often refer to these tests as “fundamentally flawed,” and many discussions also raise questions about what it truly means to be one of the smartest people in the world.
Considered by some to be the smartest man to ever live, William James Sidis was a child prodigy born on April 1, 1898, in New York City. By the age of 18 months, he could read The New York Times. By six, he could speak several languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, and Turkish. Perhaps most astonishingly, his IQ is estimated to be between 250 and 300.
The “Fundamentally Flawed” Nature of IQ Tests
As a report from The Independent explains, a 2012 study found that IQ tests do not accurately reflect the complex nature of human intelligence.
Roger Highfield, the director of external affairs at the Science Museum in London, stated: “The results completely dismiss the notion that a single measure of intelligence, such as IQ, is sufficient to capture all the cognitive differences we see among individuals.”
Researchers analyzed a sample of 46,000 individuals from around the world who completed an online survey where they were asked to complete 12 mental tests to measure various aspects of their cognitive abilities.
Ultimately, they determined that there is no single measure of intelligence that can represent the variations observed among three distinct components of cognitive ability: short-term memory, judgment, and problem-solving.
Does this mean that IQ tests are completely useless? Not necessarily. However, they should not be used alone to determine who is intelligent or who is the smartest in the world.
