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[IQ 70 vs IQ 160] How Brilliant Minds See a Different World — Transcript

by Psych Atlas · 2,644 words · 392 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00IQ 70, 130, 160. When these numbers
0:04change, how different does the world
0:06look to the person living behind them?
0:09Today, we're going to take a look. Let's
0:11try an experiment. Imagine a round cake
0:14sitting in front of you and divide it
0:16into three equal parts. Try drawing it
0:18on a piece of paper. Most people draw
0:21three lines from the center, spreading
0:23out evenly like the spokes of a wheel.
0:25But some people, given that same simple
0:27instruction, draw two straight lines
0:30down the middle instead. The cake ends
0:32up in three vertical slices, two thin
0:35ones on the sides and one thick one in
0:37the center. These people are completely
0:39serious. They aren't joking and they
0:41aren't being lazy. To them, the idea of
0:44three equal parts simply doesn't look
0:46the way it looks to you.
0:48That's what IQ really is. Not a score on
0:51a test, but the way the world appears to
0:54the person looking at it. And there's
0:55one more thing I'll tell you at the end.
0:57There's something that even people with
0:59an IQ of 160 can't see. I'll save what
1:02that is for the very end.
1:05Now, let's look at the truth behind
1:07these numbers. The average IQ is 100 and
1:10most of us are gathered around it, like
1:12people standing on the slopes of one big
1:14hill. About one person in 50 falls at 70
1:17or below. About one in 50 sits at 130 or
1:21above. And 160 is rarer still, roughly
1:25one person in 30,000. But the number
1:27that matters most today is a different
1:29one. This is Psych Atlas, where we map
1:32the psychology behind how people think,
1:35decide, and perform. Together, we'll
1:38climb four steps from 70 to 160.
1:42On each one, you'll see what the world
1:44looks like from there. And by the end,
1:46you'll know how to reach someone
1:48standing on a step that isn't yours.
1:50Here's that number. The range between 70
1:53and 85 is called borderline intellectual
1:55functioning.
1:56It doesn't meet the bar for an
1:58intellectual disability, but it sits
2:00well below average, and about 14% of
2:02people live there.
2:04That's roughly one person in seven. On a
2:06team of 25, that's three or four of your
2:09co-workers.
2:10So, the gap between these worlds isn't
2:12somebody else's story.
2:14It's happening in your office, in your
2:16kids' classroom, maybe at your own
2:18dinner table.
2:19Before we climb, one thing should be
2:21clear. IQ measures one part of what a
2:24mind can do. It doesn't measure
2:26character, it doesn't measure kindness,
2:28and it doesn't measure what a person is
2:30worth. The picture we'll use is a
2:32staircase. At the bottom is everything
2:34right in front of you, things you can
2:36see and touch. Each step up takes you
2:38toward things that aren't there at all.
2:40Tomorrow, a percentage, an idea. A
2:43difference in IQ is, roughly, a
2:45difference in how high you can climb.
2:47That sounds small, but it changes the
2:49entire view. IQ 70. We start on the
2:53bottom step. For people here, whatever
2:55is right in front of them is perfectly
2:57clear. Today's weather, the look on
2:59someone's face, the cash in their hand.
3:02But the moment something isn't in front
3:03of them, its outline starts to fade.
3:06Tell them it might rain tomorrow, and
3:09tomorrow doesn't quite exist yet. A
3:11ratio of three to two isn't something
3:13you can hold. A contract that renews
3:15automatically in 2 years is a contract
3:18with an invisible ending, because 2
3:20years from now can't be seen from here.
3:23And that's how the trouble starts.
3:25Official forms become a wall of words. A
3:27sign that says 30% off doesn't tell them
3:30what they'll actually pay. Assembly
3:32instructions don't turn into a finished
3:34shelf, and they get scammed more easily
3:37because this deal is only for you, only
3:39today, is standing right in front of
3:41them, while this will hurt you later
3:44isn't.
3:45The psychologist Linda Gottfredson spent
3:47years studying how intelligence shows up
3:49in everyday life.
3:51People in this range, she found,
3:53struggle again and again with ordinary
3:55reading, labels, forms, manuals, fine
3:58print. Here's an American detail. By
4:01law, the United States military doesn't
4:03accept recruits who score in the bottom
4:0510% on its entrance test, roughly an IQ
4:08of 80 or below. Not because of
4:10character, but because on average, the
4:12training doesn't stick. But the hardest
4:14part of living on this step is that
4:16nobody can see it from the outside.
4:18These people look ordinary. They talk
4:20the way everyone else talks, so the
4:22people around them decide the problem is
4:24effort. "How many times do I have to
4:26tell you?" And the person on the
4:28receiving end is quietly asking a
4:30different question. "Why can't I do what
4:32everybody else seems to do so easily?"
4:35The cake from the beginning comes from a
4:36child psychiatrist in Japan named Koji
4:39Miyaguchi. He worked with teenagers in a
4:42juvenile detention center, and he found
4:44that many of them were living on exactly
4:46this step. The cake drawing was
4:48something he saw there, again and again.
4:50When these kids were told to reflect on
4:52what they'd done, reflection itself was
4:55invisible to them. Asked why they did
4:57it, they didn't have the steps to build
4:59a why, and then they were blamed again
5:02for failing to reflect. People on this
5:04step aren't troublemakers. They're
5:06people in trouble. And because
5:08borderline intellectual functioning
5:09doesn't count as a disability, they tend
5:12to fall right through the gap between
5:13the support systems. One person in seven
5:17standing in the place where help is
5:18least likely to reach. Now let's climb a
5:21few steps to IQ 100. This is where the
5:24crowd is thickest. From here, the world
5:27looks like this. You can remember a
5:29procedure and carry it out. You can
5:31handle if this, then that. You can read
5:34the paperwork, and you can work out a
5:36percentage. But going back and asking
5:38why something happens at all is tiring.
5:41When a conversation turns abstract, you
5:44start to feel the pull back toward the
5:45steps. Fine, but what do I actually do?
5:49The most important thing about this step
5:51is that the whole society is built for
5:53it. Road signs, tax forms, the evening
5:57news, the training binder on your first
5:59day at work. All of it is written so
6:01someone around 100 can read it and act
6:03on it. So, the cost of translating
6:06between yourself and the world is the
6:08lowest on the whole staircase. In a way,
6:10it's the easiest place to live. So, is
6:13there no struggle here? There is. It's
6:16just harder to see.
6:18People on this step tend to assume that
6:20the world they see is simply the world.
6:22So, it seems strange when someone on a
6:24lower step can't read a form that's
6:25obviously clear. And it feels arrogant
6:27when someone on a higher step skips the
6:29explanation and jumps straight to the
6:31answer. In both cases, nobody's being
6:33difficult. They're just looking at a
6:35different view. There's one more weak
6:37point. The moment the situation leaves
6:39the manual, people here tend to freeze.
6:42A problem nobody has seen before, a
6:44decision the procedure doesn't cover, a
6:46boss who says, "Just use your judgment."
6:49That feeling of standing there with no
6:51steps to follow isn't a lack of ability.
6:53It's what happens when a society trains
6:55people for years to follow procedures
6:58and almost never to step outside one.
7:00IQ 130. Climbing higher, we reach the
7:04line for the top 2%. The range usually
7:06called gifted.
7:08From here, you see the shape of a
7:10conversation before the other person has
7:12finished explaining it. About a third of
7:14the way in, you're already thinking,
7:16"Oh, so that's where this is going."
7:19Most things you read once, you keep. You
7:22can hold several moving pieces in your
7:23head at the same time. And patterns
7:26appear on their own, linking events that
7:28seem unrelated. So, the struggles here
7:30look like this. First comes boredom.
7:33School moves too slowly. A meeting
7:35becomes 40 minutes of watching people
7:37talk their way toward a conclusion you
7:39reached in the first five. Then comes
7:42friction. You find yourself wondering
7:44why nobody else noticed something so
7:46obvious. And that thought shows up on
7:48your face whether you want it to or not.
7:50And then, the reverse problem. You
7:52struggle to be understood because you
7:55see the structure, you skip the steps in
7:57the middle when you explain things. To
7:59everyone else, you seem to keep jumping
8:01from topic to topic.
8:03There's an old idea from the
8:04psychologist Leta Hollingworth who
8:06studied gifted children nearly a century
8:08ago.
8:09She suggested that when two people are
8:11more than about 30 points apart, real
8:13conversation between them starts to
8:15break down. The evidence for that exact
8:17number is weak.
8:19But the idea is worth keeping. The
8:21distance from 70 to 100 is the same as
8:24the distance from 100 to 130. And a wall
8:28like that can rise between any two steps
8:30on this staircase. And because these
8:32kids are capable, the people around them
8:34often assume they'll be fine on their
8:36own. Some of them aren't. Some get so
8:39bored and so out of step that they stop
8:41trying and they fall behind. Falling
8:43behind because they're too far ahead.
8:45That's how this step hurts.
8:47160, the top of the staircase, roughly
8:50one person in 30,000. One honest note
8:53first, most IQ tests can't measure this
8:56high reliably. So think of 160 as a
8:59direction, not an exact address. Ideas
9:03behave like objects. You can pick them
9:05up and turn them around. A formula, a
9:07theory, an abstract structure feels as
9:11solid as the desk in front of you. There
9:13are many stories about John von Neumann,
9:15the 20th century mathematician, working
9:18through complicated calculations in his
9:20head faster than the early computers he
9:22helped design. For minds like his, the
9:25abstract isn't abstract anymore. It's a
9:28landscape. So where's the problem? The
9:30biggest one is that nobody around them
9:33is looking at the same scenery. They
9:34describe what they see and people don't
9:37follow. Being misunderstood becomes a
9:39normal part of the day. So, little by
9:41little, they stop describing it. There's
9:44a lot more to say about what that costs
9:45a person, and it deserves its own map.
9:48There's one more thing, though. 160
9:51isn't a guarantee of genius. In the
9:531920s, the psychologist Lewis Terman
9:56began following about 1,500 California
9:59children who tested at the very top, and
10:01his team tracked them for decades. Many
10:04of them did well, but not one of them
10:06won a Nobel Prize. Meanwhile, by most
10:08accounts, two boys who were tested and
10:10didn't make the cut, William Shockley
10:12and Luis Alvarez, both went on to win
10:14the Nobel Prize in physics. Being able
10:17to climb high and actually building
10:18something from up there are two
10:20different things.
10:22So, now, the thing I promised at the
10:23start. What is it that even people at
10:25160 can't see? It's this. They know
10:29people don't follow them. What they
10:30can't see is that the others truly can't
10:33see what they see. From where they
10:35stand, the landscape is just there, as
10:38plain as a mountain range on a clear
10:39day. So, when someone misses it, the
10:42only explanation that makes sense is
10:44that they aren't looking. They aren't
10:46trying. They aren't listening. Why are
10:48you confused? It's right there. Notice
10:51that sentence. They aren't trying. It's
10:54the exact verdict the person on the
10:56bottom step hears every day. How many
10:58times do I have to tell you? At 70, it's
11:02why can't I do what everybody else can?
11:05At 160, it's why can't anybody else see
11:09what I see? It's one wall. One person is
11:12looking up at it. The other is looking
11:14down. Now, let me show you one strange
11:17piece of research.
11:19The political scientist James Flynn
11:21noticed something odd in IQ data from
11:23around the world. Across the 20th
11:25century, scores kept rising by about
11:28three points every 10 years. This is now
11:31called the Flynn effect. In some
11:33countries, the rise has slowed or even
11:36reversed lately, but over the century,
11:38it was enormous. Three points a decade
11:41adds up to about 30 points in a century.
11:44So, by Flynn's own rough estimate, if
11:46you scored the average person from a
11:48century ago on today's scale, they'd
11:50land somewhere around 70. That's a
11:53statement about the ruler, not about
11:55their minds. So, were they incapable?
11:57Not at all. They farmed land, built
12:00houses, raised families, and kept entire
12:03societies running. What they hadn't had
12:05was practice with a certain kind of
12:07thinking, sorting things into
12:09categories, and taking a hypothetical
12:11seriously. Flynn liked to describe
12:13asking someone from that world what dogs
12:15and rabbits have in common. Today, you'd
12:17say they're both mammals. Back then, the
12:20natural answer was that you use dogs to
12:22hunt rabbits. That answer isn't wrong.
12:24It's just an answer from a lower step.
12:27What changed was school, science, and
12:30abstract ideas slowly seeping into
12:32ordinary life. Humanity as a whole
12:35practiced climbing the staircase. An IQ
12:38score reflects that practice, too, built
12:40on top of what you were born with. The
12:42staircase isn't only something you're
12:44born onto. Practice moves people up it,
12:47at least a little.
12:48Here's the final turn. We've now looked
12:51at the world from four steps. The people
12:53on the bottom step felt left out, unable
12:55to see what everyone else could. The
12:57people on the top step felt alone,
12:59seeing things nobody else could. These
13:01are two sides of the same thing, and the
13:04society we all live in
13:06is built for the step in the middle.
13:08That's why both ends of the staircase
13:09need translators. And the craft of
13:12translation is simpler than it sounds.
13:14Be specific. Instead of be careful with
13:17money this month, say, you have $200
13:20until the 15th. Walk through the steps,
13:22one at a time, in order. Cut back on the
13:25hypotheticals, say what is before you
13:28talk about what might be. And give
13:30people something they can hold. Show the
13:32form with the box already circled. And
13:35for the cake, draw a clock face on it
13:37first, so three equal parts has lines to
13:39follow.
13:41These are the tools for talking to
13:42someone on a lower step. But here's the
13:44part that surprises people. It's also
13:46exactly how the best people on the top
13:48step talk to those of us in the middle.
13:51The most brilliant explainers aren't the
13:52ones who climb the highest. They're the
13:55ones who remember the climb. We don't
13:57all see the same world, but we do share
13:59the same offices, the same streets, and
14:02the same dinner tables. And the only
14:04people who can translate between those
14:06worlds are the ones who stop assuming
14:08their own view is the normal one.
14:11So think about the people in your life
14:12you just can't seem to get through to.
14:14They might be standing a step below you.
14:16They might be standing a step above.
14:18Either way, they aren't lesser, and they
14:21aren't better. They're just looking at a
14:22different view.
14:24Here's what I'd love to hear in the
14:25comments. Tell me about a time you
14:27couldn't get through to someone and only
14:29later realized what the world looked
14:31like from where they were standing. One
14:32request, please don't post your IQ
14:35score. Even the numbers from quick
14:37online tests aren't reliable. What I
14:39want to read isn't a number, it's the
14:41moment the view changed for you.
14:43Send this to someone who's ever heard,
14:45"How many times do I have to tell you?"
14:48or to someone who's said it. Subscribe
14:50to Psych Atlas for a new map every week.
14:52Until next time, keep mapping the mind.

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