science

U.S. presidential IQ hoax

U.S. presidential IQ hoax is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand U.S. presidential IQ hoax rather than just read about it. In short: The U.S. presidential IQ hoax was a mid-2001 e-mail and internet hoax that purported to provide a list of estimated IQs of the U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W.

Key takeaways

U.S. presidential IQ hoax belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect U.S. presidential IQ hoax to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of U.S. presidential IQ hoax from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The U.S. presidential IQ hoax was a mid-2001 e-mail and internet hoax that purported to provide a list of estimated IQs of the U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush.

The hoax The hoax email showed Bill Clinton having the IQ 182, and George W. Bush 91. However, the numbers claimed in the email were fabricated, and the sociologists and institutions (e.g., the "Lovenstein Institute") quoted in the article do not exist. The techniques purportedly used to measure the IQ of the presidents are not recognized means of measuring IQs. The hoax also contains other factual errors. When the hoax was debunked, it appeared that Bush's IQ and college entrance test scores were never released.

Coverage Perhaps because some pundits and politicians claimed George W. Bush had low intelligence, the hoax was unquestioned by many. The British newspaper The Guardian, for example, quoted the report in its diary section of July 19, 2001, and used it to belittle Bush, although the paper published a retraction two days after the Associated Press drew attention to the error. Other media outlets to fall for the hoax included Bild (Germany), Pravda (Russia), and the Southland Times (New Zealand) as well as a few U.S. newspapers. The IQ hoax was revived in March 2007 in Spanish-language media when the news agency EFE distributed a piece referring to it. Dozens of outlets (primarily in their online versions) reproduced EFE's text. Among the newspapers publishing the hoax were El País (Spain's leading newspaper), ABC, La Vanguardia, and El Mercurio (Chile's leading newspaper).

IQ estimations by academics In 2001, political psychologist Aubrey Immelman made an IQ estimation of G. W. Bush based on the SAT Reasoning Test results of Bush (1206) and Al Gore, who achieved IQ scores of 133 and 134 in his school years, and an SAT of 1355: "It's tempting to employ Al Gore's IQ:SAT ratio of 134:1355 as a formula for estimating Bush's probable intelligence quotient—an exercise in fuzzy statistics that predicts a score of 119." A 2006 study analyzing presidential IQs by Dean Keith Simonton of U.C. Davis appeared in the journal Political Psychology. Simonton's study analyzed the results of varied and often subjective historical material using the tools of historiometry. It estimated IQs for all US presidents, and validated the headline of the hoax, which stated Bush's was the lowest of any president in the last 50 years, though it estimates his IQ considerably higher (by nearly two standard deviations) than the 91 suggested in the hoax report. It rated G.W. Bush second to last since 1900, with an estimated IQ of 119 (the estimates ranged from 111 to 139). Bush's estimated IQ was less than those estimated for Grant (120), Monroe (124), and Harding (124). The same study estimated president Bill Clinton's IQ at 149, behind only those of Kennedy (151), Jefferson (154) and John Quincy Adams (169). Simonton's 2006 study follows earlier studies done on this subject, including a 1926 study by Catharine Cox Miles. This study concluded that there is a statistically significant correlation of 0.56 between a U.S. president's IQ and his perceived amount of success. It is worth noting that other sources and/or studies might have different results for the IQs of United States presidents. For instance, John F. Kennedy's IQ has also been estimated to have been significantly lower than in this 2006 study (Chester Arthur biographer Thomas C. Reeves refers to an actual IQ test by Kennedy with a score of 119), while Richard Nixon's IQ has also been estimated to have been significantly higher than in this study.

See also Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage, another IQ-related Internet hoax, this time claiming low IQs for users of Internet Explorer 6.

References

External links Interview with Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes about the Presidential IQ Hoax, Washington Journal, C-SPAN, November 21, 2003

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with U.S. presidential IQ hoax

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what U.S. presidential IQ hoax claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to U.S. presidential IQ hoax before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about U.S. presidential IQ hoax ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of U.S. presidential IQ hoax

In research: U.S. presidential IQ hoax appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses U.S. presidential IQ hoax in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: U.S. presidential IQ hoax is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2001 hoaxes, Cultural depictions of George W. Bush, Intelligence quotient, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for U.S. presidential IQ hoax outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study U.S. presidential IQ hoax in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is U.S. presidential IQ hoax in simple terms?

The U.S. presidential IQ hoax was a mid-2001 e-mail and internet hoax that purported to provide a list of estimated IQs of the U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W.

Why does U.S. presidential IQ hoax matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study U.S. presidential IQ hoax?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on U.S. presidential IQ hoax.