[bradleyjg]

IQ talk is funny like that. It’s intended to give a science-y sounding veneer to whatever argument is being made but because actual studies are a lot of work, people just throw around numbers with nothing more than “common sense.”

Given that it’s all “common sense” people ought to skip the veneer and just say “more intelligent”, “less intelligent”, “much more intelligent”, and so on. That’s more honest rhetoric.

[HyperSane]

IQ is a real thing, finding a linear negative relationship between lead levels in children and IQ was the smoking gun to prove that lead was harmful.

[bradleyjg]

I don’t claim it isn’t real. What I claim is that people like to throw around random made up facts involving IQ to make their arguments seem science-y and that they ought not to.

[kelseyfrog]

I'll go on the record to say that IQ is as real as any other social construct like money, God, or nationality. Depending on your predilection that can range from worthless to "party of the fabric of reality itself."

[HyperSane]

IQ isn't a social construct. It is a actual quantitative measure of how well the brain can process information. This is why lead blood concentration causes a predictable decrease in IQ.

[kelseyfrog]

You can measure how much money you have in your bank account and money is a social construct. Spending money leads to having measurably less money. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

You might be confusing "social construct" with fake. That's not at all what I'm saying.

[HyperSane]

IQ isn't a social construct because intelligence is not a social construct. A social construct is something that is created by everyone agreeing that it is real, like money. Human intelligence is a function of how the human brain works and is NOT a social construct.

[LudwigNagasena]

Does that assertion suppose to convey any information? It seems you can put any random nouns into your comparison and the meaning won’t change.

> as any other social construct like cheese, boat races or reading

> as any other social construct like HackerNews, children or milk

> as any other social construct like cars, transgenderism or pencils

> as any other social construct like social, construct or like

[kelseyfrog]

> Does that assertion suppose to convey any information?

Yes, I'm assuming you're familiar with the topic.

[LudwigNagasena]

I am not familiar enough to understand what information you are trying to convey using that term. Can you confirm that IQ is a social construct in exactly the same way all other things I listed are social constructs?

[dragonwriter]

> finding a linear negative relationship between lead levels in children and IQ was the smoking gun to prove that lead was harmful.

Lead toxicity was identified more than 2000 years before the first IQ test, and was rather extensively studied during the Renaissance. The combination of blood lead and IQ tests was important in quantifying the existence and impacts of particular kinds and levels of environmental exposure that had been assumed to be forms of levels that would not be hazardous, but it was not important to identifying lead as a toxin.

[HyperSane]

I guess I should have said "proving leaded gasoline and paint" was harmful.