IQ and communication

[CrystalViolet]

I got half way through Ygolo's article and couldn't read the rest...it's premise is wrong, or it feels wrong to me.
I have to think about it.

I was thinking the other day, I feel it makes a huge difference. I was dealing with a patient, who didn't understand what her doctor had told her, so she decided to bail one of us lab techs up instead. I drew the short straw. I tried everything to explain what this particular test meant. Even had a nurse who barely speaks english try and explain....(okay me and the nurse were in tears of laughter/frustration afterwards. She thought it was really funny, her english is great, it's just so obviously not her first language, and she had explain in the end.) Finally the nurse has her understanding, amazingly, even then it took her a couple of goes. I had simplified, and simplified, but what this patient wanted was a yes or no answer that was impossible to give. The Nurse explained why we couldn't say Yes or No. Either that or she was freaking out she had bacteria on her body that wasn't bad.
My point being most people tend to associate with people that have similar IQ's. Maybe a variation of 10-15 points. Say you have an IQ of 130-125. That means on a daily basis you are still talking with people of an above average IQ. Particulary if you are educated, and birds of a feather flock together. It's easier, there maybe issues with areas of expertise, but you don't have explain fundementals and assumptions....and you get lazy admittedly.
I have one of the girls at work shaking her head, every time I explain something to maintainance, and she'll reexplain it. She told me I throw too many big words in there and she doesn't understand what I'm talking about, let alone some maintainance guy.
What cracks me up was my boss says exactly the same thing as I do...and you hear the groans. There is such a thing as a communication barrier. I experience it on a regular basis, where as if you asked me when I still lived in the city, I'd have said it was an issue some times, occasionally....where I live now, it's an issue every freakin' day (I have a good deal of respect for doctors who stay here for more than two years, for instance). 15 points IQ difference makes a little bit of a difference, 30-40 (I'm not kidding, there's lead in soil here)points is almost freakin' insurmountable.
I don't consider myself a snob or whatever either.

 

[Elfboy]

I've heard the case made the significant differences in IQ of like 15 or so points makes it more difficult to communicate between the two parties because they think differently. For the most part, it comes to the one with the higher IQ generating more complicated ideas that the one with the lower IQ doesn't comprehend as easily, or doesn't understand at all as the case may be. Even a slight lag in ability to understand basic concepts can create serious barriers to communication and stifle the quality social interaction.

So to those of you who have studied IQ to any extent, do you think this premise is true? Please do expand upon the idea if you can.

I can relate to this from both ends

 

[Jonny]

I have a tested IQ of around 90, so if any of you smarties want to test this by talking with me I'd be happy to oblige.

 

[A window to the soul]

^

 

[Poki]

I have an easier time talking to people with a hgher IQ. They are able to piece together my lack of communication skills. The non-stuck up people with high IQ can get past my lack of ability to explain and get the message...the stuck up ones cant see past my lack of ability to explain and will assume I have a low IQ.

IQ is an internal thing, not an external thing so there is no direct corrolation with communication.

 

[ThatGirl]

I have an easier time talking to people with a hgher IQ. They are able to piece together my lack of communication skills. The non-stuck up people with high IQ can get past my lack of ability to explain and get the message...the stuck up ones cant see past my lack of ability to explain and will assume I have a low IQ.

IQ is an internal thing, not an external thing so there is no direct corrolation with communication.

I agree with this.

 

[lunalum]

I have a tested IQ of around 90, so if any of you smarties want to test this by talking with me I'd be happy to oblige.

My tested IQ is around 90 in some areas, so I'll be one of the not-so-super-smart people to talk to you and test this.

 

[Lexicon]

Anyone factor in EQ, here? In terms of communication?
*bats at spiderwebs*

 

[lunalum]

^ As if IQ doesn't make me seem inferior enough =/

Let's just try to get to g-factor here, and not how it is applied to block puzzles, matrices, emotions, music, or whatever the tester happens to be interested in.

 

[ThatGirl]

EQ is a myth. Like the chupacabra.

 

[Poki]

Anyone factor in EQ, here? In terms of communication?
*bats at spiderwebs*

EQ is a different topic then IQ and plays a different role in communication then IQ...though probably similiar.

 

[King sns]

I've heard the case made the significant differences in IQ of like 15 or so points makes it more difficult to communicate between the two parties because they think differently. For the most part, it comes to the one with the higher IQ generating more complicated ideas that the one with the lower IQ doesn't comprehend as easily, or doesn't understand at all as the case may be. Even a slight lag in ability to understand basic concepts can create serious barriers to communication and stifle the quality social interaction.

So to those of you who have studied IQ to any extent, do you think this premise is true? Please do expand upon the idea if you can.

I would have to agree with this a lot. It's true that knowledge doesn't equal intelligence. So in the case of someone who is more knowledgeable in a topic than another may be a different story, whether they are more intelligent or not.

But if you take one basic thing that everyone can talk about, the people of different intelligence levels will have completely different conversations. I've always found that talking to people of different intelligence levels is like speaking different languages. With one you feel like a mentor, or just a listener. With another you may feel excited an enthusiastic, with another you will feel challenged... I have always held the belief that people of similar intelligence levels should stick together.

 

[Mole]

Intellectual Excitement

I've heard the case made the significant differences in IQ of like 15 or so points makes it more difficult to communicate between the two parties because they think differently. For the most part, it comes to the one with the higher IQ generating more complicated ideas that the one with the lower IQ doesn't comprehend as easily, or doesn't understand at all as the case may be. Even a slight lag in ability to understand basic concepts can create serious barriers to communication and stifle the quality social interaction.

So to those of you who have studied IQ to any extent, do you think this premise is true? Please do expand upon the idea if you can.

Sure, IQ correlates with the number of ideas we can think at the same time.

So the normal person can think one idea at a time, while the abnormal person can think two ideas at the same time.

But the interesting thing is that once you can think two ideas at the same time, the thought occurs, why not three or four or even five ideas at the same time?

With this question in mind, the heading of most of my posts consists of two ideas - the headings of most of my posts are in the form of 'A idea' and 'B idea'. Occasionally I branch out into three or even four ideas, but only rarely.

So the first step is to think two ideas at the same time. And the first step is the hardest to take, but it leads onto great intellectual excitement.

 

[Lex Talionis]

I've heard the case made the significant differences in IQ of like 15 or so points makes it more difficult to communicate between the two parties because they think differently. For the most part, it comes to the one with the higher IQ generating more complicated ideas that the one with the lower IQ doesn't comprehend as easily, or doesn't understand at all as the case may be. Even a slight lag in ability to understand basic concepts can create serious barriers to communication and stifle the quality social interaction.

So to those of you who have studied IQ to any extent, do you think this premise is true? Please do expand upon the idea if you can.

What is your standard regarding communication? If it be simple exchanges between two or more individuals of differing intellectual abilities, then coherent communication is hardly affected. If, on the other hand, you ask whether intellectual discourse becomes more difficult in proportion to the variance in IQ of the individuals involved, I am most certainly forced to respond affirmatively. The average individual in society is a simpleton, and as the very word implies, they are mentally simple; simple-minded; vapid. They are not only incapable of maintaining a stimulating intellectual conversation but are wholly devoid of any interest to partake in such exchanges.

 

[Lex Talionis]

I have always held the belief that people of similar intelligence levels should stick together.

I agree. This should especially be the case with reproduction, where intelligent individuals must strive to reproduce with other intelligent individuals so as to avoid producing mentally inferior offspring.

 

[Forever_Jung]

Well the problem is IQ is kind of stupid. If the thread was about communication and intelligence, I am sure there would be debates about the definition of intelligence (Thank you, Ti), but I feel like we would at least be on firmer ground. For instance, to study people's interactions and judge how they are affected by IQ, you would have to quantify everyone's IQ. Then you would have to remove all the variables so that IQ was isolated and observable. How do you do that? Anyway, here is an anecdote that is somewhat pertinent to the discussion:

I was at a get-together with a handful of friends. I would say we were all of similar IQ. I am sure there is some deviance but I doubt any one of us would be on another planet compared to another. However, one of my friends brought her boyfriend, who would likely have a much lower IQ than everyone present. He was sort of a part of the group, but since it was more of a friend-by-asscociation thing, he wouldn't have been as close to us. Anyway, I don't think we broke the record for most stimulating conversation or anything, a lot of it was just discussing the town we all grew up in and the people in it. To be clear, we all had a pretty good knowledge of the topic at hand, including the aforementioned boyfriend.

This boyfriend was silent, almost uncomfortably so. I tried to steer the conversation into territory that would favour him (His rugby team, a mutual friend of ours, even cars). He still only managed a few words. Later he told his girlfriend that it was like we were "speaking another language, and that he couldn't follow any of it. We jumped around so fast, and used big words, analyzed things in a way he didn't understand etc). I would attribute IQ as part of the reason as to why he had difficulty. I am not sure if it's so much IQ as EQ though, because I think a lot of it pertains to you how well you are able to relate to others who are quite different from yourself.

I think part of it was also that he was operating slightly outside the collective understanding of the group. I also think that his girlfriend and I forgot that, when communicating with him outside the group, we tailor our expression and subject choice to things that are comprehensible and interesting to him, because he just doesn't understand or know about a lot of our interests. But then again, this seems arrogant of me, perhaps he is doing the same thing for me. Or maybe he can relate, he just doesn't want to, because he'd rather us come to him. Still, he really doesn't seem like he's adjusting to me at all. All he ever talks about is sports, cars, country music, and drinking. I know a lot about sports, a little about country music, and fair amount about drinking . So I try to talk about these subjects and in a manner that he would find easier to understand, and he finds it very interesting (or so he reports to my friend). Not to say I am rude about it, but I do have to simplify a lot of things, otherwise he just doesn't know what I am saying. While lack of breadth in your interests does not equal low IQ, the ability to communicate meaningfully about the few subjects you do understand, is probably more positively correlated with IQ. Maybe.

 

[Ginkgo]

EQ is a myth. Like the chupacabra.

You just say that because you don't want to be caught on camera.

 

[Lily flower]

Children with high IQ's generally have social skills problems. I don't know if it's because their IQ's are different from other children, or because their brain is just wired to focus on academics and not social skills.

 

[Mole]

Children with high IQ's generally have social skills problems. I don't know if it's because their IQ's are different from other children, or because their brain is just wired to focus on academics and not social skills.

Those with high IQs in the gifted range are abnormal. They are different from those with IQs in the normal range.

They are different not only intellectually but emotionally. The emotional difference takes the form of high response to stimulae both internal and external. And the normal are unable to follow this high responsiveness and so reject the gifted as socially inept or bad communicators, when it is the normal who are inept.

 

[The Machine Stops]

communication only goes so far. there are concepts that in order to be grasped at all require a different mind and mode of thought. Having a mind that operates far from the norm can be an exercise in frustration and loneliness. What helps to overcome this sense of isolation is not communication skills, but nurturing patience in oneself, and beyond that, appreciating people for who they are, accepting them as they are.