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.
Nah, I think it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to link IQ similarities and the ability to communicate.
If anything, there could be some correlations in similar verbal IQs and communicating better, but even that is a stretch.
The IQ test doesn't evaluate if a person understands all "basic concepts," so a lag in this ability is likely to be undetected by the test.
I'll give two examples for now:
(a.) Person A has a full scale IQ of 80, and has dedicated his/her whole life to soaking in as much information as possible.
Person B has a full scale IQ of 140, and has decidated his/her whole life to watching escapist TV shows and eating potato chips.
When these two meet to discuss a topic that is new to both of them, sure they are going to approach things very differently, but guess which one is going to end up looking like a fool
(b.) Person X has a full scale IQ of 100, but with a verbal IQ of 130 and a performance IQ of 70.
Person Y has a full scale IQ of 100, but with a verbal IQ of 70 and a performance IQ of 130.
These two are likely to process information quite differently, and unless a whole bunch of other factors even them out, they will probably have difficulty communicating.
Anyways, the gap between people who have trouble communicating due of them lagging behind in understanding, isn't likely to be summarized by simply a 15 point IQ gap. Looking outside the IQ box to things like different components of IQ, education, background, motivation/interest, layman's estimates of intelligence, etc. is necessary.
When all those are taken into consideration and there is still a gap, surely there is going to be difficulty in communicating.