We conducted a study on 3691 people to empirically test 40 claims about IQ (including claims made in academia and by the general public)! Here are some of our most important findings (see the link at the bottom of this thread for all 40 results): 🧵

Question 1: Is IQ actually normally distributed (i.e., is its histogram a "bell curve") or is that just forced on it based on the way it's constructed? Answer: On our general population sample, the distribution fits a bell curve well, even with no adjustments!

Question 2: If you are good at one intelligence-related task, does that predict that you are more likely to be good at most others? E.g., are math people better at verbal skills, on average? Yep, being good at one task was usually predictive of being better at many other tasks.

Question 3: Does IQ predict outcomes only on the "left" side of the IQ distribution (i.e., it's predictive for people of below average IQ, but not for people above average)? No, IQ was *not* more predictive of outcomes for people with lower IQs (save for 2 exceptions).

Question 4: Is IQ a better predictor of life outcomes than personality (i.e., taking into account someone's Big Five personality scores all at once)? No, personality generally predicted outcomes as well or better than IQ did!

Question 5: Are people with higher IQs happier (moment to moment) or more satisfied overall with their lives? Nope! We found no link between IQ and moment-to-moment happiness or life satisfaction.