Comments (33)

1. Extrapolating from Mensa, the members of these societies are all douches, right?

   posted by cjc on 5-13-2008 at 2:42 pm

2. I bet their parties are real blowouts.

   posted by Miss Cellania on 5-13-2008 at 2:51 pm

3. I was never interested in these sorts of groups because my mom was invited to join Mensa, went to one meeting, and said they were all snobs. I’m not going to lie though, all my friends are constantly amazed at all the really cool (and really random) stuff I learn from the Floss.

   posted by Katie B, on 5-13-2008 at 2:59 pm

4. Don’t worry, Stacy. You’re already in a way cooler society. You’re a MentalFloss blogger!

   posted by tpal on 5-13-2008 at 3:13 pm

5. What IQ counts as being in the top 1% anyway?

   posted by Ash on 5-13-2008 at 3:15 pm

6. I have a ridiculously high IQ, but it doesn’t show - maybe I’m just really good at taking tests.

   (Hee - my reCaptcha is “butt stickers”)

   posted by Rachel on 5-13-2008 at 3:23 pm

7. I’ve always wondered how these people know their IQs. Where do you get tested? Why do you get tested?

   posted by kate on 5-13-2008 at 3:48 pm

8. ummm… I’m boggled by the statistics of the giga society. If the world population is somewhere around 6,669,000,000 and you multiply 0.00000001, don’t you end up being one of the smartest 6.6 people in the world? Just my two cents…

   posted by Stack on 5-13-2008 at 4:03 pm

9. My best Mensa story - I’ll try to hide enough details to protect the described rocket surgeon.

   Although I’m a notorious non-participator, I decided that going out with the local Mensa fine dining group might be fun. So my wife and I join the group of 12 headed to a high-end well known restaurant that is on a high floor of one of this major city’s downtown office buildings.

   We waited a while for everyone to show and one person was absent, so we got seated. About halfway through dinner, one lady’s cell phone rang and she stepped out to answer. It was our missing diner who told her that she was outside the building earlier, but couldn’t figure out where to park (there is a sign for the building’s underground parking), so since she couldn’t figure it out, she went home and called with her regrets.

   Note that life skills are not part of the Mensa test.

   posted by Leland Witter on 5-13-2008 at 4:11 pm

10. Stack, if you go to the giga society website, it lists the only 6 members. :P

    posted by Kinleigh on 5-13-2008 at 4:34 pm

11. Actually, Kinleigh, there are seven members listed on the site.

    posted by Amy on 5-13-2008 at 4:48 pm

12. Giga Society: Such smart people, but they can’t get their website to display properly in Firefox (or perhaps they’re too smart to care).

    posted by Jeff on 5-13-2008 at 5:31 pm

13. There is so much wrong with this concept. For starters, I completely agree with Stack. Do these people seriously, and arogantly, believe they are one of the 6 smartest people on the entire planet? Goodness. I bet you they are most all American too. I also agree with Kate. Who are these people that are so insecure and desperate to prove themselves that they actually take an IQ test and then seek out societies like this. I bet you anything, the smartest 40% of the world population has no idea how quanitatively intellegent they are, and could care less that these societies even exist.

    And I love the “Butt Stickers”.

    Thank you.

    posted by James on 5-13-2008 at 5:38 pm

14. Quick question: if the GIGA Society can only have 7 members at most (the one in a billion rule), what happens if a person tests higher than one of the current members? Does that person get kicked out? Do they now have to join the less prestigious MEGA Society?

    Oh, and one more thing… All the members are male. Does that mean that men have higher IQs or is it just that we women dont feel the need to brag about our intelligence?

    posted by GTT on 5-13-2008 at 5:41 pm

15. GTT-

    I’m inclined to go with the latter.

    posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 5-13-2008 at 7:27 pm

16. Did anyone else notice the first letter of the first name of each member of the GIGA society spells the word “departs”?

    posted by Rebecca on 5-13-2008 at 7:57 pm

17. Why all the hostility about how people in these groups are “all douches” or “insecure and desparate”? Maybe they (or should I say we) are just looking for people to talk to who understand their nerdiness (I own it proudly) and social awkwardness (not to stereotype, but it is common). And actually, with the nerdiness of the Floss, I’d be surprised if there weren’t bunches of Mensans and Illians (Intertel members) and maybe even members of some of those other groups reading this.

    To Ash: The top 1 percent cutoff is around 140.

    posted by MH on 5-13-2008 at 8:16 pm

18. My daughter was recently tested and I believe she scored 147 on her IQ test. She is 11 and feeling pretty good about herself.

    I reminded her that IQ in not an indicator of success and that she still didn’t score quite as high as her momma.

    Just had to keep things in perspective.

    (Grrreat….my reCaptcha says “the Flabby” Ugh.)

    posted by Karen on 5-13-2008 at 8:28 pm

19. Amy, obviously I’m not a contender to be a member then. LOL

    posted by Kinleigh on 5-13-2008 at 9:24 pm

20. OK, this is the last time I’ll say something, I swear. But I just noticed that the Giga Society says it has six members in the introduction, but lists seven. Hmmm…

    posted by Kinleigh on 5-13-2008 at 9:27 pm

21. Kate,
    You have probably taken one of the many tests that might qualify you for membership in Mensa or other groups.
    Take a look at all of the tests and the score qualifiers on the Mensa website. Few people take an IQ test just to find out the number. Most have been surprised by a number which turns up on a test they were required to take for some other endeavor.
    Why get tested? Well, you may have wanted to go to college and had to take an entrance exam or if you applied for graduate school you may have been required to take the GRE or Miller Analogies.

    posted by Kay on 5-13-2008 at 9:28 pm

22. I am a proud member of the “One Out of One” club- also known as “OOOO.”

    posted by Scot on 5-13-2008 at 10:16 pm

23. From the legend himself, J. Paul Getty wrote a book called how to be Rich, in one of his chapters called, The Homogenized Man, he talks about who looks for these top percent of people who are smart, if you were smart they will let you know, those people

    posted by Robert on 5-13-2008 at 11:24 pm

24. I had to take an IQ test after a car wreck because my doctor was kind of cooky and didn’t want me to to get a ct scan because it may damage my brain or something like that. i did really well on the logic part of the test- 147. i guess that i did not so good on the other half because it brought my overall score down quite a bit. if not for that wreck i would have never taken an IQ test

    posted by justinaina on 5-14-2008 at 1:06 am

25. Mensa was NOT the dating scene that I hoped it would be, so I stopped paying my annual dues. *sigh* I’m still searching for a man who isn’t intimidated by an intelligent woman, but I hear he’s busy at the moment.

    posted by cb on 5-14-2008 at 9:26 am

26. There always will be a subtle and often not so subtle prejudice against those with high intelligence. Why that is escapes me. I’m pleased that the comments here, in general, do not reflect this prejudice. On the other hand, I have found that many “brains” are missing basic social skills. The reason for that escapes me also. I have been a Mensa member and active in four separate Mensa groups. The people I’ve met seem to be just like the population in general. Smart, stupid, funny, obnoxious, friendly, overweening, shy–just the same. I joined for good conversation and did, in fact, find it. As Tom Lehrer said, “Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.”

    posted by Alice on 5-14-2008 at 11:08 am

27. I’m a member of Triple Nine. it started out as a joke though, one guy in my group of friends was bragging about how he belonged to Mensa with a 135 IQ. He kept going on and on and on about it so everyone else decided to head to a psychiatrist and take the tests ourselves.

    I was actually shocked by my score (146) and decided to poke some holes in his massively inflated ego by applying to Triple Nine and proudly brandishing my certificate under his nose. he about passed out.

    Mission Accomplished.

    posted by adeline on 5-14-2008 at 12:32 pm

28. I find that people who are highly intelligent lack certain “street smarts.” I think being book-smart somehow pushes out the other smartness. I don’t know if this is because they choose to be this way or if they just are. For example, my father is very book-smart but also very socially awkward. He has also never insisted people call him Dr. In fact, not many people know he has his Ph.D.

    posted by CK on 5-14-2008 at 12:35 pm

29. to MH: Thanks! I visited the websites and found it out too.

    An IQ test doesn’t test how book smart you are, just your logic skills and stuff. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the test was developed so no prior knowledge was needed.

    posted by Ash on 5-14-2008 at 2:46 pm

30. They’re all a bunch of snobbish bastards who want to have their club so they exclude you and look down upon you. . . I’d join’em if I was smart enough.

    posted by Jim on 5-14-2008 at 11:37 pm

31. I am an inactive member of CIVIQ and have friends all the way up to Giga. My interest in human intelligence turned out to be a short-lived obsession that lasted for three or four years. Learning about intelligence and participating in these societies was fun at times, but, ultimately, largely a waste of time and I wish I had devoted more time to learning more about other things, like history and science, for example.

    In my experience with the high IQ community, most members join purely for the sake of companionship, to find others who relate to their way of viewing the world. They usually find that IQ alone is a weak bond, since it measures intellectual potential across a wide spectrum of general mental abilities, like vocabulary and spatial manipulation.

    Some people join to compete intellectually and to feel an exultant ego boost when they win. Competition usually comes in the form of catfights and debates, but games are also popular, especially in Mensa (that and chocolate). This competitive bunch is a small minority of the small minority who actively participate in theses societies. However, they are extremely annoying and abrasive in conversation, not unlike talking to a religious fundamentalist.

    Overall, however, high IQ societies seem to serve a couple of useful purposes. They allow bright people to feel confident about their brains, which is something that Americans, in particular, disdain. And they allow bright people to socialize, which, as noted here, is a skill that most bright people sorely lack.

    posted by snob on 5-15-2008 at 6:37 pm

32. I’m just imagining some isolated 16 year old kid and his friend starting such a club because some online test told him he was a super-genius and he doesn’t have anything else in life to latch on to. Any normal super-genius would just bring a joint to a mensa meeting and then develop a clique consisting of his intellectual peers and the hottest geek babes.

    posted by Travis on 5-16-2008 at 3:44 am

33. Well I suppose I was just curious. I’d had a bit of a self-esteem problem as regards my intellectual abilities because of my family. My sister and I got slotted. I got slotted as “the athlete” and she “the genius”. We were given IQ tests when I was 10 and she was 11 and I hated the test and the tester. It made me feel stupid. Now I’m older I suppose I just wanted some validation. So I took the MAT/GRE to see how I scored and I scored in the 99.9 %tile, which is over 3 standard deviations past “normal”. So I suppose that means my IQ is @146-147 on a std dev of 15 (it’s @150 on 16). So I qualify as a “genius”. It doesn’t change me, but it does help me feel a little bit better about myself.

    Perhaps if you do well it will make you feel better, but if you don’t do better all it means is that you’ll likely have to work harder at academic things than others. From a practical standpoint it doesn’t mean much. I think that focus and the ability to concentrate are better skills than raw IQ. If you concentrate and focus you can do almost anything, but if you’re a genius who can’t focus all you can do is go on jeopardy.

    posted by bonehead on 6-12-2008 at 11:09 pm

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