IQ tests news stories on Newser

High IQ Children Grow Up to Be... High

Mark Russell — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:14:01 CST

Smartypants kids are much more likely to use all sorts of illegal drugs as teenagers and adults, according to a new study of 8,000 Brits born in 1970. Five-year-olds who scored high IQ scores were more likely to have tried marijuana by age 16, reports the LA Times , and...

Your IQ Can Change Dramatically—Up or Down

Rob Quinn — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:52:53 CDT

IQ levels, long thought to remain relatively stable throughout a person's lifetime, can actually change dramatically—up or down—during the teenage years, according to a new study. Researchers tested teens at 14 and again just before they turned 18, and found that close to a third of them had...

Whoops: Internet Explorer IQ Story a Hoax

Kevin Spak — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:26:07 CDT

Well, looks like we better not talk about anyone’s IQ for a while: A story circulated last week about a study showing that Internet Explorer users had lower IQs than users of other browsers (we summarized it here ). But it turns out the study was a hoax, reports the...

Pesticide Exposure in Womb May Lower IQ

John Johnson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:58:00 CDT

Three new studies suggest that pregnant women exposed to pesticides have kids with lower average IQs, reports USA Today . But let's not be too alarmist about applying these findings, cautions the Los Angeles Times . Along those lines, one of the study's lead authors offers this takeaway message for pregnant women:...

Dogs Trounce Cats in Battle of the Brains

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:08:00 CST

The latest salvo in the battle regarding the relative intelligence of felines and dogs is bound to leave cat owners howling. Researchers are now claiming that dogs' intelligence has grown at faster rates historically than cats, spurred by canines' more social nature. They've discovered a historical link between the size...

IQ Tests for 4-Year-Olds Reveal Nothing but Wealth

Harry Kimball — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:32:34 CST

A common fear among high school juniors is an SAT score so bad it derails ambitious future plans. A similar fear grips affluent New Yorkers—but the kids in question are 4-year-olds taking IQ tests. The tests are de rigueur for admission to prestigious kindergartens, which feed into top high...

Pollution During Pregnancy Makes Kids Dumber: Study

Kevin Spak — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:45:01 CDT

Smog might be just as bad for your brain as it is for your lungs, a study finds. Researchers monitored the air pollution 249 mothers were exposed to during pregnancy, then monitored their children. They found that high pollution levels corresponded to a four-point drop in the kids’ IQ scores...

IQ Measures Not Just Brains, But Also Culture

Jonas Oransky — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:55:23 CST

The average global IQ is rising three points per decade not because humans are getting smarter, but because culture is getting more challenging—and the measure isn’t just a test of our smarts genes. The quotient effectively tests “the quality of the world [a] person lives in,” the New Yorker...