The Chocolate Fireguard as designed by Mercedes Benz

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That ^^^ is a questionable assertion ... So I will ask:

What evidence is available to show that the distribution of 'intelligence level' within the population is Gaussian ?

MichaelG.

..depends on what definition of average one chooses. 'Not done it yet's' context implies 'mean'.

I liked a comment I saw where 95% of drivers self-assessed themselves as 'above average drivers'.

Perhaps we should use electoral results to assess the population's intelligence.... It was once said that a subset of people always vote for party A and another subset always vote B. Therefore changes of government is decided by those who can't make their minds up. Indeed I would argue that without a 'None of the above' option we always end up with the leadership fewer folk voted against rather than a leadership of merit.

Perhaps a smiling emoji is appropriate?

pgk

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... yes; that was my reason for asking the question

MichaelG.

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The mean/median/mode issue has been discussed previously on this forum, so I won't labour the point.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/07/2019 10:21:27

**LINK**

Thanks for the link, John

MichaelG.

MG. Good question; where indeed is the evidence? IQ scores are often glibly stated (= assumed) to follow a Gaussian distribution, but it's very hard to track down raw data or to discover the characteristics of the study population. It's a mess and is probably too PC-sensitive anyway. I'd put good money on the distribution having a fatter tail of low scores - the result of developmental defects, injury, illness, etc. Quite a lot of brains get damaged by unfortunate events, but few of such events increase IQ. It's unfortunate that many (most?) medical data is assumed to follow a Gaussian distribution when it doesn't. This is assumption is really for the convenience of stats calculations, and, of course, is 'good enough' because it covers the majority of the population.

Where you are positioned in the IQ distribution probably skews your perception, I of course know far more idiots than geniuses .

Mike