IQ Cannot beat disinformation - Assertiveness can…
Throughout my career as a consultant, coach, and business person I have never placed a very high importance on IQ. I am fascinated by successful business people, but none are more fascinating to me than the successful businessperson who has very little education.
Because for these people who were terrible or absent from school, lie an answer that may be available to everyone.
It’s just not true that anyone can have a high IQ. It is obvious to all of us that some people have more horsepower in the ability to recollect facts, observe patterns, and logically deduce. But it is also true that there are MANY different intelligences outside of IQ - they’re just impossible to measure.
But to answer the modern day question of what to do with ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ - we should probably look at IQ to see if that is where the solution lie. But the actual scale of IQ is completely irrelevant; what is important about IQ is what each number on the scale represents in ability. So let’s review that quickly...
https://paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/iq_ranges.html
For arguments sake, let’s take Cooijmans translation of IQ to ability at his word, because it seems reasonable enough. This would be the capability we’d all need in order to defeat misinformation and disinformation. We know from this scale that the ability to gather and infer your own information is reserved for 120 and above.
Now if we find out what percentage of the population sits at 120 and up - we get a very bleak picture of what percentage of the population is capable of inferring their own information.
From the bell curve of IQ, we can say that 10-15% of the population have the ‘horsepower’ to handle the kind of research it would take to defeat misinformation and disinformation.
And that is to say that 100% of high IQ individuals have the integrity to be honest 100% of the time - which we know is not the case. Many high IQ individuals end up in prison, and many high IQ individuals are the ones disseminating false data in the first place, since they’re the ones trusted with creating it.
An Alternative Intelligence.
Since I’ve been in involved in professional services there’s been an awful lot of focus on ‘soft skills’ and ‘emotional intelligence’(EQ). Half of the reason that consultants are able to charge so much for being able to ‘distribute’ these intelligences is
There’s no effective way to measure EQ, and therefore the efficacy of the consultant
EQ is also immeasurably valuable in leadership positions.
But if the level of IQ required to defeat misinformation is unavailable to us; perhaps the ability to stop the spread of misinformation is available to us in different forms of intelligence.
Assertiveness has MANY different definitions and it’s difficult to whittle down an objective and precise one. But in my experience, and understanding the nature of assertiveness it is
“The ability to balance your personal opinions and feelings, within the ruleset around self expression of the community”
What does this have to do with disinformation?
If IQ is not enough to defeat the spread of disinformation at it’s genesis, then perhaps EQ can be the intelligence that will help stop the spread.
You’ve been in this situation before. Someone is saying something that is not factually correct, and through the sheer power and forcefulness of their personality and will - they’re able to convey a message that is logically and quantifiably false.
It’s no coincidence that intelligent people are oftentimes unable to stand up to such people with their own data - because the “intelligent” person is relying on traditional intelligence or IQ. IQ does not indicate the ability to speak or articulate or persuade. It is very much the opposite.
The reason so many of us don't have the ability to stop the spread of poor information is that we lack the courage to stand up to the crowd or mob is because it could cost us our dearest relationships. That is a scary idea to entertain for such a socially dependent creature; especially for people with the political persuasion of group>individual.
Conclusion
While our population doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to effectively ‘do your own research’; we have a much better shot at developing the intelligences required to politely disagree with each other when poor information surfaces, and maintain the relationships with those we disagree with.
Given the prevalence of poor information, you might (as I do) consider it a duty.
