• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Are there any real statistics on the percentage of stupid people in societies?

Status
Not open for further replies.
turnbuckle

turnbuckle

Member
One of my professors asked our senior level business class if we knew who Ben Bernanke was on an introductory multiple choice quiz. I can't remember how many got it right, but it was less than the statistical average if everyone had guessed.

Just the first example that came to my head from a sample of college seniors in a business program.
 
H

Herpes Reasons

Banned
Tobor said:
The person you're describing is intelligent, just not educated.
Click to expand...
the person im describing can also suck at school, perform poorly in tests, and be illiterate.
common sense=!classical education.

there's a unique difference between classically educated and streets smarts.

but whatever.such definitions can be somewhat abstract
 
F

Fimbulvetr

Member
Cloudy said:
I'm not asking about IQ (isn't that subjective anyways?) or book smarts. I am asking about the kind of people who fall for the African email scams and stuff like that.
Click to expand...

Out of the three things you just mentioned IQ is the closest thing to being objective.

And no, you can't find statistics for stupidity because it is both subjective and situational(example: some of the posters here think you are stupid). I doubt there's a statistic for common sense either.

So what really compelled you to make this thread?
 
J

JavaMava

Member
Maybe it can be defined as something along the lines of people who hold strong ideas without any evidence supporting it in contrast to people who can document why and how they believe things.

But I really have no idea.
 
C

Cloudy

Banned
JavaMava said:
Maybe it can be defined as something along the lines of people who hold strong ideas without any evidence supporting it in contrast to people who can document why and how they believe things.

But I really have no idea.
Click to expand...

But that would almost be like religious faith, right?
.
 
R

rexstardust

Banned
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"


Once you add all those together you should have an accurate percentage.
 
J

JavaMava

Member
Cloudy said:
But that would almost be like religious faith, right?
.
Click to expand...

Anything really. Even some one claiming to like or dislike a movie, but being unable to explain why. They'll often repeat the mantra "I just do!"
 
M

MIMIC

Banned
rexstardust said:
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"
Click to expand...

I think you're confusing "stupid" people with "annoying" people.
 
F

Fimbulvetr

Member
Jackson50 said:
Fourfteen percent of people know that.
Click to expand...

And only 36% of those give a rat's ass.

Also: The fuck is "Fourf"?:lol

rexstardust said:
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"


Once you add all those together you should have an accurate percentage.
Click to expand...

You can't just add percentages like that. What if some of those people fit more than one of the criteria?

Also "stupid" and "I don't like you" aren't synonyms.
 
S

ShadyMilkman

Banned
rexstardust said:
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"


Once you add all those together you should have an accurate percentage.
Click to expand...

listen to NPR should be on your list
 
J

Jackson50

Member
Fimbulvetr said:
And only 36% of those give a rat's ass.

Also: The fuck is "Fourf?:lol
Click to expand...
fourfteen.jpg
 
S

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
rexstardust said:
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"


Once you add all those together you should have an accurate percentage.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna take an educated guess and say you don't like any of those things.
 
S

SmZA

Member
I remember reading somewhere that nearly half of the population has below average intelligence. I'll try and find a source for you.
 
A

Alphahawk

Member
rexstardust said:
Add up the percentages of people that:

have a myspace account
watch fox news or msnbc religiously
have read twilight
watch CSI or any of its spin offs
consider themselves "juggalos"


Once you add all those together you should have an accurate percentage.
Click to expand...

So are, like Jugglos the new furrys now in the eyes of the internet hate machine? I've seen like three threads within the past five days mention them.
 
R

rexstardust

Banned
Alphahawk said:
So are, like Jugglos the new furrys now in the eyes of the internet hate machine? I've seen like three threads within the past five days mention them.
Click to expand...

I've known what juggalos are and have hated them since they first appeared. They are no better than furries but since they've been showing up everywhere again I hate them more than the thundercats cosplayers.
 
C

Commodore_Perry

Banned
Google Jay Leno Man On the Street. Uninformed, ignorant, stupid.... call them what you want, but these people are not ashamed about the fact that they didn't waste a single braincell on all that bullshit they tried to brainwash them with in school (note emphasis on my sarcasm in case you missed that) and now they think that their opinion on everything is important enough to broadcast to the world (ie. Twitter).
 
C

Corwood Rep

Member
SnakeXs said:
They're.
Click to expand...

It really would have been great if somebody locked the thread here.

It reminds me of an old Norm MacDonald joke on Conan. He did this really long bit about two midgets who buy prostitutes but find themselves sexually incapable because of their shortness, and Conan got all up in his shit about calling them "midgets" so often instead of the politically correct "little people," but Norm refuses to oblige. Then during the next guest's interview that's going south, Conan says "Norm, talk more about midgets." Norm pauses and very deliberately goes, "LITTLE PEOPLE."
 
Fjolle

Fjolle

Member
Paulathon said:
I remember reading somewhere that nearly half of the population has below average intelligence. I'll try and find a source for you.
Click to expand...
That is kinda how it is defined :lol
 
M

MikeOfTheLivingDead

Grapetastic!
And what is street smarts exactly? Is being able to recognize an email scam essential to survival now? I mean, I bet I could pluck an entire family out of some backwoods hole in Mississippi who wouldn't be able to point out France on a map of Europe, have no idea there is a place called Nigeria and probably couldn't tell me how many Represetitives in the House there are. You could probably drop this same family in the middle of nowhere with nothing and they'd survive just fine. Could you? Most "smart" people probably couldn't.
 
J

jorma

is now taking requests
MikeOfTheLivingDead said:
And what is street smarts exactly? Is being able to recognize an email scam essential to survival now? I mean, I bet I could pluck an entire family out of some backwoods hole in Mississippi who wouldn't be able to point out France on a map of Europe, have no idea there is a place called Nigeria and probably couldn't tell me how many Represetitives in the House there are. You could probably drop this same family in the middle of nowhere with nothing and they'd survive just fine. Could you? Most "smart" people probably couldn't.
Click to expand...

Only survivors after WWIII: Cockroaches, Rats and Rednecks! :p
 
M

MikeOfTheLivingDead

Grapetastic!
Paulathon said:
I remember reading somewhere that nearly half of the population has below average intelligence. I'll try and find a source for you.
Click to expand...


This is not how IQs work. It's not like everyone gets an IQ score, one person is in the middle, half are above and half below that person. You have a bubble in the middle of the IQ range where the majority of the population sits and only a small percentage is above or below. Half of the people in any society will have average intelligence, somewhere in the 100-109 IQ range. A smaller percentage will be lower average and slightly less than average. These aren't stupid people, just slightly lower than average. People who would have been in the past diagnosed as stupid, moronic, idiotic or imbecilic fall below 70 IQ, roughly 10 or so percent of a given population.
 
Fjolle

Fjolle

Member
MikeOfTheLivingDead said:
This is not how IQs work. It's not like everyone gets an IQ score, one person is in the middle, half are above and half below that person. You have a bubble in the middle of the IQ range where the majority of the population sits and only a small percentage is above or below. Half of the people in any society will have average intelligence, somewhere in the 100-109 IQ range. A smaller percentage will be lower average and slightly less than average. These aren't stupid people, just slightly lower than average. People who would have been in the past diagnosed as stupid, moronic, idiotic or imbecilic fall below 70 IQ, roughly 10 or so percent of a given population.
Click to expand...
No. IQ is defined as a normal polulation with a mean at 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Therefor half the population by definition have an IQ of 100 or less.
 
J

jorma

is now taking requests
Fjolle said:
No. IQ is defined as a normal polulation with a mean at 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Therefor half the population by definition have an IQ of 100 or less.
Click to expand...

I'm at 146+
Sucks for one of the other swedish-gaffers.

run like the wind with this one, fjolle... it is my gift to you :p
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Fjolle said:
No. IQ is defined as a normal polulation with a mean at 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Therefor half the population by definition have an IQ of 100 or less.
Click to expand...
Therefore comma
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

AI-generated comments and moderation are slowly choking out any form of communication between actual people
2
74
4K
-Minsc- replied
Mega Man X Fortnite: Sign my stupid petition to try and get Mega Man X -- you guessed it -- into Fortnite
9
406
AREYOUOKAY? replied
Am I doing something illegal?
34
2K
Billbofet replied
Categories in Gmail
1
464
ReBurn replied
Obesity, weight loss and diabetes II
Cringe 2
56
2K
nush replied
Top Bottom