may i butt in to speculate that each country has its share of idiotic people.

Seriously.. everyone is so quick to delve out fucking stereotypes. Talk about inferiority complexes.

Why do stereotypes not work?

I'm American and have a 168 IQ. That would score within the top 2% in the world. Sloi is the only one here I know who is comparable.. a Canadian.

And then at work, I'm training a Canadian from Ontario. He can't spell, can barely add and since coming to the United States has failed to obtain his GED after three separate attempts.

In our on-site sales department, we have a Quebecer.. who about a month and a half ago asked me how the US monarchy and real government work together and how someone from the country of Texas could become the President of the US. Not to mention he still can't grasp that North and South Carolina are different states.

This isn't to say that America doesn't have idiots, it's to say that we don't go hunting Canadian morons to put on television shows. This is a perfectly classic psychological example of emotions common to the masses being played upon and marketed to an audience compelled to watch in order to compensate for an inferiority complex. If you disagree, please feel free to PM me for the e-mail address of my Newfie psych 140 professor (moved to the US just over two years ago) who will likely be glad to explain it to you.

You do know that IQ tests aren't fullproof, right? I mean, to class yourself in the top 2% of intelligent people in the world......Wtf...?

I also find it amusing that you are so hung up on what's wrong with stereotypes etc, when you are a perfect example of one who uses stereotypes - I am, of course, refering to your belief that ALL Muslims are out to get people who deny Islam.
Yeah, it says something along the lines of that in the Qu'ran or whatever, but to believe that every Muslim follower is bent on destroying western civilisation and those who deny it's faith is just silly.

I apologise for getting offtopic, but this has been on my mind for a while.

If by IQ test you meant Emode, you would be right to say it isn't foolproof,
as fools have been known to score well on it despite being average.

Culture fair tests exist that determine cognitive abilities with a very good
degree of accuracy, such as the Ravens matrices, TRI (inductive reasoning)
and some at the International high IQ society website: where most tests
requires a lot of basic knowledge, the aformentioned tests require only that
you recognize the underlying logic before proceeding. General cognitive
abilities et al are measured and give a good indicator of future success.
Not at all a guarantee, of course. When he says "smarter than 98% of the
population", he means that his cognitive potential surpasses the majority's.

I'm sorry to rain down on you like this but I'm tired of laypersons bashing
cognitive assessment tests when they know little to nothing about them or
how they work.

Guys, this is being discussed in the talking to americans thread. Why start another one?

Any sane, rational person would inherently know that not ALL Americans are stupid and not ALL Canadians are stupid and vice versa.

If you DON'T know that, I don't care where you're from...you're a drooling moron.

The worst problem the south has is yankees thinking we are all the stereotypical "hollywood" rednecks. Then they pack up and move to our clean cites, warm climate, cheap housing and low costs of living and think they are going to save us from ourselves. I-95 has norhtbound lanes too.

Okay, Sloi covered the testing aspect of it, so I'll leave that one aside.

As for my belief regarding Islam, read my posts carefully. I said that any true Muslim who upholds the beliefs that are dictated as necessary for entry to Paradise in the Qu'ran, has to be willing to kill any non-believer who will not convert. Jihad is a very real and literal pillar of Muslim faith. One error that I will admit to making.. something I didn't overlook, but didn't clarify.. is that women are not expected to participate in Jihad, other than reproducing to strengthen the ranks. I'm not saying every Muslim is out for my throat.. I am saying that any Muslim who adheres to all the mandatory beliefs of Islam is.

As for the whole American/Canadian thing.. meh. Seriously, I've become accustomed to America getting bashed. And I think at least half of it is well warranted by recent domestic and foreign policies. But I also think at least half of it is due to an extreme hatred for America rooted deeply in an overshadowing inferiority complex which has become so woven into social mainstream that those who suffer it have no clue it exists.

Sounds about right - I wasn't intending to bash IQ tests, I was just told by my Psych professor that IQ tests aren't fullproof mainly because of the culture differences, and that it's very hard to apply the same measurement system onto various differing cultures. So therefore, I figured there was no world average, standard, etc.
Then of course, she went over Gould, and his study on IQ tests, etc.

I guess I came out thinking IQ tests were entirely a joke.

Just curiously - How accurate is Mensa's IQ test...? Also, could j00 direct me to an ACCURATE online IQ test? I wanna see where I stand.

No matter where you go, or where you may look, you'll find an asshole sooner or later. Each society/country/culture/religion has them, you just can't get away from them! Don't let a few asshloes sway your way of thinking about others. If a Canadien/Mexican/Tiawanese/German/Irish, or whatever treats me with respect, they get the same treatment in return, it's that simple. Act like an asswipe, then you get treated like one. Personally, i could care less of what others think of "us" Americans. If you don't like us, don't buy from us and for heavens sake, don't visit here.

The point of this thread was not only to dicuss if Americans were stupid.
You have to admit that there is quite a bit of anti-american sentiment
on this board every day. I was just trying to bring that to light. If the Americans on this board did the same, it would constantly be a flame war.
Point is: the shit gets old sometimes.

To Merlin, fuck off with your stereotypes about southerners. I was born, raised, and currently live in Arkansas( probably the most made fun of southern state). I moved to Pittsburgh, PA and recieved a masters in anesthesia. I was top of my class. I do procedures everyday that you have probably never heard of. I have know idea what you do for a living, but I doubt you hold peoples lives in your hands everyday. So before you mouth
off about people from the south being stupid, know what the fuck your talking about. You only show your own ignorance. stupid: stupid:

Psychometricians like Xavier Jouve are moving away from traditional ways of
testing "intelligence" and are now concentrating on designing a pictoral-type
examination free of any cultural bias, similar to the Raven's.

Mensa's test ISN'T accurate in the sense that much verbal and mathematical
knowledge is required to successfully "pass" it. Funny story: they gave me a
Ravens matrices as preliminary and then the abovementioned as real tests.
If you want good online tests, go take the following:

http://www.iqtest.dk (Similar to the RAPM II)
http://www.highiqsociety.org (The culture-free)
http://www.cerebrals.com/testing.htm (Test of Inductive Reasoning)

I would suggest the European IQ test but it's strongly biased towards the
mathematically-inclined, so the above should be enough. I get the same
sigma range (2.5 to 2.7 sigma) on all of them so they were well normed.

I just can't believe two members of aa.com are two of the smatest people in the entire world.

Haha, Ditto......Although, Sloi does demonstrate a high IQ....50% of his posts are way over my head.

LOL, reading this topic made me think of the movie Canadian Bacon with John Candy in it were America goes to war with Canada so we could make some money and all the Canadians are stupid and say "Eh!" a lot. Thatd be funny if something like that really happened...I first saw the movie when I was really little and for the longest time thought it was a real war...LOL

Heh.. please don't think that my having a high IQ makes me one of the smartest people in the world. It just means that logical and abstract problem solving comes very easily to me.