I have been asked by both popular blogger Anatoly Karlin and black national merit finalist “Lion of the Judah-sphere” to estimate the IQ of Vladimir Putin.
Putin is a fascinating case because he is both exceptionally rich and powerful yet also exceptionally short. Both money/power and height are positively correlated with IQ so it’s interesting to ask what is the average IQ of whites with the same relative height, and same degree of power as Putin has.
Average IQ of diminutive whites
Putin is well known for not being that tall. Most google searches claim his height is 67 inches, however this video shows several images of him looking shorter than 64 inch tall Prime Minister Medvedev, and this article claims he’s between 62 and 65 inches, so perhaps 63.5 inches is a reasonable guess.
Non-Hispanic white men who are 60 or older, appear to have an average height of 68.6 inches (standard deviation = 2.47). Thus, for his race, sex, and age, Putin probably has a height Z score of -2.06. Given that IQ and height correlate about 0.24, the average IQ Z score for people with his relative height is -2.06(0.24) = -0.49. Assuming whites have a mean IQ of 99 with a standard deviation of 15, converting the IQ Z score to IQ gives:
99 + 15(-0.49) = 92
So whites who have the same height (relative to age and sex) as Putin have an average IQ of 92.
Average IQ of the most powerful whites in history
Forbes magazine took a lot of heat for ranking Putin as the single most powerful person on the planet, even ahead of President Obama, which would be an astonishing achievement for a non-American! At the very least, I think it’s safe to say Putin is the most powerful white gentile in the World. Assuming there are about 976 million white gentiles on the planet, and about 644 million of them are adults, Putin has a normalized Z score of about 5.93 when it comes to power. Some would argue Putin is also the richest person in the World, but authoritative Forbes magazine has been unable to confirm his billionaire status.
Measures of worldly success (i.e. money, power) seem to correlate only moderately with IQ. For example scholar Arthur Jensen put the correlation between IQ and income at about 0.4, and power probably enjoys a similar correlation with IQ (U.S. presidents appear to have IQs similar to billionaires). Thus the the average IQ Z score of the the extremely rare subset of whites who achieved as much self-made power as Putin would be 5.93(0.4) = 2.37. Converting that Z score to IQ gives:
2.37(15) + 99 = 135
So whites who have achieved as much self-made power as Putin average an extremely bright IQ of 135.
Average IQ of whites who are BOTH supremely powerful and diminutive
Putin belongs to two very salient groups: 1) The most powerful whites in history, and 2) diminutive whites.
The first group is extremely bright on average, with a mean IQ 135. The second group is typically kind of dull, with a mean IQ of 92. It is tempting to average the mean IQs of these two groups and conclude that Putin probably has an IQ around 114.
However the better guess for Putin’s IQ is not the average IQ of the groups Putin belongs to, but rather the theoretical average IQ of someone who belongs to both groups. That’s a subtle distinction. In reality Putin is virtually the only person in history who belongs to both groups, but what would be the theoretical average IQ if there were many?
As a brilliant Promethean helped me understand years ago, in order to determine one’s expected IQ based on two variables (in this case money/power and height), you need to know both the correlation of money/power and height with IQ (0.4 and 0.24 respectively) but also the correlation of money/power with height, which is only about 0.13. Armed with these statistics, the following multiple regression equation can be built, which allows us to add the relative predictive power of money/power and height, independent of each other:
Putin’s expected IQ Z score = 0.38(money/power Z score) + 0.19(height Z score)
Putin’s expected IQ Z score = 0.38(5.93) + 0.19(-2.06)
Putin’s expected IQ Z score = 2.25 – 0.39
Putin’s expected IQ Z score = 1.86
Translating this IQ Z score into an IQ:
IQ = (IQ Z score)(15) + 99
IQ = 1.86(15) + 99
IQ = 127
The standard error for this estimate would be 13.44, so we can say with 95% confidence that if Putin was administered a Russian version of the WAIS-IV, he would score anywhere from 100 to 154 (U.S. white norms), with 127 being the single most likely score. In other words, if there were many whites with the same amount of power and relative height as Putin, they would have a mean IQ of 127 with an SD of 13.44. An IQ of 127 would make Putin smarter than 96% of U.S. whites.
However I know virtually nothing about Putin, and thus am limited to a very crude statistical analysis. The wildly popular Anatoly Karlin who blogs about Russia would probably be able to provide a far more informed estimate.
Is IQ 127 a plausible estimate?
One reason to think an IQ of 127 is plausible, despite the huge band of uncertainty around it, is that the thesis advisor Putan had at university remembers he got “good but not great grades,” but was a “meticulous” student. The fact that Putin was a meticulous student at university tells me he was highly motivated, so if he still failed to get great grades, he can not be that much smarter than the average white PhD (IQ 123), which makes 127 a reasonable estimate.
One problem with estimating Putin’s IQ at 127 is that there is reason to believe Obama’s IQ is close to 140. Can Obama really be smarter than Putin when we keep seeing reports that Putin is always outsmarting Obama. For example, we see headlines like:
Vladimir Putin’s Syrian strategy outsmarts Barack Obama
Putin Outsmarts Obama: has turned Putin into the world’s most powerful leader
Debate: Is Vladimir Putin outsmarting Barack Obama in Ukraine?
Even President Obama himself was forced to respond to this narrative:
These reports may suggest I have underestimated Putin and/or overestimated Obama. On the other hand, we shouldn’t expect a perfect correlation between IQ and geopolitical chess skill. And I don’t know for sure that Obama is being outsmarted by Putin because it’s unclear how much Putin’s rising power helps or hurts the United States or Israel, and I don’t know for sure what Obama’s foreign policy goals are.
UPDATE, October 7, 2105
For a review of this article by someone who knows a lot about Russia, check out this analysis by blogger Anatoly Karlin.
Pumpkin Person 
He had plagiarized dissertations twice. He was also an abuser while in Germany.
People confuse aggressiveness with intelligence but the two are negatively correlated.
Around 30% of women are abused by spouses, so putin is in the top 70th to 99th percentile in aggressiveness. There is a negative .3 correlation between iq and aggressiveness.
Therefore, I strongly doubt that putin has a 127 iq.
127 is not so high for a man as powerful as putin
Given that Putin is the leader of one the most powerful nations on Earth, an IQ much lower than 127 would be implausible. Then again, Kennedy only had an IQ of around 120, and Bush II was probably even lower.
Which reminds me: Pumpkin should do Martin Luther King (who also famously plagiarized his dissertation).
I’m guessing he was around IQ 115.
Mlk was an atheist during his teen years so his iq could be triangulated with correlations among iq, and influence, atheism, and education.
MLK skipped grades, i believe. Smart, but lazy and unoriginal.
Great analysis! Of course, most people will think its crazy to use height as a predictor of intelligence, but of course a modest correlation exists. And your estimate of 127 is actually about what I’d assumed.
The thing about Putin is that he’s probably for all intents and purposes a high level psychopath, probably even much more so than Obama. In fact, Obama often seems overly deferential when dealing with foreign world leaders.
Putin was also a former member of the KGB, the Soviet’s secret police, and according to bodylanguagesuccess.com (http://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2015/02/nonverbal-communication-analysis-no_5.html) Putin frequently displays body language consistent with arrogance and a sense of superiority (although some also try to claim that Putin has Asperger’s, which makes no sense to me).
Now some, like the commenter above, claim that aggressiveness is negatively correlated with IQ, but I don’t think it is. I just think highly intelligent people are more likely to channel their aggressiveness in non-violent ways compared to stupid people, which is the reason why the high IQ are so rare in prison (and also, doesn’t criminality have about a .2 negative correlation with IQ?). So if it’s true that Putin abused his wife, then that’s definitely a negative mark against his IQ, but simple “aggressiveness” should not be.
Anyhow, Anatoly Karlin would probably have a better analysis than me, considering he’s an expert on all things Eastern Europe and Russia. He could perhaps also give an accurate estimate of Putin’s IQ using a slightly different technique than yours.
Aggressiveness of all types is negatively correlated to iq because it implies a person is not smart enough to be deferred to automatically. Smart people don’t end up relying on aggressiveness to stay in power, like Putin has. An aggressive person will yield to a doctor or intelligent advisor, though.
Aggressive leaders are rarely extraordinarily intelligent. Take Winston Churchill, who did poorly in school.
Is it? To clarify, I don’t think it’s so much that Putin’s aggression, but that he’s high in psychopathy/Dark Triad traits (narcissism/Machiavellianism), which is pretty common in leaders. Psychopathy in the low IQ and impulsive tends to lead to crime, but in the high IQ it can result in high social intelligence.
Most personality traits, from what I understand, have little to no correlation with IQ. I can’t cite sources off the topic of my head, but that’s the gist of most of the research into HEXACO/the Big 5.
*I don’t think it’s so much that Putin’s aggressive.
You’re talking about intelligence; yet, using western propaganda as your definitive source on all things Putin, and assuming you know the man well enough to weigh in.
According to a freelance interpreter that spent some time with Putin, they conversed in six language, and demonstrated that he can read and understand many more. The three it is widely known he speaks: Russian, German, English, and others that would surprise most people: Chinese (mandarin), Spanish (castilian), French, Yiddish, Hebrew, and modern Arabic.
Every year, Putin gives an annual Q&A, typically going for hours, where world journalists ask him unscripted questions, and he responds. Watch one and you’ll better understand just how smart this guy is. One would be hard pressed to name any other politician in the world that can sit for hours answering random questions from the world’s media, giving the kind of answers Putin does, where he includes names, statistics, dates, and the often witty banter and obscure references to literature and historical events.
Every year, Putin gives an annual Q&A, typically going for hours, where world journalists ask him unscripted questions, and he responds. Watch one and you’ll better understand just how smart this guy is. One would be hard pressed to name any other politician in the world that can sit for hours answering random questions from the world’s media, giving the kind of answers Putin does, where he includes names, statistics, dates, and the often witty banter and obscure references to literature and historical events.
Excellent points!
so how is the GROSS stupidity of peepee and his fellow HBDers explained, including Steve Shoe, Jensen, Flushton, Charles Murray?
they’re obsessed with IQ, but theirs isn’t very high?
how does an anti-hereditarian explain this phenomenon?
ultimately people are stupid for three reasons:
1. it really is genetic, or they were kicked in the head by a horse.
2. they were, synecdochally speaking, raised in South Bronx public housing.
3. and this is THE REASON…
they lack GOODNESS. they’re EVIL. and they have no WILL to overcome their evilness. in fact they revel in it, like a pig in his own filth.
Explain the high IQ of Jews, please.
come on!
i thought you were a house negro.
do you know ANYTHING about judaism AT ALL?
it can ALL be traced to:
1. mitzvah talmud torah. it is a COMMANDMENT of judaism to be smart. Deut 6:6-10:
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you–a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
2. jews in the US have come to control the intellectual culture. they’re a middle eastern people who favor their own kind much more than European peoples do theirs. one CANNOT be smart and be excluded from the main stream intellectual culture of one’s society. that is, to the extent one is part of such a culture or not is THE SAME as his ability to score high on tests. AND THIS DOENS’T MEAN THE TESTS ARE CULTURALLY BIASED!!! BECAUSE intelligence in the sense tested by ALL IQ tests is a SOCIAL phenomenon. jews are ONLY 6% of national merit scholars, but are 15-30% of Ivy League students. at Cal-Tech they’re 6%, as they should be!
more beer please!
so 1 means that so far as the advantage is “genetic” it is NOT for the reasons proposed by COCKRING.
idk what you know about christianity but…the Summa is longer and MUCH more sophisticated than the Talmud.
the Summa was written by one man, Thomas Aquinas, who died at age 49.
the Talmud was compiled over 7 centuries by hundreds of authors.
and until about 1800…
THE LITERATURE PRODUCED BY JEWS WAS:
1. SCANT IN THE EXTREME
2. EXCLUSIVELY RELIGIOUS
ancient judeah compared to Greece and Rome?
it’s like modern Germany compared to Bolivia or Upper Volta/Burkina Faso, except even worse.
has 200 years of “evolution” overcome this?
now imagine if Roman Catholics REQUIRED that all adherents study the Summa INTENSIVELY. that’s what ALL European Jews did 200 years ago and after 700 for the Talmud, which was completed in 700, and what the ultra-orthodox STILL DO.
So you think the Bible caused Jew smartness?
(I’m seriously asking, because I don’t know. The standard HBD explanation is that Jews didn’t gain smartness until medieval times, and the Bible has nothing to do with it. But your example shows that Jew smartness may have started earlier…).
But if the Bible did causes Jew smartness, then question becomes: who made the Bible? Smart Jews???
Then we have a chicken/egg problem. Did Smart Jews come first or Smart Bible?
Or maybe it was the decision of YWH himself :O :O :O
and regarding christianity, which peepee rightly hates,…
as strange or bullshit-like as may sound…
the medi-eval christian thinkers like Aquinas, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, and some other “schoolmen” were serious people and very un-like contemporary religious people, none of whom actually believes any of it.
for more you might listen to some lectures by Jean-Luc Marion.
Wait, so Jews studied the Bible all day for hundreds of years (I mean Old Testament only, or Talmud, or whatever they read)…
And they got smart?
not directly the bible, but from a development of ancient judaism.
RABBINIC judaism.
rabbinic judaism originated at about the same time as Christianity. remember the pharisees? these were the rabbinic jews. pharasaism is rabbinic judaism, the form of judaism which 99% of observant jews follow today.
rabbinic judaism adds the MISHNAH and the GEMARA, which are together called the TALMUD. it also adds the MIDRASH.
KARAITE jews who never adopted this extra literature are not especially accomplished AT ALL though they are tiny in number.
not smart via Lysenko.
IF they are smarter for genetic reasons the OBVIOUS reason is that intelligence in an academic sense was rewarded by jewish culture much more than by any other, or that the demands of judaism led the dumber jews to leave. this is the theory espoused by charles murray, the only thing intelligent he’s ever said.
the reward for academic smarts is greater today than ever. in fact it might’ve been a bit difficult even to tell the clever from the stupid on a medi-eval manor.
you might be able to get a copy of the mishnah at your public library. you can definitely get it at your local university library. you can also read it on chabad’s website. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/680274/jewish/Ethics-of-the-Fathers-Pirkei-Avot.htm
read tractate AVOT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirkei_Avot
if you don’t find that it explains why jews are so smart loud and clear i’d be surprised.
and regarding christianity, which peepee rightly hates,…
I’m a hardcore atheist, but I don’t hate Christianity (or any other religion). Religion gives beautiful architecture, wonderful customs (i.e. Christmas), and teaches good values.
idk what you know about christianity but
I was hardcore Christian before I converted to HBD. I now worship the Trinity of genes, Darwinism, and heredity!
Hello World of Pumpkin Person,
How are you doing this Sunday morning? Hungover? That’s fine, lay back and relax.
I’m gonna be doing some preaching.
I’ll be preaching about Jesus and the tribe of Judah. This will explain eerything.
If I’m not making since, fuck you, I’m drunk
From the New International Version:
Micah 5:2
“but you bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”
Now who does this refer to? JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ comes from the tribe of Judah, thus he’s my bro.
Awe man I got wine all over my Bible. My Granpa gave this to me 😦
John 13: 21-30
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified. “I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, ONE OF YOU IS GOING TO BETRAY ME.”
His disciples started at one another, at a loss to know which of the he meant 😦 One of the, the disciple whome Jesus loed, was reclining next to him. Simon peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who the fuck is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in this dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to JUDAS ISCARIOT, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, SATAN entered into him. :p
“What you are about to do, do quickly,” Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as the LION OF JUDAS had taken the bread, he went out.
AND IT WAS NIGHT.
Now as my final act, I will reveal my true identity
DRUMROOL PLEASE 😀
Thanks. This was entertaining.
A few comments.
(1) You probably make too much of the height thing. Even if we accept the conspiracy theory that the official data overstates Putin’s height, it should be compared with the average height not of old American dudes (174cm) but of old Russian dudes (~168-170cm).
Which would make Putin either completely average in this respect (if the official height is correct) or only modestly shorter than average (if the conspiracy is real).
(2) Of course you’d also then have to adjust down for Flynn Effect, especially since this is the 1950s USSR you’re talking about, i.e. a country with a GDP per capita of about $4,000 (today’s $s) and residual malnutrition. Which would have the same effect of knocking 5-10 points off and getting 125-130.
(3) The estimate of 127 tallies quite well with my own impressions (my ball park assessment prior to this was ~130-135).
He got into Leningrad State, one of the USSR’s elite universities (though not the most elite Moscow institutions – but then as far as I know he didn’t apply to them anyway). His performance, though classified, were evidently good enough for him to be eventually accepted into the KGB’s foreign espionage department.
He did have his PhD thesis written for him in the 1990s, but every Russian politician was doing the same thing in the 1990s. In Russia’s context, that say’s nothing about Putin’s IQ.
He is undoubtedly more aggressive than the average Western politician (though the wife beating allegations are almost certainly black PR along the same lines as stories of his $70 billion fortune). However, Russian politics is systemically more aggressive; that’s what you have to be to survive there. For instance, the oligarch Khodorkovsky basically had the reputation of a gangster who whacked political rival in the 1990s, before he decided to clean up his PR image, get in tight with American neocons, and rebrand himself as a democratic dissident. And yet Khodorkovsky clearly has a very high IQ.
He is known for making witty rejoinders and having a very good grasp of facts, numbers, and statistics in discussions. Since becoming President, he has also developed semi-fluency in the English language, despite an obviously crowded schedule. All this hints at a solid degree of intelligence.
According to insider accounts, his typical reading material consists of bulky historical tomes. That suggests high intelligence and discipline.
Points against – Though I have trouble recalling any very specific examples, my general impression is that he is NOT at an elite level of intelligence (i.e. 145+). He is also genuinely religious, and religiosity has a negative correlation with IQ. His family are both working class; grandfather was a chef for Lenin and Stalin. But the Putin family is also surprisingly long-lived, especially by Russian standards – most of them tend to live into their late 80s and even 90s. Longevity is positively correlated with IQ.
(4) Tentative conclusion – Will settle my estimate of Putin’s IQ to around 130.
(5) About “geopolitical” performance – Probably the brightest Soviet/Russian leader since Lenin was Gorbachev. And he failed in the most spectacular way possible: His country ceased to exist and he now has an approval rating of about 2% in Russia.
(6) In reality Putin is virtually the only person in history who belongs to both groups, but what would be the theoretical average IQ if there were many?
Napoleon. 😉
(Yes, I know. Not really. Napoleon was just average for a late 18th century Corsican. But by the same token, Putin’s height is not atypical for Russian men of his generation).
(7) Forbes magazine took a lot of heat for ranking Putin as the single most powerful person on the planet, even ahead of President Obama, which would be an astonishing achievement for a non-American! At the very least, I think it’s safe to say Putin is the most powerful white gentile in the World.
This is actually probably accurate. While the US is much more powerful than Russia, and China has now overtaken it as well, Obama’s and even Xi Jinping’s power is much more circumscribed (Obama’s by the separation of powers, Xi Jinping’s by the other members of the Politburo). Since he has a larger share of the total “pie” of his nation’s power, one can indeed make a credible case that Putin is the most powerful man in the world.
You’re comment is much more interessant than the pp article itself
[part of this person’s username was redacted for obscene vulgarity, pumpkin person, oct 4, 2015]
Hahaha…Robert Lindsay has no problem with his username.
“[part of this person’s username was redacted for obscene vulgarity, pumpkin person, oct 4, 2015]”
must have really pissed pumpkin off…
must have really pissed pumpkin off…
Not at all. I just don’t like vulgarity. In the past I had deleted posts that used that name…this time I just redacted the offensive part of the name.
Hahaha…Robert Lindsay has no problem with his username.
Yes, 15% of Robert Lindsays articles are about fucking teenage girls…he was also talking about the size of his genitals in a comment.
You probably make too much of the height thing. Even if we accept the conspiracy theory that the official data overstates Putin’s height, it should be compared with the average height not of old American dudes (174cm) but of old Russian dudes (~168-170cm).
Very good point. For the purpose of simplicity, I was calculating Putin’s Z scores with reference to the global white population (sometimes adjusted for age/sex) not specifically the Russian white population, and thus his IQ was being regressed to the global white IQ mean of 99, as opposed to the Russian white IQ mean which might be lower, for the same reason Russian height is/was lower (as you imply). I made the assumption of convenience that American whites might be representative of global white height.
He got into Leningrad State, one of the USSR’s elite universities (though not the most elite Moscow institutions – but then as far as I know he didn’t apply to them anyway). His performance, though classified, were evidently good enough for him to be eventually accepted into the KGB’s foreign espionage department.
Yes. According to one source:
Instead of entering the law field right out of school, Putin landed a job with the KGB, the only one in his class of 100 to be chosen
Read more at http://biography.yourdictionary.com/vladimir-putin#w4E5OLTIVvsbRwv8.99
I wonder if this implies his university grades were in the top 1% of his class.
He is undoubtedly more aggressive than the average Western politician (though the wife beating allegations are almost certainly black PR along the same lines as stories of his $70 billion fortune).
Interesting. It sounds like you feel the claims about his wealth have been exaggerated to undermine him.
His family are both working class; grandfather was a chef for Lenin and Stalin. But the Putin family is also surprisingly long-lived, especially by Russian standards – most of them tend to live into their late 80s and even 90s. Longevity is positively correlated with IQ.
Coming from a working class family might indicate low IQ genes, but it also shows he had the intelligence to become the most powerful person on the planet despite not being born into any privilege..
Interesting. It sounds like you feel the claims about his wealth have been exaggerated to undermine him.
Relations between Russia and the West have been cool ever since Putin ascended to power and steadily purged the state of Western agents of influence. Since 2013 and Crimea/Ukraine, they have become positively icy.
Loud noices both in the US (who have the world’s most formidable electronic espionage apparatus) and the UK (which hosts a disproportionate share of the world’s financial criminals) have been promising to “reveal” Putin’s untold riches to Russians and to the world.
What is the end result of all these efforts?
It’s natural for people who come from a country of laws to assume that such documents must exist. Russia, however, does not always seem to be a country of laws. Searching for documents that catalogue Vladimir Putin’s wealth may be as fruitless as searching for a deed that would show Akhenaten owned a pyramid. A pharaoh doesn’t need a piece of paper attesting to his wealth.
That’s just another way of saying “absolutely nothing.”
Russian culture has the right combination of intellectualism, authoritarianism and respect for brute force that would allow for someone like Putin to get to the top.
possibly
the soviet union used a tests only admissions system.
and the very best were recruited by the KGB.
so putin is, just like the very high scoring Ahmadinejad, and like almost all world leaders outside the US and Canada, very very smart.
Canada doesn’t use tests at all and therefore in IQ terms has the dumbest elite in the developed world and even most of the developing world.
LOL!
I wanted to ask Anatoly Karlin this but I’ll ask you first:
Who is the smartest leader (Prime Minister, President, monarch, whatever) in the world?
Is it Benjamin Netanyahu?
dear God you’re a moron.
in a tests only system jews would be less than 1/3 their current representation among the elite of the developed world.
jews cheat.
jews prefer their own and exclude all they deem actual or possible enemies.
read this fucktard (by a jew):
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/
the bottom line is that the holocaust happened and it was right.
himmler and hitler and eichmann are heroes.
Killing innocent children is right ?
There is something wrong with you dude…
Yea, I knew there something seriously wrong with Videla/Mugabe…
You’re the moron, buddy.
http://infoproc.blogspot.ca/2015/09/snp-hits-on-cognitive-ability-from-300k.html
2 comments:
1. Gaussian distributions in nature usually don’t hold out to 5 standard deviations, and power is likely not distributed normally anyway. (Most people are powerless, not average in power.) You can’t go calculating z-scores for it. Your strategy of comparing to billionaires probably makes more sense.
2. Sure short men are likely to be less intelligent, ceteris paribus, but if we know short height is a handicap for attaining power (as almost every study shows), we’d expect his IQ to be higher, if anything. They have to work harder, etc.
1. Gaussian distributions in nature usually don’t hold out to 5 standard deviations, and power is likely not distributed normally anyway. (Most people are powerless, not average in power.) You can’t go calculating z-scores for it. Your strategy of comparing to billionaires probably makes more sense.
My strategy (suggested by a brilliant Promethean) for expressing money, power or influence as Z scores is to use normalized Z scores. I discuss it in this article:
https://pumpkinperson.com/2015/09/30/what-is-a-z-score-a-definition-2/
2. Sure short men are likely to be less intelligent, ceteris paribus, but if we know short height is a handicap for attaining power (as almost every study shows), we’d expect his IQ to be higher, if anything.
Excellent point, except contrary to what the media says, being short is only a slight handicap. The correlation between height and money/power is only about 0.13. Now if the correlation were 0.8, meaning short stature was a huge social handicap, what we’d find is that when predicting IQ from both height and power is that height would flip from being a positive predictor to a negative predictor in the multiple regression equation…in other words, shorter world leaders would be smarter than taller world leaders. However the statistics were not extreme enough for that to happen.
What is the impact of height on money/power when controlling for IQ?
About 0.04
Pumpkin, who do you think is the smartest person in the world ?
I already answered. See question #5 in this post
https://pumpkinperson.com/2015/08/17/some-hbd-questions-from-a-reader/
what I was meaning is who in the people who are often considered the smartest people (terence tao, chris langan, marilyn vos savant, christopher hirata, the korean dude i cant remeber the name…) in the world you think is really the smartest man in the world ?
Yea…do IQ estimates for famous people in highly g-loaded fields (mathematics/physics/engineering)
It’s probably impossible to determine who is the absolute smartest, but I estimate there are probably 50-100 people in the world that could be the ‘smartest’, of which would include child prodigies, people in those ‘world smartest’ lists, physicists, mathematicians, and misc. professions thrown in.
Pumpkin, can you do the IQ of Adolf Hitler ?
Yes. I will do Hitler some time this month.
This would be very interesting as well.
One interesting approach that has nothing to do with z factors: People tend to associate most closely with people of similar IQs.
Fortunately, uniquely for Nazi Germany, we have some detailed data on the IQs of the Nazi leadership (with the exception of a few important guys like Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, and the Fuhrer himself) thanks to the US psychologists attached to Nuremberg.
As I recall from what I’ve read on Hitler and internal Nazi politics, of the above list, that would include: Goering; Ribbentrop; Speer; Hess (until his betrayal). Their average IQ is 129.
In practice, Goering’s IQ during his time as Nazi leader might have actually been lower, due to his morphine addiction. On the other hand, there are suspicions that Speer was in fact much cleverer than his test scores indicated, because he was playing the “dumb dreamer architect” type so as to pretend ignorance of the death camps and avoid execution (if so he was successful). So there two factors would cancel out.
Minus a few points for (slowmoving verbal) Flynn Effect, and we have an IQ of around 125 for Hitler.
I think this is essentially accurate. He was a high school dropout and failed to get into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. He was a brilliant orator, but oratory skills have low g loadings. He has some major geopolitical successes early on, but these were probably more a result of aggression and blind luck than intelligence (had France decisively reacted anytime at Munich or beforehand, the Nazis would have been finished). These geopolitical victory were in any case completely reversed later on – thanks in significant part to Hitler refusing to listen to and heed the advice of his generals (in contrast, Stalin realized he was hopeless on military matters after 1941 and left the technical details to his generals thereafter).
Against that it should be admitted that the Nazi leadership was more or less uniformly of the opinion that Hitler had a very high intellect, and was possibly a genius. This includes Hjalmar Schacht, the brightest of them all. However, there are two potential confounds here. First of all, Hitler was a brilliant orator, which expressed itself not only in his speeches but his casual “table talk.” Even very intelligent people can easily mistake this for genius, especially if they are lacking in the rhetorical/charismatic department themselves. Second, the Nazis at Nuremburg had a vested interest in presenting Hitler as a “diabolical genius” figure in order to diminish their own share of responsibility for war crimes and reduce their chances of being hanged.
My (very rough) impressions from reading Nazi history is that Hitler was certainly a step above the likes of feckless-schoolboy type Hess or the infamously callous Kaltenbrunner, but decidedly below Franz von Papen, Doenitz, and Schacht. To the contrary, his intellectual ability seems to fit right in besides that of Speer and Ribbentrop (also personal friends), and of Rosenberg (the Nazi “philosopher”).
As such, I think a 125 (Flynn-adjusted) estimate for Hitler is credible.
Nice. I’ve seen that same Nazi IQ data somewhere else before.
Is there any research showing that one’s IQ = average of 10 closest friends (or 5 or 15 or whatever)?
I put Hitler at 140 or so given that he wrote a very lengthy, influential book early in life. That suggests some special ability
He was a high school dropout and failed to get into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts.
I don’t think that’s saying much. The dropout rate was extremely high back then
Very interesting.
Minus a few points for (slowmoving verbal) Flynn Effect, and we have an IQ of around 125 for Hitler.
Is this the IQ Hitler would have if he taked an actual IQ test now ? Assuming this is the case, what would be Hitler’s IQ if he was cloned and raised in a nowedays First-world environment ?
“He was a high school dropout and failed to get into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts.” I think to put it like that is too simple, because of the following reasons:
First an important thing to note is that in Austria something like “high school” or “college” doesn’t exist. The school Hitler dropped out would be called today “Realgymnasium”, which leads to the highest school certificate that you can get. Ludwig Wittgenstein was at the same school at the same time and he barely managed to graduate. It’s definitely not a high school; if anything it’s more like a college, I would say. And one year later Hitler graduated from the Realschule in Steyr anyway. It was just after that, on his way to the highest school leaving certificate, that he dropped out completely.
And concerning the Academy of Fine Arts: first he was admitted to the entrance examination (which was kind of an accomplishment already) and then he passed the 3 hour aptitude test. Only the sample drawings he brought were considered insufficient. 86 out of the 113 persons that took the examination failed to get in.
These reports may suggest I have underestimated Putin and/or overestimated Obama.
You probably have overestimated Obama.
Well it’s been deduced from records that Obama’s LSAT equated to an IQ of either below 120 or above 135
It’s unlikely that someone with an IQ below 120 would have graduates in the top 15% of his class as obama did at harvard
On the other hand, if his IQ were above 135, i wonder why he, as a black student, didn’t get a harvard scholarship, and why he admitted having benefited from affirmative action at Harvard
On the other hand, the skill he showed in getting the Iran nuclear deal despite great opposition from netanyahu and AIPAC indicates high IQ, regardless of whether you think the deal is good or bad
Obama obviously have an higher verbal IQ than Putin. Obama also have to deal with far more contraints than Putin, an american president cant decide everything by himself and Obama also have to care about international medias.
Occams razor indicate that Obama is smarter than Putin.
it helps that Obama’s native language is English. I’m sure Putin’s Russian equivalent of verbal IQ is very high
I know that of course…but Putin, contrary to Obama, is not known for his high verbal skills.
Hi there. I am blessed to know several persons with recorded IQ’s from 123 to 142 (sd 15,age-addjasted western norms). So, I’d like to put my 50 cent here. Putin acts and talks as a person with IQ definitely lower than 137, but slightly higher than 125. My subjective impression that it can be a bit higher than 127, but all in all it fits your guess very well/ I understand clearly that this kind of approach can hardly be better than your calculation , but my only – but important – advantage is that I am a Russia citizen, a native Russian, watching that very active and talkative guy on TV here for years. Well done anyways!
After reading so many interesting observations here I would like to add something still missing
1)he is really fluent in German
2)his career went slow until his appearance as a politician
3) he has been avoiding as far as possible any public live debates, so we did not see him under real intellectual pressure
4)and aggressiveness…. very interesting…. the most public concern was that Putin is too soft and almost inadequately shy for being a leader… It seems that he has been maintaining his fuck-you-i-am-in-charge look for years since when. After some hesitation i decided to give a link to his 1999 interview. Just spend a minute listening and watching him, even without understanding what he is saying
The main difference between Putin and Obama is that Putin is succeeded in the very difficult, dangerous USSR/KGB system whereas Obama has been pampered. Consequently, Putin is a smart, disciplined, courageous realist, and Obama has been the victim of life-long brain-washing into delusion and superstition. So, it is no wonder Putin keeps outmaneuvering Obama, regardless of estimated IQs
Why do you bullshit so much in your analyses? Putin is 170 cm tall, not 161 cm. This is absolutely pathetic. You do not simply average someone’s INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT based on their height and world status. If you have actually STUDIED political science, you would have a much better understanding of his intelligence. I was actually laughing when you estimated Trump’s mathematical IQ after ONE failed multiplication. This is why you are not in academia. Stay on the internet — that’s where you belong.
Why do you bullshit so much in your analyses? Putin is 170 cm tall, not 161 cm.
It’s hard to know which source to believe.
This is absolutely pathetic. You do not simply average someone’s INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT based on their height and world status.
I quantified the ENORMOUS standard error in the estimate
If you have actually STUDIED political science, you would have a much better understanding of his intelligence.
Well a Putin expert came up with an estimate similar to my own:
http://www.unz.com/akarlin/putins-iq-is-130/
I was actually laughing when you estimated Trump’s mathematical IQ after ONE failed multiplication.
That post was meant to be somewhat facetious.
Time for an upwards revision?
Putin has essentially used the Paleocons in the U.S. as “his b*tch” much like the Likkuds (of the High-IQ Ashkenazi ethnicity) and the U.S. Neocons.
A Jack-of-all-trade is an individual considered to possess the eight primary forms of intelligence – by scientific standards.
This guy is a master of Jacks and Kings and Queens.
Now, how can someone’s intellect relate to physiognomy, color of skin and so on? This is not scientific findings – merely an exercise of mental masturbation leading to insupportable speculations. It’s okay, there have been worse in Historyan.
In order to reach such political heights in such both difficult and aggressive context at the time Jack seized the lion’s share of post-communism privatizations, I mean, one must have mastered to a profound extent psychology, domestic law, anthropology, philosophy, theology, business, finance, international law, urbanization, government, transports, natural resources, chemistry, security, communication, and the list goes on. Best start at local level and then expand if capable.
And this isn’t the West wherein you need funding, networking and so on. It’s easy, you put the balls on the plate and strive to survive or thrive making some happy, some unhappy. The rules are established.
There, Jack made it alone, he dived into the deepest waters, fought Megalodons and unified what was left of them.
This article estimates an IQ of 127. Fair enough it’s pretty high (about 4% top). But for a man of that caliber I would assume it does not come even close.
The capabilities such as the stamina, the will, the memory, the planning, the charm, the acting, the composure, the perseverance, the authority, the confidence, the cunning, the clairvoyance – to name a few – required to succeed at that level are beyond those of ordinary humans (by that I mean up to Phd who – surprise – are merely expected to remember, analyse and apply as A.I. better do now without the imagination). The most remarkable trait being self-realization (tough to imagine yourself getting anywhere in a single room with rats).
Mine is over 127 and Jack’s in my estimate ‘DJ trumps’ that by a milestone.
From my standpoint, you guys got it not exactly right – over 140 wouldn’t be a stretch. It’s okay too, many people still believe past head of state aren’t that smart or essentially stupid like that assisted governor turning commander-in-chief only because his father was this or that. Smile, say something quirky and wink and that’s it, the world believes you’re a ex-AA happy-go-lucky.
In other words, some kinda genius alike chess Grand masters, a Ramanujan (who turns up at 16 for special interview) only a bit selfish.
Any thoughts on this are welcomed for I could be wrong.
Even if height correlates with IQ, it doesn’t predict anything in one single case (Those correlations are based on population samples and give a mean of AGGREGATED data). Same for wealth. However, I guess Putin has a higher IQ than Odrama. Putin speaks more languages, went to a tech school before graduating in Law school. He outsmarted the oligarchs after the Jeltsin area. He is popular in his own country and he is too the point, i.e. doesn’t like blablabla like Barack Odrama.
I have ‘studied’ Putin for sometime and in my opinion he is highly intelligent (around 150-160. BTW I majored in psychology in 3 months after my Ph.D.
160? I don’t think so. That would make him likely smarter than any president in American history.
Most US Presidents weren’t smart. They win elections or, put more accurately, they are catapulted under the spotlight to win elections. Who knew Obama in 2006? Does anyone remember Reagon worked as salesman for GE? It’s fairytales to believe they are smarter because they ‘lead’.
They do not create. They do not imagine. They do no longer project a vision for and by the people. They are Public Relations experts and follow Federal recommendations with SS scrutiny. They follow agendas by their own party and interest groups.
The US president is primarily responsible for maintaining US financial health vs competitors and acts as ambassador to protect these interests.
Any other consideration such as public/domestic policies is a matter of public debate pushed through congress/commitees – which Presidents have little regards for since Kennedy/Carter.
Now Lincoln, an autodidact, Roosevelt’s new deal and statemen of that calibre were smart. Very smart. They fought foreign aggression, inflation, recession, civil wars, division and chaos altogether during uncertain times wherein US security itself was at risk. Nowadays Presidents tweet and golf or receive Nobel Prizes upon whatever consideration a Swedish clique finds itself indulged in.
But Putin will die in bed having controlled one of earth’s largest and richest territory for decades – without any opposition since he remains one of the saviest businessmen the world has ever seen. Putin built modern Russia. Let me please repeat this for those of you incapable of grasping what intelligence means: he built modern Russia entirely and single-handely. He wrote a constitution. He manufactured both his nation’s finances and industries on a scale unprecedented. He reshaped the defences of his country, he controls the import export, the GDP, the central bank, the politics and the health of Russia. Now please experts enlighten us about something that you cannot comprehend…
A very interesting fact about Putin is the depression he went through – perhaps even a mental breakdown at age 32 which even phd psychology staff fail to mention. He became alcoholic, put on weight while reassessing his life and others as to emulate a sense, a reason for living. It indicates tremendous sensitivity to things. Only intelligent individuals who think and feel constantly can resent existence at times. Few persons in History go through such unstable and destructive mental state and ‘come back’ even stronger – Isaac Newton was one and, mind you, he elevated Gravity within the realm of Things.