Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!burdvax!bpa!sjuvax!tmoody
From: tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Society for extremely gifted people
Message-ID: <1204@sjuvax.UUCP>
Date: 10 Mar 88 03:47:14 GMT
References: <7550@apple.Apple.Com> <3660001@otter.hple.hp.com>
Reply-To: tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody)
Organization: St. Joseph's University, Phila. PA.
Lines: 45

In article <3660001@otter.hple.hp.com> gjh@otter.hple.hp.com (Graham Higgins) writes:
>Some time ago the pseudo-science magazine "Omni" published a 4-sigma I.Q.
>test designed by one of the leading lights of Mensa. The "4-sigma" tag to
>the test reflected the designer's belief that successful attempts at the
>test could only be made by people whose I.Q. was at least 4 standard
>deviation intervals above the mean - I cannot be bothered to work out right
>now what that is supposed to map out to (160/170+, I think). Some of the
>rationale behind the test was included with the questions. The *reported
>fact* (please note the hearsay nature of this source) which gave me most 
>cause for thought was that the test designer had created the test
>to aid him in his finding "a woman that he didn't have to talk down to."
>(well, that's what the gist of it was). It looks like there's intelligence
>and "intelligence".

The author of this test was Kevin Langdon, of California (Berkeley area,
I think).  Indeed, I think the test was called the "Langdon Adult
Intelligence Test."  It selected candidates for the "Four Sigma
Society", which Langdon also founded.  I believe (but am not sure) that
that society is now defunct.  I read an interview with Langdon (not in
_Omni_) in which he was reported to have made that remark about women. 
The cutoff IQ for the 4Sigma was, by the way, 164.

Many people do not realize that there is something of an "IQ subculture"
out there.  Mensa is only its most visible landmark.  There is also the
"Triple Nine Society" (IQ = 150+), "Intertel" (IQ=140, I think), the
"International Society for Philosophical Enquiry" (IQ=150+, plus a
"vocabulary test"), the "Cincinnatus Society" (IQ=150+), the "Prometheus
Society" (this may be the old 4Sigma), and the "Mega Society" (scores at
the one/million level).  Langdon has even been instrumental in
organizing an inter-society "IQmenical Conference" once or twice.

The _Omni_ thing was something of a scandal.  Langdon received
*thousands* of paid answer sheets, and was unable to cope with the
volume.  Most of those people never received their scores, and
complained to _Omni_, and so forth...  A couple of years later, _Omni_
published another IQ test, this one by Ron Hoeflin.  It was the "Mega
Test", designed to select candidates for the Mega Society.

The founder of the Cincinnatus Society is Grady Ward.  He is on the net,
and may indeed want to share with us his views on the nature and
rationale of IQ societies.

-- 
Todd Moody * {allegra|astrovax|bpa|burdvax}!sjuvax!tmoody * SJU Phil. Dept.
    "The wind is not moving.  The flag is not moving.  Mind is moving."