Mind over matter.

Most of us believe that one’s intelligence quotient, or “IQ” for short, is the best measure of human potential. But the idea that intelligence, captured as one number, can predict your future success can be very misleading.

Do you IQ?

IQ is a measure of relative intelligence. In 1905, French psychologist Alfred Binet developed the first IQ test to determine which school children were “too slow” to benefit from regular instruction. Binet’s test provided the basis for the modern IQ tests used today (the majority of us have an IQ between 85 and 115). Despite their popularity, however, intelligence tests as predictors of success have long been criticized.

Research shows brainiacs are good at logical, linear, and computational tasks. But excelling in the real world often requires other characteristics such as setting realistic goals and possessing moral virtues such as honesty, rigor, and fair-mindedness. Good deciders also develop an ability to stay focused, control emotional impulses, and persist (maturity traps*). These capabilities are not measured by standard intelligence tests. So if simply being intelligent doesn’t determine the maturity of your judgment, what does?

Or EQ?

Our emotional intelligence quotient, or “EQ,” says psychologist Daniel Goleman (2005), is the ability to monitor our own and other’s feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide our thinking and actions. Perhaps the most visible emotional skills, the ones we recognize most readily, are “people skills” like empathy, graciousness, and the ability to read a social situation.

According to Goleman, EQ contributes about 20% to the factors that determine success in college and beyond, even if our classical IQ is average. And while a high EQ alone is not sufficient to determine our ultimate success in life, understanding our self, our emotions, and the emotions of others is certainly an important component in making smart life-choices (evaluate your own emotional intelligence).

Maybe RQ?

Being rational means acting to achieve our own life goals using the best means possible. In What Intelligence Tests Miss (2014), psychologist Keith explains that individuals differ in the tendency to make errors of judgment and decision-making and makes the case for measuring one’s rational intelligence quotient, or “RQ.” Common IQ tests do not directly assess processes of rational thinking, yet people (including scientists) often talk as if they were.

Stanovich tells us that individuals with high IQs are as likely as others to go for quick, easy answers, adopt beliefs that preclude rational thinking, or be unaware of the rules of chance and probability. In other words, smart people do dumb-ass things too. What really matters, he says, is collecting information before making up your mind, seeking various points of view before you come to a conclusion, and thinking about future consequences before taking action.

Only your hairdresser knows for sure.

Better still, short circuit all that shrink-wrapped mumbo jumbo and simply ask a tribal elder to assess your level of common sense (see: Ask and you shall receive). Don’t confuse common sense with intelligence or experience though; there are kids in elementary school who demonstrate more common sense than some very intelligent adults!

• People may be “task smart” (technically competent), but not “people smart” as they lack interpersonal skills and are poor communicators.
• Your feelings are not someone else’s fault—they are your own. In the heat of the moment, step back to identify how you feel and why you feel that way. It’s your responsibility to handle emotional responses correctly.
• Understanding your emotions is really the only way to overcome them. People with a high EQ level tend to observe what they are feeling objectively, almost as if they are having an out of body experience with their emotions. They know when to wait and when to act.
• Fear in new experiences is totally normal. If you have problems making sense of your emotions, the easiest solution (although not always easy to execute) is: wait until later and/or discuss your fears with a tribal elder.
• High RQ people are prone to be long-range thinkers and control their impulsivity better by overriding it with the logical, thinking brain.

Young Einsteins, consider how IQ, EQ, and RQ might hinder you being recognized as the geniuses you are. For me, it’s BBQ that matters, thank you! (If you don’t mind.)

* Questionable beliefs can “trap” our better judgment, leading to poor decisions and unintended consequences. Maturity traps make it difficult for us to control our emotional impulses and reflect on the long-term consequences of our decisions. Learn more about this, and other traps, in the Young Person’s Guide to Wisdom, Power, and Life Success.

Image credit: “Einstein image” by clkr.com, in the public domain (2016).