Jordan Peterson, a well-known advocate for young men, is a famous Canadian professor and psychologist. He’s also an incredibly smart person, which is clearly evident by listening to him speak or reading his books. But, how high is his IQ?
Jordan Peterson has an IQ of exactly 145, although he stated as a younger man he received a score of exactly 156. The decrease of 11 points he credited to being normal with in the aging process. His IQ test score of above 145 puts him in the top 99 percent of intelligence compared to other human beings according to the Brain Metrics Initiative (BMI).
Interestingly, Peterson said that when he tested his IQ as a younger man, he was smarter then because IQ declines with age. So, he thinks his IQ has dipped slightly over time, coinciding with getting older.
Another point that Peterson made about IQ is that people can be very smart in different categories, but not as high in others. Using himself as an example, he said that his verbal IQ is off the charts, meaning 99.9th percentile, but his quantitative IQ is the equivalent of the 75th percentile, or upper 25% of people.
Also see: What is Joe Rogan’s IQ? (Rogan took a test online that I took too, and you can as well).
Peterson Thinks IQ Metrics Are Very Important
Peterson places a lot of focus on IQ, stating that it is the most important metric for future career and academic success. And he would know, because he studies human behavior for a living. He’s also a distinguished professor and has become extremely successful in his career/business endeavors.
“It is reasonable to point out that the correlation between IQ and academic performance, the correlation between IQ and long term career success – the size of that correlation is bigger than virtually anything that social scientists have ever discovered.”
– Jordan Peterson on IQ validity
Also see: The Top 10 Jordan Peterson Tips on Relationships & Love
Peterson’s Verbal IQ Is “Off The Charts”
IQ can be broken down into different sections or categories, which people can rank higher or lower on. It just so happens that Peterson’s verbal IQ, the ability to speak and form sentences is remarkably high. He even said so himself, calling his verbal IQ “off the charts.”
“I can hold my own verbally, and I’m rarely in a situation where I’m at a disadvantage verbally but that is certainly not the case quantitatively.”
-Jordan Peterson on his verbal IQ
If you listen to him speak, his high verbal IQ is obvious within a few minutes of him talking. It is a significant reason he has such a strong following on the internet across young men. His videos reach millions of views, and when he speaks in public, he sells out auditoriums.
When looking at people with highly gifted IQs, Peterson says that there are many different ways to be intelligent. When qualifying his IQ, he says that his quantitative IQ is nowhere close to how high his verbal IQ is. Quantitative IQ is associated with your abilities with numbers, and manifests itself in the STEM career fields such as mathematics, engineering, and physics.
As you move up the IQ ranks of percentiles, the more the IQ variants show themselves. This simply means that there are different ways to be intelligent (quantitative, verbal, spatial IQ, pattern recognition, etc.). On the contrary, if you move down the scale, there is only one way to be dumb.
Peterson on Aging and IQ Maintenance
Even though Peterson is extremely bright nowadays, he suggests that he was even smarter when he was younger. He says that IQ declines as we age, and that he scored above 150 when he was a younger man. “It is less than it used to be because it declines as you age, quite a lot,” said Peterson.
Amazingly, Peterson said that we start get stupider at the young age of 21 or 22 years old. That age is considered peak for cognitive levels, although you still continue to accrue important knowledge, both factual and experience. However, that young age is profound for brain pathways and speed, working to solve problems.
In this short YouTube clip, Peterson says the best thing you can do to maintain a high IQ is to do vigorous exercise. He suggests both weightlifting and cardiovascular exercise as part of a fitness regimen.
Another thing that Peterson does is eat the Carnivore diet, a diet consisting of all-meat. It sounds insane, but he has talked about it quite a bit, and influenced Joe Rogan to try it as well.
It is unclear if the carnivore diet does anything to effect IQ, but it does anecdotally improve autoimmune disorders and depression based off comments from Jordan Peterson, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson, and Joe Rogan. Rogan has an autoimmune disorder called vitiligo that effects the color pigmentation of his skin.
Also see: What skin disorder does Joe Rogan have?
Peterson on IQ Tests
Peterson touched on a rather unknown idea that IQ tests are actually all around us. Tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT, and ASVAB are all essentially IQ tests, or tests that show a person meets the minimum qualifications of intelligence to continue on that path.
Even prestige universities like Harvard and Yale use strenuous qualifying standards to show a person has a high IQ through testing. The real value of these educational diplomas comes from the qualifying and screening that it took to get into the university, Peterson suggested.
Peterson talked about what IQ tests are and gave his own idea of how to create an outstanding one. He said that they are basically just a huge library of questions that take skill or knowledge to answer.
Peterson’s suggestion for creating an IQ Test:
- Number equations to test math (Ex. What is 2 x 68?)
- Knowledge questions (Ex. What is capital of Georgia?)
- Basic knowledge + writing (Ex. How do define hypertension?)
- Pattern completion testing (Ex. What is the next shape in the pattern in the sequence?)
- Working memory testing (Ex. Remember these numbers and then answer them back)
If you take the average of all the people taking an IQ test, the score should be 100 (middle of the pack). If you get hundreds of people to take the test, the results are remarkably consistent.
If you repeated the test to the same group of people but with similar questions, the results and rank order would be nearly identical with less than a 1% difference. Wow!
*****
Thanks for reading!
