The first IQ test wasn’t invented to measure IQ. In 1905, French psychologists developed the Binet-Simon test to identify children who needed individualized help outside of school. Yet, as time went on, psychologists refined the Binet-Simon test and developed many more — and started to attribute performance to someone’s “general intelligence.”
But are IQ tests valid, unbiased measures of general intelligence? They certainly didn’t start out that way, says Stefan C. Dombrowski, a psychologist at Rider University in New Jersey. IQ tests have a dark history of being used to discriminate against racial and ethnic groups, he explains, and ultimately led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people during the eugenics movement.
So, have IQ tests progressed beyond their harrowed past to become a sound measure of intelligence today?
Dombrowski studies the validity of IQ tests using rigorous statistical techniques. He says IQ tests do have meaning and are ...
