High-IQ society

Entry requirements

High-IQ societies typically accept a variety of IQ tests for membership eligibility; these include WAIS, Stanford-Binet, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, amongst many others deemed to sufficiently measure or correlate with intelligence. Tests deemed to insufficiently correlate with intelligence (e.g. post-1994 SAT, in the case of Mensa and Intertel) are not accepted for admission.{{Cite web |access-date=2019-01-24 |access-date=2019-01-24 |access-date=2019-01-24 |editor1-last=Heller |editor1-first=Kurt A. |editor2-last=Mönks |editor2-first=Franz J. |editor3-last=Sternberg |editor3-first=Robert J. |editor3-link=Robert Sternberg |editor4-last=Subotnik |editor4-first=Rena F. |display-editors = 3 |editor1-last=Sternberg |editor1-first=Robert J. |editor1-link=Robert Sternberg |editor2-last=Kaufman |editor2-first=Scott Barry

All notable high-IQ societies agree in accepting only tests from traditional testing environments.

Demographics

People who choose to join high-IQ societies, especially those focused on highest levels, tend not to be as successful as expected according to conventional social standards. For example, in contrast to the general expectation that being intelligent correlates with financial success, they often have relatively low-paid jobs or have difficulty obtaining and maintaining steady employment. They may struggle to maintain intimate relationships. They are frequently lonely and feel like they are outsiders, and join for a sense of belonging. The skew towards many members having relatively low life success may be due to selection; that is, the over-representation of "lonely, frustrated, and socially awkward" people in high-IQ societies may be because happy, well-adjusted, middle-class people with high IQs do not seek out high-IQ societies, but the people who are not doing well do seek them out.

Societies

Some societies accept the results of standardized tests taken elsewhere. Those are listed below by selectivity percentile (assuming the now-standard definition of IQ as a standard score with a median of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 IQ points). Mensa is by far the largest high-IQ society, but since the 1960s, various new groups have been founded with even stricter admissions requirements.

Ultrahigh IQ groups are frequently short-lived organizations. Their internal disagreements (e.g., over which entrance tests to accept) often result in organizations splintering. For example, the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry (previously called The Thousand, and before that, MENS), which was founded to out-do The MM Society. It then split to produce the Triple Nine Society, and then the Triple Nine Society split to produce the Cincinnatus Society. Ronald K. Hoeflin has founded or co-founded seven different high-IQ societies.

Notable high-IQ societies include:

References

References

1. Groeger, Lena. (January 1, 2015). "When High IQs Hang Out: "Genius" societies offer a social network for the top tier of test takers".
2. (2019-11-26). "The rise of children joining high-IQ society Mensa". BBC News.
3. Percival, Matt. (8 September 2008). "The Quest for Genius".
4. "American Mensa Celebrates Its Diamond Jubilee".
8. Lewis, Helen. (2025-06-04). "A High IQ Makes You an Outsider, Not a Genius".
9. Groeger, Lena. (2012). "When High Iqs Hang Out". Scientific American Mind.
10. Schregel, Susanne. (2020-12-01). "'The intelligent and the rest': British Mensa and the contested status of high intelligence". History of the Human Sciences.
11. Miyaguchi, Darryl. "A Short (and Bloody) History of the High I.Q. Societies".
12. Sternberg, Robert J.. (2023-01-02). "Toxic Giftedness". Roeper Review.
13. . (2022). ["About Us"](https://www.mensa.org/mensa/about-us).
14. "Intertel - Home".
15. . (2022). ["What is TNS?"](https://www.triplenine.org/WhatisTNS.aspx).