Zone of IQ gap accommodation

A useful answer to an interesting question.

I have long wondered, in an idle fashion, whether there are materially measurable negative effects when two people with widely different IQs communicate with one another.  A different way to put the same issue is; Is there a lowering of the communication content bandwidth when communicating between high and low IQ individuals?  Yet another version might be; Is there communication signal degradation and noise increase when there is communication between high and low IQ individuals?

The knee jerk answer feels like it should be yes.  That there probably is some magnitude of gap past which communication becomes difficult or ineffective.

On the other hand, there are all sorts of social work-arounds and accommodations which lessen the IQ differential issue.  People out of a strongly Classical Liberal or egalitarian cultural orientation likely have multiple social adaptations to maximize the effectiveness of communication independent of IQ gaps.

In my career as a management consultant, I have been fortunate enough to have had occasion to work with people from many walks of professional life ranging from low income customers of clients and people in jobs with little challenge to them all the way up to CEOs, major university researchers, sophisticated bankers, lawyers and investors.  

Do I moderate my communication style to the audience with whom I am working?  Sure.  Have I ever encountered an occasion where an IQ gap presented an insurmountable barrier?  I don't think so.  In my experience, by far the greater issue is gaps between World Views, Mental Models, and Fundamental Beliefs.  Getting a dyed-in-the-wool authoritarian statist and a Classical Liberal to understand one another's thoughts and conclusions is much more challenging than to get a 85 IQ person and 115 IQ person to understand one another's thinking and conclusions.  

The IQ gap question is an interesting question which seems facially to have an obvious answer but about which there are plenty of reasons to have low confidence in just how obvious the answer might be.

And as often happens, if you wait long enough, someone comes along with the same question and some suggestive answers.

From Can you only talk to people within X IQ of your own? by Emil o. Kirkegaard.  The subheading is Looking into the communication range idea

The whole essay is an interesting recap of the history of the question, an untangling of common misunderstandings, and a marshaling of the available data and research.  It is apparently a question of at least eighty years heritage, research has been mixed and usually inadequate, though getting better.  We still don't know the answer with great certainty but the totality of the data and research seem to lean towards the following conclusions (from Kirkegaard's essay):

Conclusions

There is an idea of a communication range or zone of tolerance, variously attributed to Arthur Jensen, Leta Hollingworth and probably others, but which really was promoted by Grady M. Towers, a Mensa-type with mental problems. The idea is that you cannot talk effectively or connect properly with other humans outside some IQ range (20-30).

Evidence for this claim is scant and pretty weak. Best case is a study of business leaders showing a non-monotonic effect of intelligence on some aspects of perceived (subordinate-rated) leadership ability.

But it is true that people cluster by intelligence. We knew that already. This is just a special case of social homophily, or assortative mating in terms of dating. Birds of a feather flock together. I'm sure a typical gifted person will have trouble relating to average intelligence people, but fortunately, it is pretty easy to find other smart people these days.

In the Terman sample (very old!), the very bright people had somewhat more loneliness and social adjustment issues the smarter they were, probably related to their inability to find friends back then.

If you think you are very, very smart, and can't relate to others, and think everybody is too stupid to talk to, the problem doesn't have much to do with intelligence, but with your other issues.

There is a not dissimilar question I have seen discussed.  Is there an IQ optimum?  Specifically, some argue that the benefits of being smarter max out at around 120 IQ.  Others argue that there is no inflection point; higher IQ is always net beneficial.  

My read of the research is that there is no inflection point and Kirkegaard's evidence matches that as well.  Another open and unresolved question but which I treat as moderately settled.  

My conclusions are:

There is no upward bound to the benefits of higher IQ though the nature and mix of benefits may change along the curve.

Communication is a complex technical and social act of mutual benefit and that complications from behavior, cultural norms and values, experience, personality, etc. materially outweigh any challenges created by IQ gaps.

Life outcomes, productivity and effectiveness are the result of a complex interplay of Capabilities (such as IQ), Knowledge, Experience, Skills, Values, Behavior, Motivation, and Personality.  IQ effects are influential but not nearly fully determinative.

As with any complicated issue that is poorly or under-researched, the answers are contingent.

UPDATE:  And the very next email I look at is an example of the great communication quagmire which can occur for any of a variety of reasons.  This is from NextDoor with a neighbor wanting to know what happened to a framing shop that appears to have closed or moved.

It reads as if there is a huge IQ gap - some people answer an entirely different question.  Others are confused about what is being discussed.  Others misidentify the location the shop was in while other misidentify where it moved.  Yet others are answering a different question.  Someone chips in personal memories of the location.  All with good intent and politely.  I am confident that this is not an IQ gap issue - this is just the weirdness of communication among heterogeneous individuals without shared knowledge, experience, skills, values, capabilities, motivations, norms, etc.  

Dana A

Does anyone know what happened to that framing shop at Toco Hill? Did they move or go out of business?

Edited for clarity: I mean the one that used to be one or two doors down from Kroger.

Eileen B

On north druid hills rd next door to barbershop

Dana A

Eileen - I'm sorry, could you please be a little more specific? NDH is a very long road LOL.

Judy C

2980 North Druid Hills Rd, going east after you cross Clairmont, it is just past first traffic signal at Spring Creek Rd.  Excellent framing. Used their services for years.  Beware: Beautiful framing seems to be expensive at most any frame shop.

Dana A

Judy do you mean 3326 N Druid Hills? 2980 is a burnt out building for some time now.

Judy C

Dana -  Sorry … guess I never changed the street number on my Contacts list. Tks for correction.  But I think my directions are correct.  I live almost across the street from them.

Steve B.

They do excellent work!

Bob D

THEY  ARE ON  NORTH DRUID HILLS == DOWN THE  HILL , HEADING  TOWARD LAWRENCEVILLE  HWY .  ON  THE  LEFT   FROM  THE  OLD  LOCATION

Judy C

Bob -   “Down the Hill” is what some folks call the North Druid Hills Speedway. My daughter used to listen to cars drag racing there in the middle of the night. 😂 Then they moved on to doing wheelies at large intersections.

Coile E

I think there is now a new frame shop in Toco Hills: Carolyn Budd Framing.

Judy C

It’s on upper end of shopping center, close to Kroger.

Sandra F

Caroline Budd is wonderful. Excellent framing.

Tom G

The frame shop that is now down NDruid Hills used to be across from Publix.

On the other hand, perhaps this is an example of C.S. Lewis's contention that Women speak a language without nouns.