How to increase your IQ level ?

[Thermal]

Things are great, honey bun, I think my IQ reached at least 40 today, maybe even close to 50, when I invented a new way to glue my fingers together! Great stuff, super glue. Especially if you don't manage to poke a hole in the tube with the thingy you were going to glue to that other thingy!

Great to hear, sugar dumpling! Tune in that radio station to some thrash punk and we'll have you joining the ranks of the sentient in no time!

 

[Helen]

Great to hear, sugar dumpling! Tune in that radio station to some thrash punk and we'll have you joining the ranks of the sentient in no time!

Will do, snugglebug, and thanks a bunch for encouraging me!

 

[Thermal]

I'm feeling like this thread title is a question people ask OP with some frequency while staring at him.

 

[arthwollipot]

Some people might think that 1000 IQ points is the limit, but I don't think so.

Pardon my ignorance, but can you please tell me exactly what a "point" of IQ represents?

 

[EHocking]

Things are great, honey bun, I think my IQ reached at least 40 today, maybe even close to 50, when I invented a new way to glue my fingers together! Great stuff, super glue. Especially if you don't manage to poke a hole in the tube with the thingy you were going to glue to that other thingy!

I know right?

I can’t seem to get super glue to actually glue anything together as advertised, except for my damned fingers.

 

[JayUtah]

For cynanoacrylate glue to be really effective you need to use a catalyst (a.k.a. "accelerator" or "activator"). And use polyethylene gloves to prevent sticking to skin.

 

[EHocking]

<searches pantry for baking soda>

 

[Helen]

For cynanoacrylate glue to be really effective you need to use a catalyst (a.k.a. "through or "activator"). And use polyethylene gloves to prevent sticking to skin.

Oh. I see. You're supposed to actually think it through before you do it, and not just do it on impulse? Interesting concept!

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Oh. I see. You're supposed to actually think it through before you do it, and not just do it on impulse? Interesting concept!

Mind you I have (or possibly did have) a bottle of superglue release agent in the medicine drawer. I use superglues quite a lot when 3D printing.

 

[dann]

Pardon my ignorance, but can you please tell me exactly what a "point" of IQ represents?

Intelligence quotient (Wikipedia)
IQ scales are ordinally scaled. The raw score of the norming sample is usually (rank order) transformed to a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. While one standard deviation is 15 points, and two SDs are 30 points, and so on, this does not imply that mental ability is linearly related to IQ, such that IQ 50 would mean half the cognitive ability of IQ 100. In particular, IQ points are not percentage points.

The funny thing about IQ is that, since it's based on the average score of a population, your IQ will rise if your IQ score remains the same but the scores of everybody else is lowered, i.e. the opposite of the Flynn effect. Long COVID brain fog, for instance, might have that effect.

It is probably the only way Trump could raise his IQ, which may be why he loves the poorly educated, lowers the quality of education, and increases poverty in the general population. Even the promotion of "beautiful, clean coal" may contribute to this.

When asked what may lower the IQ score of a population, Google mentions four categories and lists "key factors":

1. environmental Toxins and Health Factors
* lead exposure
* air pollution
* chronic diseases & malnutrition
* alcohol & drug use
2. Educational and Environmental Changes
* deterioration of educational quality
* information-age technology (screen time)
* atrophy of cognitive effort
* environmental deprivation
3. Nutrition and Lifestyle
* processed diets
* reduced nutritional intake
* sedentary lifestyle
4. Societal and Socioeconomic Factors
* poverty & environmental stress
* atrophy of social interaction

 

[Vixen]

The funny thing about IQ is that, since it's based on the average score of a population, your IQ will rise if your IQ score remains the same but the scores of everybody else is lowered, i.e. the opposite of the Flynn effect. Long COVID brain fog, for instance, might have that effect.

It is probably
the only way Trump could raise his IQ, which may be why he loves the poorly educated, lowers the quality of education, and increases poverty in the general population. Even the promotion of "beautiful, clean coal" may contribute to this.

When asked what may lower the IQ score of a population, Google mentions four categories and lists "key factors":

Will 'Trump' be the new 'Godwin's Law' invocation for all things stupid and idiotic?

 

[Vixen]

The funny thing about IQ is that, since it's based on the average score of a population, your IQ will rise if your IQ score remains the same but the scores of everybody else is lowered, i.e. the opposite of the Flynn effect. Long COVID brain fog, for instance, might have that effect.

It is probably the only way Trump could raise his IQ, which may be why he loves the poorly educated, lowers the quality of education, and increases poverty in the general population. Even the promotion of "beautiful, clean coal" may contribute to this.

When asked what may lower the IQ score of a population, Google mentions four categories and lists "key factors":

Google seems to have missed out the hereditary factor, estimated by some to be 80%.

 

[dann]

Another interesting point in Wikipedia's article:

Intelligence quotient: Reliability and validity: Age
For decades, practitioners' handbooks and textbooks on IQ testing have reported IQ declines with age after the beginning of adulthood. However, later researchers pointed out this phenomenon is related to the Flynn effect and is in part a cohort effect rather than a true aging effect. A variety of studies of IQ and aging have been conducted since the norming of the first Wechsler Intelligence Scale drew attention to IQ differences in different age groups of adults. Both cohort effects (the birth year of the test-takers) and practice effects (test-takers taking the same form of IQ test more than once) must be controlled to gain accurate data. It is unclear whether any lifestyle intervention can preserve fluid intelligence into older ages.

As for age and mental decline, I love this idea:

Dance this 10 minutes a day. One move cuts dementia risk by 76% (on YouTube, April 21, 2026 – 24:25. min.)
One specific activity cuts dementia risk by 76% — and it isn't running, swimming, or anything you'd find in a gym. Harvard Medical School research cited by Dr. Trisha Pasricha shows that dancing outperforms reading (35% risk reduction), crossword puzzles (47%), and even regular aerobic exercise, which had almost no measurable effect on cognitive outcomes. In 2026, Kyoto University confirmed that dancing is especially powerful during subjective cognitive decline — the window between normal aging and early dementia, when intervention still works.
00:00 - Dancing cuts dementia risk 76%
00:47 - Why your brain is degrading
01:32 - Motor monotony explained
02:06 - Harvard study: dancing vs. exercise
03:04 - Kyoto University 2026 findings
03:46 - Patient story: Carol
04:28 - How the brain processes dance
05:16 - 6 brain regions firing at once
06:12 - Training the cerebellum
07:07 - Why your spine is starving
08:15 - The full-body spinal wave
09:07 - Spine and internal organs link
09:53 - The joint destruction myth
10:30 - Knee bounce mechanics
11:27 - Frozen shoulder prevention
12:34 - Hip rotation as therapy
13:29 - Patient story: James
13:36 - Pelvic floor and hip spasm
14:15 - Work your restricted side
14:48 - Dancing as cardio
15:34 - Bone density and osteoporosis
16:19 - Back extension and spine muscles
17:02 - Leg strength and circulation
18:02 - Dopamine, serotonin, endorphins
19:03 - Cortisol drops 25-40%
19:51 - Australian research findings
20:27 - Dance therapy for Parkinson's
20:48 - Age and neuroplasticity
21:50 - 5 things to do starting today

Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly (NEJM, 2003)
However, it was an observational study, not an RCT. So, correlation or causation???

A more recent meta analysis:

The Effectiveness of Dance Interventions on Psychological and Cognitive Health Outcomes Compared with Other Forms of Physical Activity: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis (NIH/PubMed, Jan 25, 2024)
Conclusion: Undertaking structured dance of any genre is generally equally and occasionally more effective than other types of structured exercise for improving a range of psychological and cognitive outcomes.

Based on my own experience, there few things are as mentally as well as physiologically challenging as this kind of dancing:
Rueda de Casino Sabor Cubano in Santiago (Amanda Gill on YouTube, Jan 25, 2012 – 6 min.)

And unlike lifting weights or spinning, it's actually fun! (To say nothing about IQ training!)

 

[dann]

Google seems to have missed out the hereditary factor, estimated by some to be 80%.

No, no, not at all. Notice that this was about "the IQ score of a population."
And nobody seriously believe that this, e.g. the Flynn effect, has anything to do with hereditary factors.
There is no reason to think that the reverse (the 'Noflynn effect?) might be due to that.
The fascists among IQ theoreticians usually attribute it to immigration.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

My IQ seems have gone up at least 2000 points since I stopped following this thread.

YMMV.

 

[arthwollipot]

There's a big difference between raising your IQ and preventing or mitigating the effects of dementia.

 

[dann]

There is, and there isn't.
Your IQ depends on the IQ test score of your peers, which means that, in spite of the Flynn effect, the IQ score of a population is always 100. It was something I wasn't aware of until a Danish TV show, Test Nationen, ran an IQ test of Danes twenty years ago, and I noticed that I would get an 'IQ bonus' because of the year of my birth (four or five points, IIRC).
So if you maintain the level of your ability to do IQ tests by "preventing or mitigating the effects of dementia," but a large proportion of people of your generation doesn't, which is more than likely, it should increase your IQ score even though your test results (before the age bonus) stay the same.
The lower the score of people your age gets, the higher your IQ score will be because it will increase your IQ bonus.
IQ testers probably have an argument for why this shouldn't be the case – much the same way they contradict themselves when talking about IQ and 'g' – but it ought to be, due to what IQ actually means.

 

[Vixen]

There is, and there isn't.
Your IQ depends on the IQ test score of your peers, which means that, in spite of the Flynn effect, the IQ score of a population is always 100. It was something I wasn't aware of until a Danish TV show, Test Nationen, ran an IQ test of Danes twenty years ago, and I noticed that I would get an 'IQ bonus' because of the year of my birth (four or five points, IIRC).
So if you maintain the level of your ability to do IQ tests by "preventing or mitigating the effects of dementia," but a large proportion of people of your generation doesn't, which is more than likely, it should increase your IQ score even though your test results (before the age bonus) stay the same.
The lower the score of people your age gets, the higher your IQ score will be because it will increase your IQ bonus.
IQ testers probably have an argument for why this shouldn't be the case – much the same way they contradict themselves when talking about IQ and 'g' – but it ought to be, due to what IQ actually means.

Not quite right. You are assessed according to your age group, hence, under-16's would get a weighting, which led to inflated scores in some cases, often due to fast development, precociousness, etc. However, for an adult it's generally believed you've reached your peak at about age 12, fitting in with Piaget's developmental stage of understanding abstract concepts, such as consistency of volume when pouring water from a tall glass into a wide one, for example. Things such as Alzheimer's, and other illnesses affecting cognitive reasoning, wouldn't be treated as 'normal' (=organic disease). My psychology tutor used to inform us the average mental age of the elderly was just nine-years-old but perhaps he was including the (sadly) senile. Senility is not inevitable.

 

[W.D.Clinger]

Senility is not inevitable.

Gorgias, born 2500+ years ago, is now so senile that he's little more than a front for AI.

So we have to wonder whether @wise47, who has established "indisputably" that he used to be Gorgias, is now the artificially intelligent modern incarnation of a senile sophist. Which might explain his inhuman IQ.

 

[Vixen]

Weird how people always claim to be reincarnated from someone influential; never from a yeast organism or a frog.