Aspergers and MENSA

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Are you a member of Mensa? Yes? No? Why? Do you want to?

(Mensa is an organisation for people with very high IQs.)

I did one of their long form IQ tests many years ago out of curiosity. The result meant I qualified for membership, but I wasn't interested in joining. Interestingly, my EQ is the total opposite of my IQ. Apparently I've got the EQ of a cabbage.

I tried but bombed the test...

Abandoning any semblance of modesty, I could probably join some high IQ society, but I wouldn't want to since I much prefer the company of people with average intelligence.

Smart people who do not have any mental illness in my experience are more likely to be, well, douchebags

But that's a stupid generalisation, I just haven't met a lot of smart people I liked, one time when when I was 12 I was alking home with a boy of average intelligence who said to me "yeah but you're actually nice, not like most smart people"

My favorite people are shy, creative, kind, on my list of things I'd like in a partner, a high IQ is never something I care about, some of the nicest people I know have been fools.

Mensa is an organisation of clever people who are nevertheless dumb enough to believe the manifold diversities of human intelligence can be adequately represented by a short number. I doubt M. Binet would approve.

Top 2%. It's not really "very high"; that's just the smart kid in your elementary school class.

And, no. I honestly don't have much in common with those people. The thing that attracts me to people is when they like to learn; that has no IQ requirements.

Also, MENSA has a higher risk than usual of containing people who are entirely too full of themselves and believe that a high IQ makes you superior. I'm staying away from that if I can. So are a lot of the sensible smart people who could otherwise join.

Of course there's the IQ requirement. How the heck am I supposed to fit into that? It's like, "Well, I'm one in a thousand over here, but I'm below average over there, and this thing I can't do at all, but I can do this so well I've never met anybody else who can get close; and this other thing I learned really well because I worked my butt off..." How does that fit into a single IQ score again?

I just took their workout test. I didn't really try much, and I'm not highly educated... its been a year since I went to any school.(last finished school was highschool)
however. I scored a 20/30... I feel kinda good about myself for once!

I could probably get in if I really wanted to. But I don't care. I don't need a high IQ score to know that I'm smarter than about 98% of people I know.

There's an uncomfortable air of smugness about Mensa. Even though they say their events are an opportunity to meet like-minded people, bla, bla, there doesn't seem much reason for anyone to join except to boast about it. So why become a boaster, or want to be in the company of boasters?

I've only been to one meeting so far, but I didn't experience any boasting. There were some nerdy science jokes, but most of the time we talked about movies and South Park. One of the local chapter officers even said that getting into Mensa doesn't necessarily mean you're more intelligent than anybody else, just that you probably tend to do well on standardized tests.

Mensa is mostly for losers who think that being good at solving some useless puzzles makes them special. In my opinion, being special (if that's what is important to you) means making some important contribution to some discipline. Compare Richard Feynman whose IQ puzzling abilities were better than normal (but nothing spectacular) to someone who was talented in these puzzles (Christopher Langan). The latter's contributions were/are nil while Feynman's are immense. The reason being, solving IQ puzzles probably doesn't measure all that much except the ability to do such puzzles.

I'd be interested in taking the test just to see how I do. I don't know if I'd want to be a part of that club, though. I don't need to go to a smart people's club to know that I'm smart, if I do score that high.

Cognitive dissonance is at work in this thread. The fox and the sour grapes by Aesop.

Aside from that...

I joined Mensa in my teens. Found it off putting. And I didn't really participate. Rejoined for a very brief period in my mid 20s, found it off-putting and didn't really participate.

I like the idea of Mensa, but the actuality of it is rather dull. And, while socializing with "smart" people, in concept, may seem appealing...in the end, it is still socializing, and tiring.

There are some minor perks for being a member though. And while I don’t get personal satisfaction from using it as a “bragging right”…doing so does have actual effect of real world consequence. Claiming membership on a resume, for example, is a positive and effective “brag” that has a net effect of real world benefit.

Me and my brother both don't like Mensa. My step-dad is a member and (as my brother puts it) he is so 'up on himself'. He thinks he is better than everyone else because he has a really high IQ but put him in a real life social situation and he's completely screwed! We're pretty sure now that he has undiagnosed AS (he himself has suggested it), hence the huge difference between his IQ and ability to talk to people.

I think the other reason me and my brother object to Mensa is because they measure intelligence based upon maths. I have a SLD in maths but that doesn't make me stupid does it? According to Mensa standards, yes, yes it does. On the other hand I got A grade English (I would have got A* if it wasn't for that loud distracting room ), I can sing and play (on the piano) music from memory and I know almost everything there is to know about small animals.

Lol maybe it's just sour grapes though eh?

I've been a member twice. I took the Mensa test in my mid-20s because it was the cheapest IQ test I could find, and got a year's membership for the price. But I didn't go out for anything and was put off by the newsletter. People arguing about nothing for the fun of it.

I rejoined after my last office job didn't work out, for the networking. But I found it difficult to be in an organization that didn't deal with the isolation gifted people can suffer from (independent of disability). So I moved on to the Triple 9 Society (99.9th percentile) where they did talk about isolation, and referred me to research on the subject. But the discussion group was too controversial for my taste, so I didn't stay on.

BTW, the people at TNS sometimes referred to Mensa as "Densa", but at the same time they put it on their resumes so people won't assume they're stupid for thinking differently.

I think if one is going to join a high IQ society it should at least be something like the TNS where it is actually reasonably hard to get in. Mensa is only the top 2% or so. The idea of joining a club to do fun brain teasers and puzzles sounds enjoyable. I enjoy taking IQ tests and doing brain teasers for fun. However I don't know of any IQ society whose purpose is this.

Can you elaborate a bit on your experience in the TNS? I am curious to hear someone's opinion about it who has been or is a member. From what I heard about it, it has really put me off. I don't like the idea of IQ societies taking themselves so seriously.

Actually I have never liked IQ societies at all.