Lawyers fall behind in IQ study
Lawyers have become less intelligent compared to the average person over thelast decade, research from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation
(CMPO) has revealed.
Lawyers have become less intelligent compared to the average person over the last decade, research from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation
(CMPO) has revealed.
The study compared IQ scores for lawyers born in 1958 to those born in 1970 - who are currently climbing the ranks of law firms and barristers’ chambers.
Lawyers in the earlier group scored 11 per cent better than the average, but the 1970 group were just 8 per cent more intelligent.
This was a greater fall than the majority of other professions where the gap narrowed by around 1 percentage point.
Despite the shrinking ability gap, lawyers are now more likely to have come from a wealthier background than those born in the fifties, with the family income for the parents of lawyers increasing much faster than the average (TheLawyer.com 2 Feb 2009).
Lindsey Macmillan, a researcher at the Bristol University-based CMPO, said:
“Despite the fact that lawyers are looking a lot less like the average person in terms of their family income, they are looking more like the average person in terms of ability.”
The gap in IQ performance compared to the average fell for most other vocations, as well as the law. Doctors, teachers, bankers and stock brokers
all moved closer to average intelligence between the two studies.
Artists, engineers, scientist and journalists have all become more intelligent when compared to average IQ scores, the research found.
(To view a larger version, please click on image)
Source: Social mobility and the Professions, Lindsey Macmillan, CMPO, University of Bristol
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Readers' comments (34)
Anonymous | 3-Mar-2009 11:25 am
that sums it up
"The law employs, as it has always done, the finest minds in the City"
Whoever wrote that has perfectly summarised the problem - so many lawyers simply cannot get over themselves and their "intelligence". You are such a clever lot, aren't you?
So clever that you will never realise you are just as smart/stupid as Joe from your local pub.
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BlatantAbuse | 4-Mar-2009 2:35 pm
Anonymous
"Whoever wrote that has perfectly summarised the problem - so many lawyers simply cannot get over themselves and their "intelligence"
Couldn't agree more! I've worked with some of the most hopeless and lazy characters around, every last one of them thought they were fantastic and made sure everyone heard it.
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Legal PA | 4-Mar-2009 3:48 pm
Em
What was wrong with my punctuation? Pick on someone your own size! lol
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Incredibly intelligent person but average lawyer | 6-Mar-2009 9:19 am
Its a SHAM!!
Well, I am sorry to differ but I am extremely intelligent as are my colleagues and most of my pals who are also lawyers. I am always amazed at the above average intelligence of the lawyers I work with and I DO have an above average IQ myself, which is often demonstrated by the morons who never take my advice, don't understand it and are not capable of issuing proper instructions because they are too stupid to understand the problem that they have created.
Confusius said, if you are dealing with a man who blindly refuses to consider a sound theory or analysis, then smile knowingly, as he is an idiot and not capable of reason. I smile knowingly a lot these days.
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