{"id":54775,"date":"2021-11-29T17:28:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T21:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54775"},"modified":"2021-12-02T17:45:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T21:45:13","slug":"threshold-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn’t Mean Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the threshold effect? How does it apply to intelligence and, ultimately, success in life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geniuses are outliers\u2014they are outside the norm when it comes to intelligence. Higher intelligence certainly can lead to greater success. However, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out at some point. This is the threshold effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn about the threshold effect in relation to intelligence and success<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Intelligence and the Threshold Effect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If outliers are people whose abilities and experiences are statistically far outside the norm, then geniuses are the ultimate outliers<\/strong>. We may understand that talent can only take you so far, but we place intelligence on a different plane than mere talent. We assume that the more intelligent you are, the more successful you will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, just as with other personal attributes, IQ determines success only<\/strong><\/strong> up to a certain point. <\/strong>After meeting the threshold of \u201csmart enough,\u201d differences in achievement based on IQ tend to level out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantage of IQ can be likened to the advantage of height on a basketball court.<\/strong> A 6\u20193\u201d player has a clear advantage over a player who is 5\u20196\u201d. But a player who\u2019s 6\u20193\u201d and a player who\u2019s 6\u20195\u201d are probably pretty equally matched. When the height difference is so small, other factors, such as speed, agility, and strength, more heavily impact success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that their IQ does not make<\/em> some geniuses outliers, although a high IQ helps. What truly turns someone into an outlier are the opportunities he\u2019s offered.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IQ Threshold<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Again, it\u2019s not that IQ is irrelevant\u2014in order to handle college work, you probably need an IQ of just above 100 (100 is average). If you succeed in a graduate program your IQ is likely at least 115. The higher your IQ, the more money you\u2019re likely to make and the longer you\u2019re likely to live. It\u2019s just that beyond a certain point (an IQ of 120), opportunity matters <\/strong>more<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is called the \u201cthreshold effect\u201d: Once you hit a threshold and you\u2019re \u201csmart enough,\u201d then opportunity plays a larger role in determining your success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Michigan Study of Affirmative Action Success<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A study at the University of Michigan reported that nonwhite students admitted to law school through affirmative action had lower grades both before and during graduate school, as compared to their white counterparts. If grades correlate with intelligence, the suspicion might then be that students with lower grades might have less success in their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After <\/em><\/strong>law school, however, there was no discernable difference between the two groups of students in terms of various measures of success<\/strong>: salary, reported job satisfaction, rank in profession, social and community contribution, or honors won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This finding disproved researchers\u2019 initial expectation that the nonwhite students would not be doing as well in their law careers as their white peers. While the nonwhite students were admitted to the program with lower grades, their grades were still good enough <\/em>to pass the threshold of what was required to succeed in law school and beyond.<\/strong> This is the threshold effect in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why, then, do schools have such stringent academic requirements and low acceptance rates? The standards of competitive academic programs are not as high as they are because the students they reject, who are performing slightly below the standards, wouldn\u2019t be successful there. The standards are high because there\u2019s simply not enough room for all eligible students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affirmative action evens the academic playing field by opening doors to students who may not have received as many early opportunities as their white peers, yet who are still fully capable of meeting the program\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the threshold effect? How does it apply to intelligence and, ultimately, success in life? Geniuses are outliers\u2014they are outside the norm when it comes to intelligence. Higher intelligence certainly can lead to greater success. However, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out at some point. This is the threshold effect. Read more to learn about the threshold effect in relation to intelligence and success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":55463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,15,25],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-54775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-education","category-statistics","tag-outliers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn’t Mean Success\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\"},\"wordCount\":622,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Outliers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"Education\",\"Statistics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\",\"name\":\"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn’t Mean Success\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.\",\"sameAs\":[\"rina@shortform.com\"],\"award\":[\"Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)\",\"Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)\",\"Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)\",\"Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"History\",\"Theology\",\"Government\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success - Shortform Books","description":"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success","og_description":"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elizabeth Whitworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Whitworth","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13"},"headline":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn’t Mean Success","datePublished":"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/"},"wordCount":622,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","keywords":["Outliers"],"articleSection":["Career","Education","Statistics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/","name":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn't Mean Success - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","datePublished":"2021-11-29T21:28:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-02T21:45:13+00:00","description":"Geniuses are outliers. But, at some point, differences in achievement based on intelligence level out. Learn how the threshold effect works.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","width":750,"height":375},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/threshold-effect\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Threshold Effect: High IQ Doesn’t Mean Success"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13","name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Whitworth"},"description":"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.","sameAs":["rina@shortform.com"],"award":["Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)","Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)","Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)","Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)"],"knowsAbout":["History","Theology","Government"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/threshold-effect.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55571,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775\/revisions\/55571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}