‘If I have made myself clear then you have misunderstood me.’ –Greenspan
Standard IQ tests are problematic on many levels — not least, because they do very little to tell us about the quality of our thinking. Looking to overcome this oversight, psychologist Keith Stanovich has started to work on the first-ever Rationality Quotient test. […]
I coined the term dysrationalia — an analogue of the word dyslexia — in the early-1990’s in order to draw attention to what is missing in IQ tests. I define dysrationalia as the inability to think and behave rationally despite having adequate intelligence. […] Here are some irrational thinking tendencies to consider:
▪ Physicians choose less effective medical treatments
▪ People fail to accurately assess risks in their environment
▪ Information is misused in legal proceedings
▪ Millions of dollars are spent on unneeded projects by government and private industry
▪ Parents fail to vaccinate their children
▪ Unnecessary surgery is performed
▪ Animals are hunted to extinction
▪ Billions of dollars are wasted on quack medical remedies
▪ Costly financial misjudgments are made
