Ben Shapiro is a conservative commentator as well as a Public Speaker. He is very famous in the United States for his radio podcast show The Ben Shapiro Show. He is also a well revered writer for Newsweek. Ben is a very quick thinker and this can bee seen in his debates. He knows what triggers people and plays that into his advantages. But just how smart is this guy? Let us find out.
While it is really not known what Ben’s actual IQ is without any test. But we can all agree that he is a very astute individual with ab IQ that well exceeds the 130 to 140 marks. That is pretty good actually. This is even more impressive when you consider the average IQ of the US which is around 97.
But there are a lot of factor that influence the IQ and IQ doesn’t necessarily mean intelligence. We will be taking a look at his early years and dissect why his IQ is that big. But before that, we actually need to understand the concept of IQ.
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So, What is the IQ?
The Intelligent Quotient is a score that can be got from a set of Standardized Tests. It was a test devised by a German Psychologist. A person with an IQ 90 to 110 is considered to have average intelligence. Anything above this is generally considered superior. About 70% of the world’s population have an IQ in the range of 85 and 115.
But the highest IQ ever in the world is a mind blowing 228.
Are IQ Tests valid?
There’s a lot of debate in this topic. Many people don’t consider IQ to be a valid measure of a person’s intelligence while many other do consider them to provide some type of validity.
One of the biggest problems with the IQ test is the Motivation factor. It is a test after all and if you are motivated to do good in a test, you will score better. If not, then you won’t score better. So, how does this score tell your intelligence? This is the question that most skeptic have and to be honest, that is a really valid question.
On the flip side, a lot of people argue that the questions in the IQ tests require critical thinking and no amount of preparation could prepare you for it. This is also somewhat true but a lot of actual questions in the test are related to pattern recognitions and that can be learned so, there’s this caveat as well.
Anyway, we cannot determine the actual validity of the IQ tests. In some situation, an IQ test maybe valid but in other situations, it might not be the best measure of intelligence.
Why does Ben Shapiro have such a big IQ?
To answer this question about Ben, we have to go all the way back to his Childhood. Ben was born in Los Angeles, California. He was born in a Jewish family, both of his parents worked in Hollywood. His mother was a TV executive while is father worked as a composer.
Since childhood, Ben was inclined towards music and politics and was even considered as a “Child Prodigy” when he was Small. If you go by statistics, it is evident that most of the Jews in America have higher IQ. This might be because of genetics and also the environment inside a Jewish Family. The statistics in even mind blowing in that over 50% of the people with the highest IQs in the world are Jewish.
In addition to being a Jew, He also played Violin as a child and children who play instrument when they are young are likely to have a better IQ. Ben actually played piano and violin at the age of 12. Science proves that the brains of people who play music are distinctly different than normal brains.
It is also a fact that people with higher IQs are generally interested in Political Affairs and this also hits Ben perfectly. His love for politics, music and him being raised in a Jewish family might have been some reasons for his greater IQ.
Can a education affect your IQ?
Well, experts say that Education can, in fact, have an effect on your IQ. One year of Schooling can increase your IQ by as much as three points. Ben has had a really extensive education.
After he graduated from the University of California with a degree in Politics, Shapiro went on to get a Law degree at Harvard. It is a tough college to get into but he did get into it and went on to graduate Law school. The acceptance rate of Harvard is not even 5%.
The average IQ of Harvard graduates is 127. But you need only an IQ of 110 to go into a college and obtain a degree. So, yeah a good education will definitely increase your IQ level. Even getting into Harvard is a tough job. Ben must have had a perfect score of 4.0 GPA to have got into Harvard in the first place.
What is the Conclusion here?
Well, the conclusion is that IQ can be affected by a lot of things. It is affected by genetics, how you are brought up, how well you do in school and various other things as well.
Ben has an IQ that’s above average and it was because of a mixture of all of these things as we mentioned above. So, any person with his genes, childhood and environment could have a good IQ. Even things as trivial as Religious affiliations can impact IQ so, there’s that too.
Ben has an advanced IQ level and we can see this in his debates too. He uses critical thinking and logic to destroy another person in a debate and this has created a really good career in the field of Political Commentary for him. He has succeeded in his career because of his controversial but interesting political opinions. Ben has also managed to earn a lot of fame and money from his career and we wish him all the best for his future as well.
