Why I Don't Subscribe To Jordan Peterson - Why Leaders Should Be Wary Of Who They Listen To And Problems With IQ Testing

A few years ago I was speaking with one of my cousins who told me I HAD to listen to this guy - Jordan Peterson.

Extremely intelligent! Highly interesting! Someone that speaks well and speaks the truth!

I'm someone that is ALWAYS interested in learning from new people, so I listened to a podcast episode featuring Jordan Peterson.

Before the episode was halfway over, I already knew I disagreed with Jordan Peterson's beliefs.

I will admit, Peterson is a VERY intelligent person. The topics he speaks on are HIGHLY interesting. On top of that, he is EXTREMELY well-spoken and persuasive.

But did he speak the truth?

No, I couldn't agree that he spoke the truth, and what he was teaching I found to be fundamentally dangerous.

What Did Jordan Peterson Say?

These are the words that he spoke:

"If you go into a job, and you're not smart enough for that job, you're going to have one bloody miserable time.

As you move down the hierarchy, the jobs get simpler, they’re more likely to be assigned by other people, or they’re repetitive…People with lower IQs are more suited to more repetitive jobs."

This (and everything he was talking about in the podcast) is called, "Intellectual Determinism".

It states that your IQ should determine your place in society.

If you have a high IQ as determined by a test, congratulations, you should be given the world and have the resources to do what you want. If you have an average IQ, you should work for a high-IQ person simply because they are smarter than you according to the test. If you have a below-average IQ, well all you're good for is doing jobs no one else wants.

If you want to change your place in society, don't, you'll be unhappy if you try it so it's better to stay where you are! (PS - Isn't that called gaslighting?)

Not only does this belief cause so many ethical problems, but it also is based on things that have been proven completely wrong when it comes to IQ!

To give you another level of context, I myself am a member of Mensa (Must be in the top 2% of IQ to join), and I fundamentally disagree with this stance.

The Many Problems With Peterson's Belief

? IQ is NOT Static

There is a growing body of literature that is showing IQ is not static. Tests have gone to show that it can change in excess of 20+ points between the ages of 12 to 39, in BOTH directions. This means that even in adulthood, IQ has been shown to change significantly (From Average to Gifted, and vice-versa).

So judging a person's entire future based on a score from one tiny period of their life is not an accurate measurement, and is also unfair.

(PS - I myself probably would have been given a below-average IQ score in youth due to challenges I had with reading, being in a "special-reading class", plus having a speech impediment, but in adulthood I was in the top 2% of IQ)

? Environment Impacts IQ

This is something the creator of IQ tests said was a significant impact on scores. You can change categories simply by immersing yourself in a different environment, such as by going to college or by being with a different group of people. So, if you wanted to improve your IQ, you can simply change what environments you are in, and boom, improvement!

A major danger here is that if your life is determined by IQ at a young age, you could then easily be forced into a "less ideal" environment that would ensure you remain in that IQ.

? IQ Isn't Determining Work Success

If we look at the landscape of work, more employers are recognizing that going to college isn't necessarily a good indicator of performance, and that being "smarter" isn't necessarily more valuable. In fact, the top two factors employers are looking for currently are "EQ" and "Experience".

By only valuing IQ, you disregard other more valuable measures of potential success like EQ and Experience.

? IQ Doesn't Determine Morals

IQ is a very specific measurement that doesn't include many factors. A gigantic factor is that IQ has no care about a person's values. We've seen in our world that many "intelligent" people have done HORRIFIC things with their "intelligence".

Using IQ as a determinant of status gives free rein to a small group of people to do as they will, regardless of how it impacts others.

? Genetic Determinism Also Proven False

Intellectual Determinism is a smaller part of Genetic Determinism, stating that our genetic information is determined at birth based on DNA. However, there is a whole study of science called Epigenetics that is proving our thinking has the ability to change aspects of our genes. We can actually improve or destroy our DNA simply by thinking in different ways.

Genetic Determinism has been used by extremist groups to do horrible things, such as justifying killing groups of people through Eugenic beliefs.

? Energy Impacts IQ

Another factor that is important to consider is that how our body creates (or doesn't create) energy impacts how well we are able to think. If our body is producing energy well, it positively impacts our IQ. However, if there are factors that limit our body's ability to produce energy (such as where we are able to obtain our food, "who" is producing our food, and our levels of stress) it can actually decrease our IQ.

So, if you determine where people are allowed to exist in society based on IQ, you could simply feed "lower levels" specific types of diets, or purposefully add new stresses, to keep them there.

? IQ Isn't Cross-Cultural

One of the largest problematic factors is that IQ testing was designed specifically for "intelligence" that was valuable to white Europeans during the early 1900's. It has been shown to provide consistently lower scores in different cultures. Further, the original test was hijacked, modified, and made popular by a white eugenicist to prove the "superiority of the white race".

By default, the use of IQ as a sole determinant of place in society, by design, favors white individuals.

? IQ Has No Bearing On Creativity

Creativity has been shown to be a huge factor in our ability to achieve success. There are many factors that impact our creativity, including Flow States (accessible by all people), Empathy, and Adding New Perspectives to ours. However, there is no correlation that a high IQ is associated with creativity.

With no guarantee that a high IQ gives us the ability to creatively find new solutions to problems, we can easily run into problems where solutions the world needs are never found because the person with the creative answer "doesn't qualify" to have the answer based on IQ alone.

The Further Implication To Be Wary Of

There may be people who say, "well this is just ONE of the many things Jordan Peterson talks about!"

That is true, but it also misses the point.

This is a foundational belief of Peterson's belief system, one which he has gone on record multiple times. If this is a foundational belief, there is a high likelihood that this impacts every other belief that he speaks on, whether he realizes it or not. If this one belief can be so extremely dangerous, how else could it impact the rest of his thoughts?

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't listen to Peterson at all, he is a very smart person and there are things he says that are worth considering.

However, when you discover someone with foundational beliefs that are extremely dangerous, you should look through the frame of, "how does that foundational belief impact this belief?"

Having a mindset of being open to hearing more, but being wary of the possible implications, allows you to take what may be good if adjusted and also discard what can't be salvaged.

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