Is There a Relationship between High IQ Scores and Positive Life Outcomes? A Critical Review

This review paper attempts to critically discuss the relationship between high IQ scores and positive life outcomes with reference to research findings. Particularly, three major questions are examined in detail, i.e. 1) How significant is the correlation between IQ scores and socioeconomic success? 2) Does the predictive power of IQ scores outperform other variables such as parental socioeconomic status or school grades? 3) Are there any age-related or historical changes in the relationship between IQ scores and socioeconomic success? It is found that although researchers find some consensus in their empirical findings, yet they disagree strongly about others, too. This may be attributed to the fact that well-controlled experiments in intelligence research are usually not possible and thus conclusions are based upon mere correlations or the results of necessarily ill-controlled natural experiments. Accordingly, not all conclusions are fully supported by the evidence and generally accepted by the research community. To resolve the controversy, perhaps improving the research methodology and skills is of top priority.