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League of Legends Rank Predicts IQ, Study Finds (plos.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the interesting-relationships dept.

limbicsystem writes: A new publication in the journal PLOS ONE shows that your rank in League of Legends (LoL) correlates with your intelligence quotient (IQ). Games like LoL and DOTA II apparently depend on the same cognitive resources that underlie tests of fluid intelligence. That means that proficiency in those games peaks at the same age as raw IQ -- about 25 -- while scores in more reaction-time based games like Destiny or Battlefield seem to decline from the teens onwards. The researchers suggest that the massive datasets from these online games could be used to assess population-level cognitive health in real-time across the globe. The authors have a nice FAQ (and open datasets) here.

9 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. That's great. by hey! · · Score: 3

    Unfortunately, one of the things I've learned over the years is how little IQ correlates to anything useful; at least once you get much past 1.5 or 2 standard deviations over the mean.

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  2. IQ measures your ability to test for IQ by Khopesh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Like any kind of basic test, IQ tests aren't terribly abstractable. Therefore, the supposed correlation between this type of games and IQ tests isn't terribly indicative of intelligence.

    Therefore: if you like IQ tests, you should really try these games.

    This also reminds me of a quote:

    I have no idea [what my IQ is]. People who boast about their IQ are losers. -- Stephen Hawking

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    1. Re:IQ measures your ability to test for IQ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not true that IQ (more commonly 'g' in professional literature) means nothing, there is extensive psychometric studies about what it means and what is in it and what isn't. Some aspects of it is observable in biological measurements.

      https://source.wustl.edu/2012/07/brain-imaging-can-predict-how-intelligent-you-are-study-finds/

      It means that performance across a wide, but not comprehensive, variety of cognitive tasks is correlated in individuals, i.e. if you are good at some of them, it is highly more likely than chance you will be above average on the others. There are of course many other tasks and demands on human performance which aren't related.

      Nevertheless, it is true that people who boast about their IQ are losers.

    2. Re: IQ measures your ability to test for IQ by Canbot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What it tests for is shown to make accurate predictions of important things. That is all that matters. No one is saying that it measures a person's worth, or the full extent of their intellect. There is no problem with what it is, only with what people misinterpret it to be.

    3. Re: IQ measures your ability to test for IQ by sound+vision · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think it's pseudoscience on the same level that the MBTI is pseudoscience - not so much in what it does, as what people *think* it does. An MBTI or IQ test very accurately measures... your ability to take an MBTI or IQ test. The basic premise behind the tests - that personality can be reduced to four scores on four linear axes, or problem-solving ability reduced to a score on one linear axis - seem to be gross oversimplifications. Incomplete pictures, vis-a-vis the Platonic ideals you think you are measuring with these tests. Which is not to say that you won't find all sorts of correlations between peoples' MBTI and/or IQ, and how their lives turn out. It *is* to say that those correlations don't mean what you think they mean. An IQ test measures very specific types of problem solving, taken in a bubble, in a manner that almost no real-world problems are presented to a person.

      FWIW, since you wanted to make this personal, I assume I did quite well on the IQ tests I was given in school. The result was always that they wanted to put me in GT or AP courses. But I am lacking in the sort of narcissism that would prompt me to go out of my way to take an IQ test at age 28, or join Mensa, or make a post like yours on Slashdot.

    4. Re:IQ measures your ability to test for IQ by Gussington · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Like any kind of basic test, IQ tests aren't terribly abstractable.

      What does that even mean? The IQ tests I've done were abstract, and by that I mean the tests where about pattern matching so required no prior knowledge, and weren't specific to any cultural or social standard. eg series of shapes guess the next one, rotating shapes to find match etc. That is about as abstract as a test can get.

      Therefore, the supposed correlation between this type of games and IQ tests isn't terribly indicative of intelligence.

      I've only played a little LoL, but it is effectively abstract too. You have a pool of characters to choose from with special powers which compliment or contradict each other (think paper/scissors/rock on steroids). The people who do well are able to process the various combinations more quickly than others, which is effectively is the same as an IQ test.

      People who boast about their IQ are losers

      Not sure how this is relevant. TFA is merely pointing out a connection being some types of games which are very similar to some IQ tests, therefore have corresponding results.

  3. IQ Test Question #1: Is this study a gimmick? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I smell a marketing gimmick: play-our-game-to-feel-smart

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  4. Re:PC or console? by Desler · · Score: 2

    League of Legends and DOTA are not a first-person shooters...

  5. Re: AI by Canbot · · Score: 2

    It may be possible to write an AI that does really well on IQ tests. That would not invalidate the validity of the test on humans nor prove that the AI is more intelligent than a human. IQ tests predict success in humans, they may not in AI.