Guided investigations

Follow the claim. Find the evidence.

New investigations match ranking searches with a visible number and a badge. Older atlas stories remain available below.

Nobel affiliations

Nobel affiliations

01Official measure

University of Edinburgh Nobel laureates: the official names

The Nobel Prize API lists three individual laureates with an Edinburgh prize affiliation—not an alumni list and not a university IQ ranking.

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02Estimate

Did any Nobel laureate publish a real IQ score?

The official prize list is not an IQ table. Listicles invent 160s because the public wants a number.

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Presidents

Presidents

01Historical estimate

How IQ Is Estimated for Presidents Without Test Scores

No U.S. president has taken a published IQ test. Here is the method behind the numbers—and what it cannot do.

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02Estimate

Barack Obama's IQ Estimate: The Ages 18-26 Evidence

Columbia, a thesis on nuclear disarmament, published writing, and community organizing. What the biographical record supports—and what it does not.

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03Estimate

Donald Trump's IQ Estimate: The Ages 18-26 Evidence

Fordham, a family-connected Wharton transfer, no honors, and no intellectual output. The thinnest academic record of the three modern presidents.

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04Estimate

Joe Biden's IQ Estimate: The Ages 18-26 Evidence

A 1.9 GPA, bottom-of-class law school ranking, a plagiarism incident, and a failed course. The clearest negative academic signal of the three modern presidents.

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05Historical estimate

James Garfield’s IQ: the Simonton 2006 2C number

Garfield’s displayed IQ in this atlas is 152—Table 1 column II-C—not a classroom test.

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06Historical estimate

Who has the highest presidential IQ on Simonton 2C?

John Quincy Adams is 175 on Table 1 II-C. That is the top of a historiometric ranking, not a test leaderboard.

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07Historical estimate

Jefferson vs Lincoln vs Kennedy: three Simonton 2C numbers

Jefferson 160, Lincoln 150, Kennedy 160 (159.8). Same table, same caveats, three integers.

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08Estimate

Why Trump, Obama, and Biden are not on Simonton 2006

The paper stops at George W. Bush. Later presidents get labeled informal estimates—not a fake extra 2C column.

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09Historical estimate

The scholar-president IQ myth

Degrees and books are not IQ tests. Wilson’s doctorate and Adams’s 175 sit on different kinds of evidence.

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Hawking and physicists

Hawking and physicists

01Estimate

What was Stephen Hawking’s IQ?

This atlas displays 160 as an informal circulating estimate. No published administered score was found.

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02Estimate

Einstein, Hawking, Feynman: three physicists, three evidence grades

160 disputed, 160 informal, 125 reported. None is a verified adult Full Scale IQ in this atlas.

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03Official measure

Why Stephen Hawking did not win a Nobel Prize

No medal, no IQ implication. Nobel rules and physics evidence are not an intelligence ranking.

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What 160 means

What 160 means

01Official model

What does a 160 IQ mean on the scale?

About the 99.997th percentile on a mean-100, SD-15 model—roughly 1 in 31,000 at or above. That is statistics, not Einstein.

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02Disputed claim

Why the internet says genius = 160

Pop culture glued genius to 160. Test publishers did not. Einstein listicles did the rest.

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Archive

Earlier atlas stories

01Disputed claim

Did Einstein Really Have an IQ of 160?

Follow the famous number back through the evidence—and watch the trail disappear.

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02Historical estimate

Can U.S. Presidents Be Ranked by IQ?

A published model exists for early presidents, but its numbers are estimates—not test results.

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03Research estimate

What Does a State IQ Estimate Measure?

The Pesta 2022 values are published research composites built from NAEP and PIAAC—not statewide IQ tests.

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04Official model

Compare Countries Without Inventing National IQ

HLO, Learning Poverty, minimum proficiency, and HCI+ answer different questions.

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