>I've always been curious why IQ scores don't appear on resumes. IQ is
>a well documented and studied credential shown to have high
>correlation with future success.
That's very true. Perhaps it is the immutable character of the
IQ score that makes people afraid of it. If you are low on education
you can get some more, at least in principle; but if you have a
low IQ that means you are stupid and there's nothing that can be
done. Then there is also the embarrasing racial aspect of it. Many
people believe that it would have bad consequences for society if
a parameter became generally recognised as importantly correlated
with performance when the average value of that parameter differs
strongly between different ethnic groups.
As for the applicant who puts his IQ on the application form, he
would of course not be prosecuted, but maybe the employer would, if
he used such information on a large scale. As far as I know, it is
actually not legal in the USA to use IQ-like tests in hiring
decisions, unless that specific test has been specifically proven
to be a reliable predictor of the specific task the man is hired
for. Developing a specialised task test, and proving its reliablity,
is usually so expensive and problematic that companies prefer to
use other methods.
I don't know about the situation in other countires where it might
be fully legal.
Nicholas Bostrom
n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb