"Einstein had an IQ of 160." You've probably seen it on a quiz results page, a motivational poster or a pub argument. It sounds precise, official and settled. It's also made up. There is no record of Albert Einstein ever sitting an IQ test.
That single number is a good example of how IQ myths spread: a confident figure, a famous name and no source. Below are eight of the most popular claims about intelligence and genius, what's actually true, and why it matters if you're curious about your own score.
Why IQ myths are so sticky
IQ scores feel concrete. A number like 160 seems to settle a question that's actually messy. Famous names make that number feel even more real, and once a figure is repeated enough times online, it starts to look like a fact.
There's also a natural pull towards neat stories: geniuses are born, a single test captures everything, and a simple trick can make you smarter. Real research is more nuanced, and more interesting.
The 8 myths at a glance
| Myth | Reality |
|---|---|
| Einstein's IQ was 160 | He was never tested |
| Hawking's IQ was 160 | He said he didn't know it |
| Historical geniuses had IQ scores | They're retrospective estimates |
| William James Sidis scored 250+ | No test record exists |
| There's an official "highest IQ" record | Guinness retired the category |
| Mozart makes you smarter | A small, brief effect that didn't replicate well |
| Your IQ is fixed from birth | Scores can shift, especially with education |
| Brain training games raise IQ | You mostly get better at the games |
Myths about famous minds
Myth 1: Einstein's IQ was 160
Einstein was born in 1879, before modern IQ tests existed. The first practical intelligence scale, developed by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon, appeared in 1905 and was designed for children. Tests built for adults, such as Wechsler's, arrived in the late 1930s, when Einstein was already around 60 and world famous.
No biography or archive records him taking one. The 160 figure appears to be a guess, likely chosen because it sounds impressively high. He was, by any measure, extraordinarily gifted in physics and mathematics, but his IQ is unknown.
Myth 2: Stephen Hawking also had an IQ of 160
This one is often paired with Einstein's. But when Hawking was asked about his IQ in a 2004 interview with The New York Times Magazine, he replied that he had no idea, and added that people who boast about their IQ are "losers." Whatever his score may have been, he didn't share it, and there's no reliable record of it.
Myth 3: We know the IQs of history's great minds
You'll sometimes see IQs listed for figures like Goethe, Newton or Leonardo da Vinci. Many of these trace back to a 1926 study by Catharine Cox, a colleague of Lewis Terman, who estimated the childhood IQs of around 300 historical figures based on biographical records of what they achieved at different ages.
It was a creative project, but the results are estimates built from surviving documents, not test scores. Better-documented lives tended to get higher estimates, which tells you something about record-keeping as well as ability.
Myth 4: William James Sidis had an IQ of 250 to 300
Sidis was a genuine child prodigy who entered Harvard at 11 in the early 1900s. His life story is fascinating and often sad. But the famous 250 to 300 figure doesn't come from any recorded test. It surfaced in later popular writing and has been repeated ever since. Our post on the highest IQ ever recorded explains why extreme claims like this rarely hold up.
Myth 5: There's an official record for the highest IQ
For a few years in the 1980s, Guinness World Records listed a "highest IQ" category. It was retired around 1990, largely because very high scores are too unreliable to rank. At the extreme ends of the scale, tests have few people to compare against, different tests give different numbers, and small differences in raw performance create big swings in scores.
So any claim to hold "the highest IQ in the world" should be read with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Myths about making yourself smarter
Myth 6: Listening to Mozart makes you smarter
The "Mozart effect" took off after a 1993 study by Frances Rauscher and colleagues. College students who listened to a Mozart sonata performed slightly better on a spatial reasoning task for a short time afterwards.
That's a long way from "Mozart raises IQ." The effect was small, lasted minutes, involved adults rather than babies and wasn't a full IQ measure. Later attempts to replicate it produced mixed or weak results, and many researchers now think any boost reflects a temporary lift in mood or alertness. Learning to play music is a separate and more interesting question, as we cover in does learning an instrument raise IQ?
Myth 7: Your IQ is fixed from birth
Genes do play a meaningful role in intelligence, and adult scores are fairly stable. But stable isn't fixed. A large 2018 meta-analysis by Stuart Ritchie and Elliot Tucker-Drob concluded that additional years of education raise IQ scores, by roughly one to five points per extra year.
Population-level changes tell the same story. During much of the 20th century, average raw scores on IQ tests rose in many countries, a pattern known as the Flynn effect. That's far too fast for genetics alone to explain.
Myth 8: Brain training games raise your IQ
Brain training apps often imply that playing their games will make you smarter in general. In 2016, a team of psychologists led by Daniel Simons published a major review of the evidence. They found that people reliably improve on the specific games they practise, but there is little good evidence that this carries over to broader intelligence or everyday thinking.
Getting faster at a memory game mostly makes you better at that memory game. Our honest look at whether brain training apps work goes into the details.
What these myths have in common
Look across the list and a pattern appears:
- A precise number without a source. Real test results come with a test name, a date and a norm group.
- A famous person to make it memorable. Celebrity makes a claim feel verified.
- A promise of a shortcut. Listen to this, play that, and your mind improves.
- A belief that intelligence is one fixed thing. In reality, abilities vary and scores can shift.
When you see a new IQ claim, asking "Which test, when, and compared with whom?" clears up most of them.
What IQ can genuinely tell you
None of this means IQ is meaningless. Well-built tests reliably measure reasoning and problem-solving ability, and scores predict outcomes like academic performance on average. They just don't do it with the drama myths suggest, and they don't capture creativity, motivation or character.
If you're curious about your own reasoning skills, you can take our free IQ test. Treat the result as an estimate with a margin of error, not a number to put on a poster.
The bottom line
Einstein's IQ was never measured, Hawking didn't share his, and most "genius scores" are estimates or inventions. Mozart and brain games won't transform your intelligence, but education and experience do shape it. The real science of IQ is less glamorous than the myths, and far more useful.
FAQ
What was Einstein's IQ?
Nobody knows. There's no record of Einstein taking an IQ test, and the commonly quoted figure of 160 has no reliable source.
Who has the highest IQ ever recorded?
There's no trustworthy answer. Guinness retired its "highest IQ" category around 1990 because extremely high scores are too unreliable to compare.
Does the Mozart effect work?
Not in the way it's usually described. The original 1993 study found a small, short-lived boost on one spatial task in adults, and later research found weak or inconsistent effects.
Can you raise your IQ?
Scores can shift modestly. Education is the best-supported influence, while brain training games mainly improve performance on the games themselves.
