Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world.[3][4][5] It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test.[6] Mensa formally comprises national groups and the umbrella organisation Mensa International, with a registered office in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England,[7] which is separate from the British Mensa office in Wolverhampton.[8] The word mensa (/ˈmɛnsə/, Latin:[ˈmẽːs̠ä]) is Latin for 'table', as is symbolised in the organisation's logo, and was chosen to demonstrate the round-table nature of the organisation; the coming together of equals.[2]
Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa at Lincoln College, in Oxford, England in 1946, with the intention of forming a society for the most intelligent, with the only qualification being a high IQ.[9]
The society was ostensibly to be non-political in its aims and free from all other social distinctions, such as race and religion.[2] However, Berrill and Ware were both disappointed with the resulting society. Berrill had intended Mensa as "an aristocracy of the intellect" and was unhappy that the majority of members came from working or lower-class homes,[10] while Ware said: "I do get disappointed that so many members spend so much time solving puzzles."[11]
American Mensa was the second major branch of Mensa. Its success has been linked to the efforts of early and longstanding organiser Margot Seitelman.[12]
In 2021, British Mensa's web servers suffered a security breach in which member data was compromised. Two board directors resigned because of the relaxed cybersecurity.[13]
Membership requirement
Mensa's requirement for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on certain standardized IQ or other approved intelligence tests, such as the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales. The minimum accepted score on the Stanford–Binet is 132, while for the Cattell it is 148 and 130 in the Wechsler tests (WAIS, WISC).[14] Most IQ tests are designed to yield a mean score of 100 with a standard deviation of 15; the 98th-percentile score under these conditions is 130.8, assuming a normal distribution.[15]
Most national groups test using well-established IQ test batteries, but American Mensa additionally developed its own application exam. This exam is administered and monitored by American Mensa and does not provide a score comparable to scores on other tests; it serves only to qualify a person for membership.[16] In some national groups, a person may take a Mensa-offered test only once, although one may later submit an application with results from a different qualifying test. The Mensa test is also available in some developing countries such as India and Pakistan, and societies in developing countries have been growing at a rapid pace.[17]
Organizational structure
Mensa International consists of around 134,000 members in 100 countries [2] and in 54 national groups.[17] The national groups issue periodicals, such as Mensa Bulletin, the monthly publication of American Mensa,[18] and Mensa Magazine, the monthly publication of British Mensa.[19] Individuals who live in a country with a national group join the national group, while those living in countries without a recognized chapter may join Mensa International directly.[citation needed]
Larger national groups are further subdivided into local groups. For example, American Mensa has 134 local groups, with the largest having over 2,000 members and the smallest having fewer than 100.
Members may form Special Interest Groups (SIGs) at international, national, and local levels; these SIGs represent a wide variety of interests, ranging from motorcycle clubs to entrepreneurial co-operations. Some SIGs are associated with various geographic groups, whereas others act independently of official hierarchy. There are also electronic SIGs (eSIGs), which operate primarily as email lists, where members may or may not meet each other in person.[citation needed]
The Mensa Foundation, a separate charitable U.S. corporation, edits and publishes its own Mensa Research Journal, in which both Mensans and non-Mensans are published on various topics surrounding the concept and measure of intelligence.
Gatherings
Mensa has many events for members, from the local to the international level. Several countries hold a large event called the Annual Gathering (AG). It is held in a different city every year, with speakers, dances, leadership workshops, children's events, games, and other activities. The American and Canadian AGs are usually held during the American Independence Day (4 July) or Canada Day (1 July) weekends respectively.[citation needed]
Smaller gatherings called Regional Gatherings (RGs), which are held in various cities, attract members from large areas. The largest in the United States is held in the Chicago area around Halloween, notably featuring a costume party for which many members create pun-based costumes.[citation needed]
In 2006, the Mensa World Gathering[24] was held from 8–13 August in Orlando, Florida to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Mensa. An estimated 2,500 attendees from over 30 countries gathered for this celebration. The International Board of Directors had a formal meeting there.[citation needed]
In 2010, a joint American-Canadian Annual Gathering was held in Dearborn, Michigan, to mark the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America, one of several times the US and Canada AGs have been combined. Other multinational gatherings are the European Mensas Annual Gathering (EMAG) and the Asian Mensa Gathering (AMG).[citation needed]
Since 1990, American Mensa has sponsored the annual Mensa Mind Games competition, at which the Mensa Select award is given to five board games that are "original, challenging, and well designed".[25][26]
Individual local groups and their members host smaller events for members and their guests. Lunch or dinner events, lectures, tours, theatre outings, and games nights are all common.[citation needed]
In Europe, since 2008 international meetings have been held under the name [EMAG] (European Mensa Annual Gathering), starting in Cologne that year.[27] The next meetings were in Utrecht (2009), Prague (2010), Paris (2011), Stockholm (2012), Bratislava (2013), Zürich (2014), Berlin (2015), Kraków (2016), Barcelona (2017), Belgrade (2018) and Ghent (2019). The 2020 event was postponed and took place in 2021 in Brno. The 2022 event was held in Strasbourg, and the following year's event will be held in Rotterdam (2023).[28]
In the Asia-Pacific region, there is an Asia-Pacific Mensa Annual Gathering (AMAG),[29] with rotating countries hosting the event. This has included Gold Coast, Australia (2017),[30] Cebu, Philippines (2018),[29] New Zealand (2019), and South Korea (2020).[31]
Publications
All national Mensa groups publish members-only newsletters or magazines, which include articles and columns written by members, and information about upcoming Mensa events. Examples include the American Mensa Bulletin,[18] the British MensaMagazine,[19] Serbian MozaIQ,[32] the Australian TableAus,[33] the Mexican El Mensajero,[34] and the French formerly Contacts, now MensaMag.[35] Aside from national publications, some local or regional groups have their own newsletters.[36][citation needed]
Mensa International publishes a Mensa World Journal, which "contains views and information about Mensa around the world". This journal is generally included in each national magazine.[37]
The Mensa Foundation publishes the Mensa Research Journal, which "highlights scholarly articles and recent research related to intelligence". Unlike most Mensa publications, this journal is available to non-members.[38]
Demographics
All national Mensas have to accept children.[39] However, some national Mensas don't test the children themselves; many offer activities, resources, and newsletters specifically geared toward gifted children and their parents. American Mensa's youngest member (Kashe Quest),[40] British Mensa's youngest member (Adam Kirby),[41] and several Australian Mensa members joined at the age of two.[42] The current youngest member of Mensa is Adam Kirby, from Mitcham, London who was invited to join at the age of two years and four months and gained full membership at the age of two years five months. He scored 141 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test.[41][43] Elise Tan-Roberts of the UK is the youngest person ever to join Mensa, having gained full membership at the age of two years and four months.[41][44] In 2018, Mehul Garg became the youngest person in a decade to score the maximum of 162 in the test.[45]
American Mensa's oldest member is 102,[46] and British Mensa had a member aged 103.[47]
Detailed International Mensa demographics are not generally published.
According to American Mensa's generational classifications and published demographics (as of 2023), its membership is 8 percent from the Silent generation (born 1924-1942), 37 percent Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960), 30 percent Gen-X (born 1961-1981), 10 percent Millennial (born 1982-2000), 12 percent Generation Z (born 2001-2020) and the remaining 3 percent other. The American Mensa general membership identifies as 64 percent male, 32 percent female, 3 percent unknown, and less than 1 percent gender non-conforming or other.[46]
Asia Carrera Lemmon is an American former pornographic actress.
Robert Edward Czyz is an American retired boxer and commentator. Czyz was a two-division world titlist at light heavyweight and cruiserweight.
A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to affect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences. The term was used in 1961 by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), an academic and professional computer society. SIG was later popularized on CompuServe, an early online service provider, where SIGs were a section of the service devoted to particular interests.
The Law School Admission Test is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension as well as logical and verbal reasoning proficiency. The test is an integral part of the law school admission process in the United States, Canada, the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a growing number of other countries.
The Prometheus Society is a high IQ society, similar to Mensa International, but much more restrictive. The entry criterion, achievable by a number of tests, is designed to be passable by 1 in 30,000 of the population, while Mensa entry is achievable by 1 in 50. The society produces a magazine, Gift of Fire, published ten times per year.
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The original WAIS was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale, released in 1939. It is currently in its fourth edition (WAIS-IV) released in 2008 by Pearson, and is the most widely used IQ test, for both adults and older adolescents, in the world.
The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 different tests of adult intelligence. The society was founded in 1978 and is a non-profit, 501(c)(7) organization incorporated in Virginia, USA. As of September 2022, it reports a member base of over 1,900 adults in 50 countries.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a standardized test used both for graduate school admissions in the United States and entrance to high I.Q. societies. Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment, the MAT consists of 120 questions in 60 minutes. Unlike other graduate school admissions exams such as the GRE, the Miller Analogies Test is verbal or computer based.
Densa has been used as the name of a number of fictional organizations parodying Mensa International, the organization for highly intelligent people. Densa is ostensibly an organization for people insufficiently intelligent to be members of Mensa. The name Densa has been said to be an acronym for "Diversely Educated Not Seriously Affected." The name Densa is a portmanteau of denser and Mensa.
Lancelot Lionel Ware OBE was an English barrister and biochemist. He co-founded Mensa, the international society for intellectually gifted people, with the Australian barrister Roland Berrill in 1946. It was originally called the "High IQ Club".
The Differential Ability Scales (DAS) is a nationally normed, and individually administered battery of cognitive and achievement tests. Into its second edition (DAS-II), the test can be administered to children ages 2 years 6 months to 17 years 11 months across a range of developmental levels.
Ronald K. Hoeflin is an American philosopher by profession, creator of the Mega and Titan intelligence tests. In 1988, Hoeflin won the American Philosophical Association's Rockefeller Prize for his article, "Theories of Truth: A Comprehensive Synthesis." His article argues for the interrelated nature of seven leading theories of truth. Hoeflin claims an IQ of 164, admitting his scores have ranged from 125 to 175, depending upon the cognitive abilities tapped into.
A high-IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population or above. These may also be referred to as genius societies. The largest and oldest such society is Mensa International, which was founded by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware in 1946.
The Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT) was created by Raymond Cattell in 1949 as an attempt to measure cognitive abilities devoid of sociocultural and environmental influences. Scholars have subsequently concluded that the attempt to construct measures of cognitive abilities devoid of the influences of experiential and cultural conditioning is a challenging one. Cattell proposed that general intelligence (g) comprises both fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc). Whereas Gf is biologically and constitutionally based, Gc is the actual level of a person's cognitive functioning, based on the augmentation of Gf through sociocultural and experiential learning.
Victor Serebriakoff was one of the early members of Mensa. Serebriakoff is known for his contributions to lumber technology, writing intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, as well as organising and promoting Mensa.
The Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS) is an individually administered test of intelligence that includes a co-normed, supplemental measure of memory. It is appropriate for individuals ages 3–94.
Judge Ellen James Morphonios was a Dade County, Florida Circuit Judge, remembered for having prosecuted rock star Jim Morrison for allegedly exposing himself in her early days as a prosecutor. She was nicknamed "Maximum Morphonios" for the long sentences she routinely handed down to violent criminals.
Roland Fabien Berrill (1897–1962) was a British-Australian who was the co-founder of Mensa, the international society for intellectually gifted people.
Intertel is a high-IQ society founded in 1966, that is open to those who have scored at or above the 99th percentile on one of various standardized tests of intelligence. It has been identified as one of the notable high-IQ societies established since the late 1960s with admissions requirements that are stricter and more exclusive than Mensa.
↑ "AMAG - Asian Mensa Gathering". members.mensa.ch (in Italian). Mensa Svizzera. 26 April 2014. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
↑ Serbia Mensa. "Publikacije". www.mensa.rs. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
↑ Australian Mensa. "TableAus". www.mensa.org.au. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
↑ Mensa México. "Actividades". mensa.org.mx. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
↑ Mensa France. "Mensa France". mensa-france.net. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
↑ New Mexico Mensa. "The New Mensican". nmmensa.org. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
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