Top 10 Smartest Presidents in History
In 2006 a man by the name of Dean Simonton, a professor at the University of California at Davis, researched the "intellectual brilliance" of all US presidents up until that time.
Now fast-forward to today. A US engineer named Libb Thims (who compiles IQ scores as a hobby) has taken Simonton's results and put together a list of the smartest presidents.
Given the fact IQ scores weren't available for the early presidents, Thims estimated their scores based on certain personality traits listed in their biographies.
He zeroed in on words that indicated a higher-than-average level of intelligence, such as wise, inventive, artistic, curious, sophisticated, complicated and insightful. He then gave each president a score based on his personality traits which he then used as a measurement of their "intellectual brilliance."
Here's what he came up with. The number listed in parentheses indicates the president's estimated IQ score.
- John Adams (173)
- Thomas Jefferson (160)
- John F. Kennedy (158)
- Bill Clinton (156)
- James Madison (155)
- Jimmy Carter (153)
- Woodrow Wilson (152)
- Theodore Roosevelt (149)
- James Garfield (148)
- Chester Arthur (148)
Source: MSN News
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