Joe with the IQ of 170 will be called arrogant, a liar, an elitist, treated like a scam artist, or told he has no social skills. That’s not telling Joe he’s okay. That’s telling Joe not to talk about his difference. Let’s explore what it means to be told you can’t talk about your difference for a moment. Imagine going into a room and saying each of the following...
It’s worse then that: What do you think they think you are thinking?
People generally assume purpose, correctly or incorrectly. If you bring up your IQ, your audience is going to ask themselves -why- you are bringing up your IQ. And they’re unlikely to find any good reasons, which leave only the bad.
(Not to mention that most people who bring up IQ -are- socially inept, precisely because of social policies against bringing up IQ. It’s unfortunately a stable equilibrium. You’d need a popular movement to change the social mores there, and I don’t think most people are going to care enough to get involved in it, compared to the other social problems our society faces.)
They would assume you have a reason for bringing those things up. (Or, if they couldn’t find one, assume you were a bit daft.)
What reason would you have, in their model of you, for bringing up your IQ? None of them are good.
Judgments often made about IQ statements:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/kk/why_are_individual_iq_differences_ok/76x6
I think you were asking “What do I think they think?”—your wording felt a bit tricky to interpret.
It’s worse then that: What do you think they think you are thinking?
People generally assume purpose, correctly or incorrectly. If you bring up your IQ, your audience is going to ask themselves -why- you are bringing up your IQ. And they’re unlikely to find any good reasons, which leave only the bad.
(Not to mention that most people who bring up IQ -are- socially inept, precisely because of social policies against bringing up IQ. It’s unfortunately a stable equilibrium. You’d need a popular movement to change the social mores there, and I don’t think most people are going to care enough to get involved in it, compared to the other social problems our society faces.)