The first IQ test wasn’t invented to measure IQ. In 1905, French psychologists developed the Binet-Simon test to identify children who needed individualized help outside of school. Yet, as time went on, psychologists refined the Binet-Simon test and developed many more — and started to attribute performance to someone’s “general intelligence.”
But are IQ tests valid, unbiased measures of general intelligence? They certainly didn’t start out that way, says Stefan C. Dombrowski, a psychologist at Rider University in New Jersey. IQ tests have a dark history of being used to discriminate against racial and ethnic groups, he explains, and ultimately led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people during the eugenics movement.
