
07/24/2025
In 1916, Professor Lewis M. Terman created the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Originally designed to identify children needing special education, Terman decided instead to study gifted children, following 1,528 children with an average IQ of 151 into adulthood. This longitudinal research tracked the subjects, affectionately known as "Termites," throughout their lives.
Despite their exceptional intelligence, none became unambiguous geniuses; most became successful professionals like professors, doctors, lawyers, and engineers, but not renowned figures like Pavlov or Freud. Many Termites, particularly males, achieved only moderate success regardless of their IQ scores, suggesting that intelligence alone wasn't the determining factor in their accomplishments. In fact, one of the children rejected from Terman's study for a low IQ score went on to win a Nobel Prize in Physics.