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TIL the military cannot enlist a recruit with an IQ measured lower than 80 and is required to keep enlisted individuals with an IQ of 81-92 to less than 20% of the armed forces in active duty.(www.law.cornell.edu)

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GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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til@lemmy.world
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(a)The number of persons originally enlisted or inducted to serve on active duty (other than active duty for training) in any armed force during any fiscal year whose score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test is at or above the tenth percentile and below the thirty-first percentile may not exceed 20 percent of the total number of persons originally enlisted or inducted to serve on active duty (other than active duty for training) in such armed force during such fiscal year.

(b)A person who is not a high school graduate may not be accepted for enlistment in the armed forces unless the score of that person on the Armed Forces Qualification Test is at or above the thirty-first percentile; however, a person may not be denied enlistment in the armed forces solely because of his not having a high school diploma if his enlistment is needed to meet established strength requirements.

An AFQT score is derived from the ASVAB(essentially the militaries’ IQ test). IQ scores are based on a normal distribution of scores from the general population with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. So the 30th percentile represents an IQ score of 92 while the 10th percentile would correlate with an IQ of 81.

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Dax87@forum.stellarcastle.net
10 points

It is a percentile-based test against others who’ve tested on it. So it’s similar to an IQ test in that regard.

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WiseThat@lemmy.ca
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Sure… But it’s a DIFFERENT TEST, on a different population of people, with the goal of measuring military-specific factors.

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contextual_somebody@lemmy.world
14 points
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This is essentially a semantics argument and doesn’t make this post a “myth.” The military aptitude tests are effectively an intelligence quotient, just not a standard “IQ test”

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torknorggren@lemm.ee
11 points

And if low iq folks are more likely to seek enlistment, the distribution could be significantly lower than iq/the population at large.

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bassomitron@lemmy.world
9 points

Eh, I met plenty of very smart people while serving. I also met plenty of very fucking stupid people. I’d say the ratio is about the same as the general population, since the military offers a lot of very attractive financial incentives to poor and middle class folks alike. Although, free college is the number one reason most enlist, in my experience. I know it was the main reason I did it. Gotta love a society that allows colleges to price gouge tuition so badly in the first place…

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WiseThat@lemmy.ca
6 points

Yes, there is absolutely a sampling bias here

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Orphie Baby@lemmy.world
0 points

Different than what exactly? There isn’t one single IQ test.

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