What are the best resources to actually learn about IQ and intelligence research? I want to go beyond pop psychology articles and understand the real science. Are there books, courses, or websites that explain intelligence research accurately without dumbing it down or pushing an agenda?
Academic textbooks on psychometrics and differential psychology are the gold standard, but they can be dense. Books written by actual researchers for general audiences are probably the sweet spot for learning the science without needing a PhD.
For serious learning, start with books by actual intelligence researchers like “Intelligence: All That Matters” by Stuart Ritchie, “The Neuroscience of Intelligence” by Richard Haier, or “Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction” by Ian Deary. These are accessible but scientifically rigorous. For deeper dives, textbooks like “Human Cognitive Abilities” by John Carroll cover psychometric theory. Online resources include research articles on Google Scholar, though they’re technical. Podcasts featuring intelligence researchers can provide good overviews. Avoid pop psychology books that oversimplify or push political narratives. Focus on authors with actual research credentials in psychometrics, cognitive neuroscience, or behavioral genetics for accurate information.
I recommend Rich Haier’s course “The Intelligent Brain” on The Great Courses. Online Course About the Brain - The IIntelligent Brain | The Great Courses Shop
No prior knowledge assumed, but a very good summary of the research with no pseudoscience.
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This is a good recommendation, thank you!
For those who want to read actual studies rather than summaries of studies, the academic journal called Intelligence, published by Elsevier, is the main outlet where most peer-reviewed research in this field appears, and a related open-access journal called the Journal of Intelligence makes many papers freely available without a subscription. A reasonable way to start is by searching for review articles or meta-analyses within these journals rather than individual studies, since reviews tend to summarize the overall pattern of evidence rather than one isolated finding that might not replicate.
Try Dr. Russell Warne’s In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence. He presents thirty-five short, mostly self-contained chapters, each one built around a specific incorrect belief, including ones the chat has touched on already, such as the idea that multiple intelligences theory or emotional intelligence carry the same scientific weight as the construct of general intelligence. This structure means a reader doesn’t need to read it cover to cover. Someone could read only the chapters relevant to a question they already have, which makes it function more like a reference than a single-thread argument.