Does Dylann Roof have an IQ of 141?
A reader asked for my take on this:
Dylann Roof, it is reported by people close to the case, has a high IQ—141—however, the murderer is not well educated. He left school in ninth grade and later passed an online General Educational Development test. Photographs shown in court of his mother’s house, where Roof lived before the crime, and his father’s separate home, give the appearance that both are book-free.
I find it highly unlikely. The article, irresponsibly, gives no source for Roof’s alleged high IQ, just some hearsay. What test did he take? When did he take it? No info is given. So it’s probably not true.
It’s possible to come up with some scenario involving his white trash parents who didn’t care at all for his education or anything else about him, and he was bullied at school. Yet still, his crime shows a sort of stupidity that belies the idea that he’s especially smart. He supposedly wanted to make some sort of dramatic response to black crime, but then why kill a bunch of old church people? He could have at least gone into the ghetto and killed some gangbangers. He has to be pretty stupid not to realize what a dumb idea it was.
Someone with an IQ of 141 would develop some intellectual interests despite his parents, and there’s no evidence of that in his background, just that he reads Stormfront type websites.
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Lion of the Blogosphere 
His idea wasn’t to make a statement about black crime, but to start a race war by provoking black riots. Hence the choice of target. But church-going Blacks forgave him.
Just as the church-going mother of the white UT kid murdered by the black guy this week forgave his killer.
Given how Christianity keeps getting in the way of a race war, it’s amazing how the left keeps trying to undermine it.
Dave Pinsen
May 5, 2017 at 8:48 PM
“Given how Christianity keeps getting in the way of a race war, it’s amazing how the left keeps trying to undermine it.”
That’s a quotable line.
Mike Street Station
May 6, 2017 at 7:57 AM
No mystery here. The left, at it’s core, is about pure destruction. The right, at it’s core, is religious (in the West that means Christianity) and that means building up rather than tearing down.
Andrew E.
May 6, 2017 at 10:59 AM
While I doubt that his IQ is 141, he is a very bright young man, as attested to by his manifesto.
“He supposedly wanted to make some sort of dramatic response to black crime, but then why kill a bunch of old church people? He could have at least gone into the ghetto and killed some gangbangers.”
For what it’s worth, he anticipated that criticism, saying:
“I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-manifesto-of-dylann-roof.html
Nicholas Stix
May 5, 2017 at 9:15 PM
First time I’ve read the manifesto. Unless it’s plagiarized I agree that Roof has an IQ over 100; some people have been talking about him like he’s mentally retarded.
Richard
May 5, 2017 at 10:11 PM
This paragraph suggests some intelligence.
Dave Pinsen
May 6, 2017 at 2:00 AM
Someone with an IQ of 141 would develop some intellectual interests despite his parents
Almost no chance a 140 IQ kid is going to come from two dolts for parents. Nothing in his bloodline. He’s an lower average IQ dope at best.
IQ tests are questionable under the best circumstances but notice people saying 141 and not stating a range like 130-140 as if 1 point mattered and that IQ tests could actually be that precise.
While I doubt that his IQ is 141, he is a very bright young man, as attested to by his manifesto.
His manifesto showed nothing being basic literacy and average IQ.
For what it’s worth, he anticipated that criticism, saying:
“I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. ……Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
Right, but he goes into a church full of unarmed old people! That’s bravery??!!
He probably has an IQ in the 90s on a good day but he also is pretty stupid to believe mass killing old people in a church is going to lead to the results he wanted.
You almost have to be borderline retarded to think the way Dylann Roof did.
Rifleman
May 5, 2017 at 11:01 PM
His manifesto showed nothing being basic literacy and average IQ.
“…nothing BEYOND…”
Rifleman
May 6, 2017 at 1:51 AM
Almost no chance a 140 IQ kid is going to come from two dolts for parents. Nothing in his bloodline. He’s an lower average IQ dope at best.
so then where do high-IQ people come from? Parents. and then grandparents, etc. and then it’s parents all the way down.
By that logic theodore kaczynski is dumb…why did he kill those people, how dumb of him. Obviously, judging by his mat, work, he is not dumb, but smart people are good at rationalizing dumb things.
I think the 141 IQ is possible because he writes ell and has a good command of the issues, but he’s fucked up, no question about it
grey enlightenment
May 6, 2017 at 5:41 PM
Who do you think has been the smartest infamous spree killer/terrorist? I would think McVeigh (Oklahoma City) would be up there since he built his own explosive device and it was highly effective but I have no idea how technically difficult it actually was; maybe it’s the sort of thing anyone with the right supplies could do.
As the Lion has pointed out before, these kinds of guys tend to be slightly to moderately above average in smarts because you usually have to be the kind of person who thinks in abstract principles before you can lash out at society based on those principles. There don’t seem to be many very very smart spree killers/terrorists, though. Is it because really smart people see more nuances that make dying for their principles seem like a dumb idea? Do they just have more interests to live for? Maybe there’s just so few of them that they’re just unlikely to turn up due to random chance.
Jokah Macpherson
May 5, 2017 at 11:12 PM
The unabomber. And in fact he’s mentioned by TUDJ in the comments of https://lionoftheblogosphere.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/dylanns-manifesto/.
JW Bell
May 6, 2017 at 5:36 AM
Shit, you’re right. Forgot about him.
Jokah Macpherson
May 6, 2017 at 9:15 AM
The unabomber wasn’t really a spree killer. More of a serial terrorist.
Rosenmops
May 6, 2017 at 2:01 PM
Various journalistic accounts had McVeigh’s IQ in the > 130 IQ range. It sounded authoritative to me when I read those stories over twenty years ago but I can’t recall any details.
PV van der Byl
May 6, 2017 at 8:11 PM
Leopold and Loeb were both reputed to be highly intelligent, though their murder was a one-off and they managed to get caught. Their superiority was going to be proven by their “perfect crime,” not that anyone would know.
Anthony
May 11, 2017 at 2:48 PM
I read Dylann Roof’s manifesto when it first appeared. His writing is too clear to have been written by an idiot, and his logic is no stupider than that of Ted Kaczynski, whose academic credentials leave no doubt of an above-average intelligence. As for whether his parents were trashy types, well, they named him “Dylann” (with two ens), didn’t they? Also, his schooling was markedly irregular, disrupted by numerous moves. Is that indicative, perhaps, as to how much thought his parents gave to his welfare?
Peregrino Nuzkwamia
May 6, 2017 at 12:08 AM
then if clarity of writing is the benchmark of iq, then every liberal arts professor is an idiot lol
grey enlightenment
May 6, 2017 at 5:44 PM
In his manifesto, he admires East Asians — that’s a sign of higher IQ, for those not part of the HBD crowd.
JS
May 6, 2017 at 12:09 AM
Someone with an IQ of 141 would develop some intellectual interests despite his parents
He developed the same intellectual interest as you, HBD, no (albeit more on the apocalyptic, WN end of the spectrum)?
Dave Pinsen
May 6, 2017 at 12:32 AM
Roof admires East Asians from a racial angle. HBDers are critical of them from an intellectual and a cultural standpoint.
His IQ is probably in the high teens of the 100th mark, which puts him above his counterparts in the Red States.
JS
May 6, 2017 at 9:30 AM
High IQ people can often be very sensitive and with poor social skills and processing. It’s possible Roof has a high IQ and his brain couldn’t catch up with the raw Red Pill feelings he was having.
Many, many times spree killers are too clever by half.
fakeemail
May 6, 2017 at 12:52 AM
The flaws in Roof’s reasoning may simply be due to immaturity; I believed some very foolish things when I was 21. Was invading Iraq to create a Western-style democracy out of feuding Arab tribesmen really a whole lot more cogent than thinking you could start a race war by murdering innocent black people? At that age we absorb ideas by listening to people who seem to know what they’re talking about, and Roof’s disruptive educational history probably knocked him away from respectable delusions.
Richard
May 6, 2017 at 10:36 AM
If I had to guess, I’d say his IQ is in the average range. 95-105 seems likely.
His manifesto showed that he was aware of the basics of HBD at least, which means he’s not a complete idiot. That said, believing in HBD in modern America has less to do with being smart than with being extremely independent minded. (Don’t get me wrong: the experts in psychometrics, genetics, and the like who are advancing our knowledge of the field are all extremely bright people. It’s just that to believe in HBD, you don’t have to be all that bright, much the way an average dolt in America believes the Earth revolves around the sun.)
His spelling errors were grating and his writing was weak, so that doesn’t say a lot for his having high intelligence. He also wasn’t doing much with his life
before he killed a group of innocent people. He looked like an altogether defective human being. A mere glance is all you need to determine he was messed up. It’s easy to assume that he was also stupid, though of course it’s not that simple.
Sid
May 6, 2017 at 1:07 AM
Well, over 2 % of children will have an IQ two standard deviations above their parents so there will such kids in any school. 0.1 % will be three standard deviations ahead of their parents and while that sounds rare, if the average school has 500 kids, the one in a thousand kid will show up in a lot of schools. (This would of course be a freak combination of genes and expected to reverse towards the mean if the kid later has kids.)
It wouldn’t be surprising if such a child has a really high chance of becoming dysfunctional. His parents won’t have meaningful guidance to offer, he will likely go to a school where he’s so far above others that he’s destined to become an outcast and the odds are he will be smarter than his teachers as well so they will have no advice and won’t be able to gain his respect.
Jaakko Raipala
May 6, 2017 at 1:45 AM
Don’t forget to factor in mean reversion. Also, the standard deviation of a couple’s offspring is slightly smaller than the population at large. Here’s some discussion about the topic: http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2010/07/assortative-mating-regression-and-all.html
anon
May 6, 2017 at 2:38 AM
[…] Thus, when a recent article claimed Dylann Roof has a 141 IQ. Lion was predictably skeptical, writing: […]
Dylann Roof’s IQ | Pumpkin Person
May 6, 2017 at 5:52 AM
Pumpkin just put up a good response article. Anyhow, there’s nothing in Dylann’ s background to suggest an IQ above 100, but then again, Dylann had some executive functioning issues (according to data PP found). So maybe he was just too dysfunctional (and drug-addled) to develop any interests beyond the Internet and video games.
GondwanaMan
May 6, 2017 at 9:25 AM
Depression and ADHD-like symptoms can cause very low achievement despite good intelligence.
Thomas
May 6, 2017 at 11:12 AM
It’s amazing how so many comments logic is as follows: X does something stupid, thus X is stupid. Or X has white trash parents, thus X is stupid. According to studies, many college grads are unable to write cogently. Despite very little formal training, he writes better than even many PHDs. His manifesto, had he removed the racialist stuff, is magazine-quality. That requires a decent amount of intellect.
grey enlightenment
May 6, 2017 at 5:53 PM
He doesn’t write better than PhDs.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 6, 2017 at 6:34 PM
The information I read suggested he was tested on the WAIS-IV, which has a g-loading >.9. He is a despicable human being, and socially maladjusted, but his autobiography seems on par with, if not better than Rodgers (Rodger articulated no coherent worldview aside from “girls won’t sleep with me”). Genes can recombine and express themselves in strange ways– not everything is so deterministic. Roof could also have a high IQ genotype, but have been stuck in a poor environment. I wouldn’t be surprised if Roof had a higher IQ than Rodger.
IranianofReason
May 6, 2017 at 8:19 PM
IQ confers the ability to think through and solve problems in a deeper manner. A high IQ person would be more apt to reduce the problem to its ultimate consequence and/or solution, hundreds of years out, rather than to make a statement about black crime. That person would be less apt to see crime itself as the problem.
I don’t think that Roof’s lack of self-preservation says anything about his intelligence anymore than military enlistment implies an inherent lack of intelligence. Roof perceived a problem that he rationalized was worth dying for. The more significant gravity of a problem, this significance perhaps realized through the aforementioned deeper consequence/solution analysis, likely leads to assigning to it greater personal urgency.
Roof’s actions were likely precise and justified by Roof, not impulsive. I don’t pretend to know what Roof was thinking exactly, but I would bet that he still feels that the actions were justified and that he was aware and accepting of the consequences to him well before he carried them out.
I would also bet that most people incorrectly assume his motivations and reasoning for what he did, leading them to label him as low IQ. Ironically, this is lower IQ cognitive bias.
High IQ people come from supposedly “low IQ” parent all of the time. Though, I would be that these “low IQ” parents are generally high IQ individuals with low education and cognitive stunting from relative poverty.
In addition, the race mixing in the US, even among whites, in my observation leads to less IQ consistency in families but high IQ individuals emerge in those families nevertheless (depending on what genetics are intermixed). Combine an Irish and German family, and you’ll likely tend to get less high IQ individuals than in a German family but more high IQ individuals than in an Irish family.
Dave
May 6, 2017 at 10:28 PM
He has a girl’s name.
Ned C.
May 8, 2017 at 9:16 AM