FACT CHECK: Marcos not the smartest world leader with superior IQ in 2022

The claim: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the smartest president in the world as of 2022.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The claim was made in a YouTube video that was posted by a channel with 179,000 subscribers. The video itself has amassed 198,839 views and 9,100 likes as of writing. 

The facts: According to the video, Marcos is the world’s smartest president with an IQ of 180+. According to Mensa International, IQ, short for intelligence quotient, is a type of standard score that measures how far above or below his or her peer group an individual stands in mental ability. Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world founded in 1946 at Oxford, United Kingdom.

Mensa said on its website that an IQ between 90 and 110 is considered average, while anything beyond 120 is considered superior. Forbes stated that German physicist Albert Einstein’s IQ is widely estimated to be around 160, as was British physicist Stephen Hawking’s. The claim that Marcos’ IQ is 180+ would make him more intelligent than both Hawking and Einstein. 

However, there have been no reputable sources to back up this claim. There are no public records of Marcos’ IQ, and he is not listed among individuals with the highest IQs in history. Marcos is not in CEO Review’s 2022 Highest IQ List, which was topped by Marilyn Vos Savant. – Katarina Ruflo/Rappler.com

Katarina Ruflo is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.
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