> Maybe being trained to think in ways that IQ tests prefer would raise peoples' scores?
That question has been tested repeatedly by the scientific community, and the answer seems to be 'no'.
> An IQ test isn't some sort of measure of inherent capacity, just a measure of how well someone takes an IQ test.
That's just not the case. IQ correlates with many interesting phenomena.
Of course, IQ doesn't come close to explaining everything about life outcomes, but compared to virtually every other measure in psychology (or the social sciences more broadly) nothing else comes close to the empirical validity or explanatory power of IQ.
That question has been tested repeatedly by the scientific community, and the answer seems to be 'no'.
> An IQ test isn't some sort of measure of inherent capacity, just a measure of how well someone takes an IQ test.
That's just not the case. IQ correlates with many interesting phenomena.
Of course, IQ doesn't come close to explaining everything about life outcomes, but compared to virtually every other measure in psychology (or the social sciences more broadly) nothing else comes close to the empirical validity or explanatory power of IQ.