Fact & Fiction

Media Watch: Text of the So-Called Lovenstein Institute News Release “Intelligence Study”

by HNN Staff

Editor's Note: Below is the text of a hoax. To find out about this hoax click here.

In a report published Monday, July 9, 2001, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania detailed its findings of a four month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush.

Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous"IQ" report among others.

According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking.

The study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points:

in order of service in office

147 .. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)

132 .. Harry Truman (D)

122 .. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

174 .. John F. Kennedy (D)

126 .. Lyndon B. Johnson (D)

155 .. Richard M. Nixon (R)

121 .. Gerald Ford (R)

175 .. James E. Carter (D)

(Carter released his actual IQ, 176)

105 .. Ronald Reagan (R)

098 .. George HW Bush (R)

182 .. William J. Clinton (D)

091 .. George W. Bush (R)

In descending order of IQ:

182 .. William J. Clinton (D)

175 .. James E. Carter (D)

174 .. John F. Kennedy (D)

155 .. Richard M. Nixon (R)

147 .. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)

132 .. Harry Truman (D)

126 .. Lyndon B. Johnson (D)

122 .. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

121 .. Gerald Ford (R)

105 .. Ronald Reagan (R)

098 .. George H.W. Bush (R)

091 .. George W. Bush (R)

Among comments made concerning the specific testing of President G.W. Bush, his low ratings were due to his apparent difficulty to command the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary (6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents), his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis.

The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress confidence analysis.

"All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein said."He has no published works or writings, so in many ways that made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We had to rely more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."

The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania think tank includes high caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr. Werner R. Lovenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia F. Dilliams, a world-respected psychiatrist.

This study was commissioned on February 13, 2001 and released on July 9, 2001 to subscribing member universities and organizations within the education community.

The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156.