Fact Check: This Web Article Claiming LBGTQ People Have Below-Average IQ Is Fake

 

What's the claim?

Posts on social media (archived here, here, and here) shared what appears to be a screenshot of a fake article making the claim that LGBT+ people have below-average IQs.

"A recent study shows that people who identify as LGBTQ have a lower IQ than average," reads the headline of the article which, according to the screenshot, was published on July 20, 2024, and was tagged with "international" and "United Kingdom." 

"Independent studies have shown that the IQ of an LGBTQ individual is significantly lower than the average. With 92 IQ points, it is well below the European average," says the text below the headline. 

However, the article appears to be fake. Searches for the headline in search engines yielded no results. We did not find studies that support the claim.

In fact 

Searches for the specific headline on multiple search engines yielded no results. The screenshot appears to have been circulating online since December 13, 2024. 

Asked if she knew of research that looked into the IQ of people who identify as LGBT+, Anna Pacak-Vedel, an assistant professor at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, who has researched intelligence and life outcomes, said she had never read a larger study that explored the subject. 

"A quick search in databases yields nothing. There are some on homosexuals specifically where the correlation appears to be the opposite, with homosexuals having a slightly higher IQ than average," Pacak-Vedel told Logically Facts. 

In some of the posts with the fake article, a reference to a website called "iqtester.org" can be seen in the bottom right corner of the screenshot. Logically Facts reached out to IQTester.org for comment.

The verdict

There's no trace of the article in search engines, and we could find no study matching the description. Studies indicate that homosexuals have a slightly higher IQ than average. Therefore, we have marked this claim as fake. 

This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.

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