Tickle IQ Test

Is it Accurate?

Founded in 1999 and dissolved in 2008, Tickle is a website that offers several IQ tests to supposedly inform, improve, and allow you to measure up your own intelligence. A typical Tickle IQ test has 30 questions in the many types of intelligences. Owned by Monster.com, it used to be based in San Francisco, California, and used to be available in multiple languages.

Getting to Know Tickle

As a media company, you may have not known that Tickle used to be known as Emode. It is a website specializing in various intelligence tests, mostly for the purposes of social networking and not really on measuring a person’s abilities. One of the features that became really popular was a person’s ability to create his own Tickle IQ test and IQ results and let other users take the test. This means that you can create your own intelligence test and let your friends take the test.

When the Internet exploded in the late 90s, Tickle IQ Test was one of those that saw profitability in the social networking market. In as little as three years, it became a household name and it was bought out by another company called Monster Worldwide, a company that specializes in careers. Eventually, Tickle was shut down in December of 2008 and was replaced by a new website called TestQ.

It is argued widely that Tickle IQ Test did not offer real or credible tests to assess a person’s intelligence. This is precisely because many of the tests are mundane and the company was eventually referred to as one of those that used viral marketing strategies to promote its products. It offered deceptive pop-up campaigns and many emails were spammed with contents from Tickle.

Contestability of IQ Tests

Since Tickle was a social networking site, the tests used are essentially for the purposes of entertainment. You may have taken one these tests in the past 10 years and simply do not remember. Below we will show you a few arguments why a typical Tickle IQ Test is not valid.

Timing: A standard intelligence test should be timed. If you remember, the test you took on Tickle was not timed. This alone renders the IQ test invalid.

Normalcy: In a scientific manner, the highest IQ you can get is 100. In Tickle, the IQ tests gave a highest point of 130.

Structure: If you will only think about it, the tests are not at all difficult and it seems like they were designed to have the participants get the highest possible scores.

Marketing Strategy: You should only take IQ tests if you are being assessed. However, Tickle has made it a point to invite everybody to take the tests found on the website. This, of course, improved its website traffic and the company made money out of it.

Did Tickle.com Tickle You?

Sure enough, you may have taken one of their tests and found out that you were smart. We have to burst your bubbles but there is no backing up that result. Although the company claimed that the tests were developed by individuals who have doctorate degrees in their respective fields, there simply is no standard in the tests.

A Tickle IQ test is categorized under one of the nine categories found in the website. Overall, it offered about 200 types of tests, not including the tests created by its fans or followers. Out of these 200 tests, 50 were claimed to be certified by people with PhD degree. The nine categories were:

• Style

• Family

• Careers

• Entertainment

• Relationship

• Teens

• Mind & Body

• Lifestyle

• PhD-Certified

As you can observe, the tests have nothing to do with the actual types of intelligence that doctors measure. These tests were designed to tickle people’s fancy and to generate income by making people feel good about themselves and passing it on to their friends. At any rate you could have gotten a score of 133 in a Tickle IQ test but would only fare a 100 on a real IQ test like WAIS.

At the end of the day you will eventually realize that the tests offered in Tickle were only developed for fun. A great example is a test that measures what kind of dog you are. Seriously, there is no such test in the world of intelligence. Unfortunately, many people were lured into these tests and made the mistake of believing that the results were accurate and true.