The Woman with the Highest IQ Ever Recorded
Marilyn vos Savant
The genius who saw what others couldn’t, faced ridicule from thousands of PhD holders, and still came out on top
Ina world obsessed with intelligence and the pursuit of knowledge, one woman stands alone at the pinnacle of measured human intellect.
With an astonishing IQ of 228, Marilyn vos Savant isn’t just smart — she exists in a cognitive realm that most of us can barely comprehend.
Lets put this in perspective:
Einstein’s IQ was estimated between 160–190.
Stephen Hawking’s was approximately 160.
Elon Musk reportedly sits around 155.
A personal friend of mind sits around 150.
These are the minds that revolutionised physics, cosmology, and technology— yet Marilyn’s measured intelligence soars far beyond them all.
She was forgotten
Despite holding the Guinness World Record for “Highest IQ” from 1986 to 1989, Marilyn vos Savant isn’t exactly a household name.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1946, she demonstrated exceptional intelligence from an early age.
By the time she was ten years old, she had already scored genius-level on several IQ tests.
Yet her remarkable story isn’t about how she revolutionized a scientific field or built a billion-dollar empire.
Instead, it’s about how she exposed a fascinating blind spot in human thinking — and stood her ground against thousands of critics who were convinced she was wrong.
Ignited a firestorm
In 1990, Marilyn began writing a column for Parade magazine called “Ask Marilyn.” A reader posed what became known as the “Monty Hall Problem,” based on the game show “Let’s Make a Deal”:
Suppose you’re on a game show, and you’re given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats.
You pick a door, say №1, and the host, who knows what’s behind the doors, opens another door, say №3, which has a goat.
He then says to you, “Do you want to pick door №2?”
Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?
Marilyn’s answer was simple: Yes, you should always switch. Your odds of winning double from 1/3 to 2/3 if you switch doors.
This sparked an unprecedented backlash.
Nearly 10,000 readers wrote in to challenge her, including mathematicians and scientists with PhDs who insisted she was wrong.
They claimed the odds were 50/50, not 2/3.
Some responses were scathing and condescending:
“You blew it!” wrote one reader. “You’re in error, but look at the positive side. If all those PhDs were wrong, the country would be in very serious trouble.”
Why This Story Matters in 2025
In an age of artificial intelligence and rapidly evolving technology, Marilyn’s story offers several profound lessons:
Conventional thinking is often wrong. Even experts with impressive credentials can fall victim to cognitive biases and groupthink.
True intelligence involves seeing what others miss. Marilyn’s genius wasn’t just her raw IQ — it was her ability to perceive a solution that thousands of educated people couldn’t.
Standing your ground matters. In the face of overwhelming criticism, Marilyn didn’t waver when she knew she was right.
The simplest problems can reveal the deepest truths. A seemingly trivial game show scenario exposed fundamental misunderstandings about probability that even mathematicians held.
As we navigate an increasingly complex world where AI systems challenge our understanding of intelligence itself, Marilyn’s story reminds us that human cognitive abilities remain both extraordinary and fallible.
The Ongoing Legacy
Marilyn vos Savant has authored multiple books on intellect and reasoning and still writes her column now.
Although there has been some disagreement on her IQ (the Stanford-Binet test she took has subsequently been recalculated), there is no denying her extraordinary intelligence.
Most significantly, her contribution to the general public’s comprehension of probability theory has had a long-lasting effect.
Our intuitions are still tested by the Monty Hall Problem, which also teaches us about the nature of probabilistic reasoning.
Marilyn’s narrative serves as a reminder that, in a world where artificial intelligence is taking over, true intelligence is more than simply computing prowess; it also involves perspective, perseverance, and the guts to defy convention when called for.
Perhaps as we work with AI systems and intelligent beings to design our future, recall Marilyn vos Savant’s lesson:
the individual who is willing to see what others have missed can occasionally be the smartest person in the room.