How does IQ relate to job performance?
Cognitive ability does predict job performance, but more modestly than older research suggested.
What recent research found
In 2022, Sackett and colleagues re-examined decades of research on how well hiring methods predict job performance. They argued that older estimates had been inflated by statistical corrections. Their revised figure for cognitive ability is .31.
How it compares with other methods
In the same re-analysis, structured interviews reached .42, job knowledge tests .40, biographical questionnaires .38 and work samples .33. So cognitive ability is useful, but not the single best predictor, as was long claimed.
What a correlation of .31 means
It is a real link but far from a rule. Across large groups, higher scores go along with somewhat better performance. Many people with lower scores outperform many with higher ones, and it says nothing certain about one person.
A note on this test
Our test has not been validated for hiring. Please do not use it to select or evaluate employees, and do not treat it as advice about your career.
Sources
- Sackett, Zhang, Berry & Lievens (2022), Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection. Journal of Applied Psychology
- HumRRO: summary of the revised estimates
Last checked: 2026-11-03
A summary of published research, not medical, career or psychological advice. A correlation describes groups, not any one person. This text has not yet been reviewed by a psychologist.