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YoungHoon Kim

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YoungHoon Kim
김영훈 (Kim Young-Hoon)
CitizenshipSouth-Korean
EducationYonsei University (BA)
Years active2015 - present
EmployerLifeboat Foundation (board member)
Known forClaim of having the world's highest IQ

YoungHoon Kim is a South Korean man who presents himself as having the world's highest IQ.[1][2][3] A member of the Presbyterian Church of Korea,[4] Kim has promoted Christianity on social media[5][6] and supported right-wing activists.[7] His claim of having an IQ score of 276 is disputed,[6][8] and the score itself has been described as statistically impossible by Triple Nine Society's German spokesman Werner Konik.[9] Some organizations that certified his IQ score have been described as being connected to him.[7][1][8]

Kim is a member of the Triple Nine Society[9] and Mensa Korea.[10] He has appeared in KBS and SBS entertainment shows, as well as in Reader's Digest and US Weekly.

Education and early activities

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Kim graduated with a bachelor's degree of theology at Yonsei University[11] and has worked as an evangelist at the Presbyterian Church of Korea.[12][13][14][15] He first gained attention in the South Korean media sphere when he, at the age of 27, participated in a 2015 SBS segment about highly gifted individuals, where he scored third place in an IQ competition.[16][17][18] According to the Maeil Business Newspaper, Kim is a member of Mensa Korea.[10] A 2022 Seoul Economic Daily article stated that Kim is a member of the Triple Nine Society,[16][17] a claim that was later confirmed by the organization's German spokesman Werner Konik.[9]

Claims about his IQ

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According to the Korean Record Institute (한국기록원), Kim scored 202 with the Wechsler IQ scale or a standard deviation of 15 and 160 points in a Wechsler IQ test in 2023.[14] He was later interviewed by KSB Joy in November of the same year, where he was presented as the man with the world's highest IQ.[19] In July 2024, the World Mind Sports Council, an organization that has listed Kim as one of its managers, certificated Kim with an IQ score of 276 points.[7][3][20] Kim was later featured as number one in a Reader's Digest list of the world's most intelligent people in 2024 and was interviewed by US Weekly's editor-in-chief in the same year.[21]

According to T-Online, Kim has built a network of numerous institutions and organizations in order to support his claim of having the world's highest IQ score. The news organization stated that Kim had blocked them and deleted multiple tweets after they e-mailed him a number of questions regarding his achievements.[1] Mensa member Cícero Moraes stated that it has remained unclear how exactly Kim's score of 276 was measured. He said that the president of the Official World Record company, which certified Kim's IQ score, was a also member of the United Sigma Intelligence Association company (USIA), a company that Kim claims to have founded;[22] however, the original webpage, archived on the Internet Archive, indicates that a person named Hankyung Lee was the original founder.[23] Moraes further stated that Kim's "absurdly high" IQ score did not make sense and was possibly achieved on an IQ test based on a non-reputable testing standard.[22] Triple Nine Society's Werner Konik also stated that Kim's claimed IQ score of 276 was a "fantasy number" that IQ testing standards do not allow for.[9]

Kim has stated that his IQ score was further certified by the World Mind Sports Council. The same company has also listed him as one of its managers. In 2021, Kim founded the Giga Society, an organization for intellectually gifted individuals which bears the same name as another organization, founded in 1996, that is also centered around gifted people. In 2024, Kim's own Giga Society declared him to be the person with the world's highest IQ.[7] Kim has also had his IQ score verified by the World Memory Championships, an organization that he has been affiliated with, and allegedly by the Official World Record organization (an institution that is unrelated to Guinness World Records).[8]

The founder of the 1996 Giga Society, Paul Cooijmans, said that Kim had created multiple websites purporting to be high-IQ societies and listed the names of third parties, including members of the original Giga Society, on such websites without their knowledge. Kim's USIA has listed philosophy professor Klaus Mainzer as an advisor on its website. According to ZDFheute, Mainzer wrote in an e-mail that he had never been associated with Kim's organization, stating that such assertion was "fake".[7][1] Other members that Kim listed in his USIA website have included Elon Musk and Bill Gates, as well as seven Nobel Prize winners.[22]

A 2025 article by Vice reported that Kim’s claimed IQ of 276 has sparked a media frenzy on platforms like X, where he actively promotes his intellectual status and religious convictions, including statements about Jesus Christ and the Simulation Theory. The article cites experts in psychometrics and high-IQ societies who question the legitimacy of Kim’s score. Paul Cooijmans, a Dutch high-IQ expert and founder of the original Giga Society, described Kim as a “megalomaniac, pathologically lying impostor,” alleging that Kim created a separate Giga Society in 2021 without permission and misrepresented affiliations with prominent intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker. Similarly, Brazilian high-IQ expert Hindenburg Melao Jr. noted that Kim’s history within high-IQ societies is “brief, complex, and not particularly flattering".[24]

Psychometricians argue that IQ scores above 160 are unreliable due to the limitations of standardized testing, which is typically calibrated for scores between 90 and 110. Vice has reported that Kim’s claim lacks psychometric grounding, as high-range IQ tests often rely on unstandardized or experimental methodologies that exaggerate scores.[25][26]

Views

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Kim created his account on Twitter in November 2024 and has mainly used it to praise Musk, the owner of the platform, whom he described as the "most intelligent person in the planet". After Kim endorsed Germany's AfD party in January 2025, party leader Alice Weidel and Bavarian politician Stephan Protschka published social media posts supporting him. Both politicians later deleted their posts and the party itself published a statement saying that Kim's claims were dubious.[7][9][1] In another social media post, Kim said that "Donald Trump is the only President chosen by God in American history".[11]

Kim has stated that the "Bible is the perfect, eternal, and final Word of God". His statements about religion have been widely shared on social media, reaching 22 million views on Twitter. Some users also expressed skepticism regarding his claims of exceptional intelligence. An El Cronista article stated that Kim's social media activity was possibly a strategy of promoting artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency projects.[5][6][27]

Work

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Kim is the founder of NeuroStory, a government-backed South Korean company whose operations are related to mental health and artificial intelligence.[11] He also works at the board of the Lifeboat Foundation.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Kein IQ-Wunder: Alice Weidel und die AfD fallen auf Hochstapler rein". T-Online (in German). 2025-01-16. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  2. ^ "AfD jubelt zu früh: Zweifel an Identität des «schlausten Mannes der Welt»". Watson (newspaper) (in German). January 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  3. ^ a b Seung-hyun, Song (2024-07-18). "South Korean recognized as person with world's highest IQ". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  4. ^ "세계 최고의 아이큐 천재 김영훈씨… 목회자의 길 걷는다". 국민일보 (in Korean). 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  5. ^ a b "YoungHoon Kim, la persona con mayor IQ del mundo, no dejo dudas: "Jesucristo es el camino, la verdad y la vida"". El Cronista (in Spanish). 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  6. ^ a b c "Conor McGregor aligns himself with world's highest IQ holder". The Economic Times. 2025-06-20. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Posse um AfD-Fan: Fiel Weidel auf einen Hochstapler herein?". ZDFheute (in German). 2025-01-16. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  8. ^ a b c d Abuzeid, Amira. "'World's smartest man' professes Christian faith on social media". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  9. ^ a b c d e Sternberg, Jan (2025-01-17). "YoungHoon Kim und die AfD: Was hinter der Mega-IQ-Behauptung steckt". RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  10. ^ a b "김영훈, 멘사 기준 아이큐 220… 세계 3위 랭킹 `입이 쩍`". Maeil Business Newspaper (in Korean). 2015-06-18. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  11. ^ a b c "World's highest IQ holder affirms Christian faith on X and voices support for Trump". The Catholic Herald. 2025-06-23. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  12. ^ "세계 최고의 아이큐 천재 김영훈씨… 목회자의 길 걷는다". 국민일보 (in Korean). 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  13. ^ "'영재발굴단' IQ 175 대학생, 9년 뒤…놀라운 근황 공개됐다". 한국경제 (in Korean). 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  14. ^ a b 김종혁, 기자 (2023-11-24). "김영훈, 한국기록원 인증 세계 최고 아이큐 IQ 1위 기록". 매일일보.
  15. ^ 류한준 (2024-07-18). "IQ 276 한국인 김영훈, "역사상 가장 뛰어난 지능"". 아이뉴스24 (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  16. ^ a b "IQ '세계랭킹 1위' 오른 한국인 김영훈, 누구길래". 서울경제 (in Korean). 2022-06-21. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  17. ^ a b 박원석, 기자 (2023-11-24). "김영훈 한국기록원 인증 세계 최고 아이큐 IQ 1위 기록". Veritas-a.
  18. ^ "IQ175 김영훈, 천재모임 9개 가입한 세계 3위 천재(영재발굴단)". Newsen (in Korean). 2015-06-18. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  19. ^ 이원율 (2023-12-19). ""의사 안한다고 실망" IQ 204男 직업은?…지능 평균比 얼마나 높나". Herald Corporation (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  20. ^ "'영재발굴단' IQ 175 대학생, 9년 뒤…놀라운 근황 공개됐다". The Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  21. ^ 뉴시스 (2024-07-19). "역사상 '가장 높은 IQ' 한국인…IQ 276 누구길래". Newsis (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  22. ^ a b c Brasil, Carolina (2025-06-21). "Homem que diz ter 'QI mais alto do mundo' revela fé cristã e gera polêmica na web; entenda". Extra (newspaper) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  23. ^ "USIA Founder Dr. Hankyung Lee MD". USIA: United Sigma Intelligence Association. 2019-08-13. Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  24. ^ Jones, Ralph (2025-07-08). "The 'World's Smartest Man' Absolutely Hates Me". VICE. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  25. ^ "La Polémica del 'Hombre con mayor IQ' que anunció la venida de Cristo". Notinerd (in Spanish). 2025-07-07. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  26. ^ Jones, Ralph (2025-07-08). "The 'World's Smartest Man' Absolutely Hates Me". VICE. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  27. ^ Paveley, Rebecca (2025). "IQ record-holder: Only Christianity has the answers". Church Times. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
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