Supporters argue that IQ tests enable educators to identify gifted students, as well as those who need special help. According to Alan Kaufman, who is a clinical professor of psychology at the Yale School of Medicine and has devised his own IQ-like test, the IQ test is useful for those who can "go beyond the numbers." The supporters argue that, unless a better alternative is found, it would be a mistake to discard the IQ tests despite its flaws.
There are no standard tests to measure other types of intelligence that have come in vogue, such as emotional intelligence, which makes rankings and comparisons between individuals and groups impossible. IQ tests--including derivatives like the Scholastic Aptitude Test--give a quantifiable result that can be ranked from the lowest to the highest. This characteristic is widely used by colleges, military and other institutions to rank prospective candidates.
In their 1994 book "The Bell Curve," Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray have attributed, controversially, the low IQ test scores of African Americans to genetic causes. IQ tests have been used as an excuse for racism and eugenics in the past. Furthermore, IQ tests have been accused of being biased against women, working class and those born into non-Western cultures.
In his book "What is Intelligence?," James Flynn writes that IQ tests tend to rise over time all over the world. He uses this fact to argue that IQ tests do not measure intelligence but the cognitive environment of the time. We know a lot more about the modern world than we did a generation ago, thanks to "cognitive revolution" that took place in the last 100 years. However, this awareness does not mean that we are "smarter" than our fathers or others who live in different environments.