A POST SHARED across social media appears to show an article about a study that found that LGBTQ+ people have a lower IQ than average – but the article is actually fake.

The post has been shared multiple times on Facebook and across other social media platforms (examples can be found here and here).

It appears to be a screenshot from an article with the headline: “A recent study shows that people who identify as LGBTQ have a lower IQ than average”.

The text below the headline reads: ”Independent studies have shown that the IQ of an LGBTQ individual is significantly lower than the average. With 92 IQ points, it is well below the European average.”

The apparent article also contains “International” and “United Kingdom” tags and a publication date of ’20.7.2024′, giving the screenshot a further appearance of legitimacy.

However, the article is fake. The image contains no indication of whom the article may have been published by, and a search of several online databases yielded no results for a corresponding piece.

Specific searches for that time or date, using some or all of the terms in the headline and the description, yielded no results corresponding to such an article.

Searches of medical databases also did not return any results, and third-party fact-checkers contacted researchers in intelligence and life outcomes, who said they were not aware of any such studies existing.

The screenshot does not correspond to any article or study and is ultimately fake – there is seemingly no study that suggests that LGBTQ+ people have a lower than average IQ.

The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.