Sam Harris has no documented IQ score, and no reliable figure circulates. He has argued that IQ research deserves honest discussion, which starts with not inventing numbers.
A Hollywood childhood without religion
Born 9 April 1967. His father, the actor Berkeley Harris, came from a Quaker background; his mother, Susan Harris, from a secular Jewish one, and went on to create the sitcoms Soap and The Golden Girls. His parents divorced when he was two, and his mother raised him.
He grew up without religious instruction. The turning point, he has said, came at Stanford, when taking the drug MDMA gave him an experience of selfless love that made him want to understand the mind from the inside.
A 15-year bachelor's and a late PhD
He started at Stanford in 1985 and finished in 2000. The gap is the most important part of his education.
Enrolled as an English major; left after his second year to study meditation.
About a decade of study with Buddhist and Hindu teachers, including Tibetan Dzogchen masters and vipassana retreats in the S. N. Goenka tradition, adding up to roughly two years in silent retreat.
Returned to finish his degree.
Dissertation on the neural basis of belief, disbelief and uncertainty, supervised by Mark S. Cohen.
What your brain does when you believe
His PhD scanned people's brains while they judged statements true, false or undecidable. Answer a few yourself and see which response pattern his studies associated with each. Region labels are simplified from the published papers; nothing here measures your brain.
Linked with activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area tied to reward and self-relevance.
Linked with regions such as the anterior insula, often associated with disgust and aversion.
Linked with the anterior cingulate cortex, which tracks conflict and error.
A key finding: believing a religious claim and a mathematical fact looked broadly similar in the brain, his argument that belief is one process, whatever its content.
Books, papers and platforms
His case against religious faith after 9/11; won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction.
A short reply to readers of his first book.
Argues science can answer moral questions; drawn from his PhD.
An essay arguing we should almost never lie.
Argues free will is an illusion.
A guide to spirituality without religion.
A dialogue with Maajid Nawaz.
Edited conversations from his podcast.
Annals of Neurology, with Sheth and Cohen.
PLoS ONE, the source of the “belief is belief” finding above.
Long-form conversations; originally called Waking Up.
A meditation and philosophy app.
Sources
- Harris, S., Sheth, S. A. & Cohen, M. S. (2008). Functional neuroimaging of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. Annals of Neurology 63(2)
- Harris, S. et al. (2009). The neural correlates of religious and nonreligious belief. PLoS ONE 4(10)
- Harris, S. (2004). The End of Faith. W. W. Norton
- UCLA dissertation records (2009)
- What's Your IQ editorial review of circulated figures