Calling people a ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ should be classed as a hate crime, an academic has said after studying the impact of bullying on high IQ children.
Psychology lecturer and psychotherapist Dr Sonja Falck said the “divisive and humiliating” anti-IQ terms are hate crime’s “last taboo”.

Dr Falck, who also runs a Harley-Street psychotherapy practice warned that the harmful words should be categorised in the same way as homophobic, racial, and religious slurs are under UK hate speech legislation.

A specialist in individuals with very high IQ, Dr Falck has spent eight years researching the discrimination against them, and interviewing high-ability adults about their own experiences.