The Elder scrolls: Why are nords smarter than imperial and Redguards?

[rATANJOT]

I just read somewhere that the Nords are the second smartest human race in tamerial. That doesn't make sense how can they be smarter than imperials and redguards if their just a bunch of stupid drinking barbarians. And throughout are history barbarians in the dark ages were always stupid. And also their supposed to be really strong so doesn't that usually mean that their supposed to be stupid. And when I talk to Nords in oblivion their so stupid, like ice veins in the shivering isles goes they say the gate keepers magic, well I don't believe in magic. I mean how walking skeletons and a giant inhuman monster can convince you there’s no such thing as magic.

[Messenger]

The game is full of reference to Nordic cunning and power, most of the history of the imperial family and some of the guilds have a great portion of their stories taking place in Skyrim as for this intelligence claim, i have never seen such in the game, and it seems that all races are equally intelligent or representative of their native condition. never saw Nords as dumb, just stereotyped as such by other races and sometimes rather headstrong. Besides, they are very charismatic and have a great deal of willpower, so that stands for something.

[Cruzz]

The base intelligence of Nords in Oblivon is actually quite low, lower then female Orcs and Argonians in fact. They are factually quite stupid. I do remember reading that on UESP and I was just like what the I mean, there's always at least one in every game that ends up naked due to his own stupidity and I've always found the TES ones to be extra stereotypically stupid. I hope that you are getting my point here and also will be able to get rid of your issue.

[Pierson]

So where's the source for this standardized test proving this? Is it a book or piece of dialogue in the games, or is it something a dev said? I don't remember reading anything or hearing anyone mention this test in the games, and searching for phrases like mages' guild intelligence test on TIL doesn't show any relevant results. I don't consider them inherently thick at all. I just find the idea of an intelligence test from the Mages' Guild showing that Nords in general are "above average human intellect" and definitely more intelligent than Khajiit or Argonians" baffling.

[Abenaki]

I have never seen any documentation either ingame or on TIL which indicates that Nords are inherently more stupid than any other race. Instead I've found that, like the rest of the races, intelligence varies on a case-by-case basis. The reason for so many stupid Nords is probably because the devs like to use the drunken barbarian" stereotype to inject some humor into the game and, unfortunately for the Nords, they're really good at playing barbarians. As for Jayred Ice Veins, well, he was in the Shivering Isles which means he was probably insane.