Social context can have a big effect on how you perform at cognitive tasks and affect your IQ.

A new study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and four other universities has found that our IQs are adversely affected when we know we’re being ranked against others.

One of the authors of the new study, Professor of Philosophy, Steven Quartz said the research found “that sensitivity to the social feedback of the rankings profoundly altered some people’s ability to express their cognitive capacity.”