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.

During 20 hour and a half interviews (of which 16 were Mensa members) Dr Falck asked individuals about their experience, such as how they had come to realise that they had a high IQ.

She then conducted a contextual analysis of literature and other research to identify themes, one of which was the idea of belonging or not belonging.

“That was a really big one,” she told the Telegraph. “That’s where being taunted with names like ‘nerd’ or ‘egghead’ or ‘brainiac’ comes in because the person is being set apart as being different to others and feeling like they’re a misfit and they don’t belong.”