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from the maybe-they-only-surveyed-the-nimnobs dept.
Why can we talk about PISA results, comparing the performance of students in school, but we are not allowed to talk about differences in IQ? Bring this subject up, and you are immediately accused of racism. And yet. And yet, if there are substantial differences in intellectual capability, might this not explain some of the world's problems?
An update of a massive "study of studies" is underway; this article summarizes the work to date, and provides links to the work in progress. A quick summary of the answers to the questions no one dares ask:
- Eastern Asia (Japan, China): IQ around 105
- Europe/North America: IQ around 98
- Middle East: IQ around 85
- Africa: IQ around 70
In the first instance, it doesn't even matter why there are differences. They may be genetic, or disease related, or nutrition related, or something else. If these differences are real (and the evidence is pretty strong that they are), then we need to deal with them. Imagine if the low IQs in Africa turn out to be fixable - what would the impact be, if we could raise the IQ of an entire continent by 30 points?!
Sticking our collective heads in the sand, because the topic is not PC, is not going to solve any problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @06:32PM (2 children)
So wait, why is IQ score comparisons subject to racism? You do not explain this and yet state we're not allowed to talk about such difference because the speaker is immediately accused of racism? who? where? in what context?
Are you projecting something?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @08:39PM
Allow me. It's associated with the scientific racism that was so prevalent in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Especially by association with the Fabian eugenics movement. [theguardian.com]
Here's a short segment on co-founder of the UK Labour party George Bernard Shaw. [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @04:22AM
Standardized tests in general cannot be applied across cultural divides if you expect the results to reliably rank the people. How people approach the tests has a huge impact on how well they do, even though they may not have a different level of intellect. For example, some cultures handle rhetorical and unreal questions as if they're invalid, and others handle them as if they're real questions. In both cases, you'd get different results from test subjects that were asked to answer them.