SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 5, Interesting) by cwadge on Thursday November 02 2017, @06:35PM (3 children)
It's pretty widely accepted that IQ is a general measure, not an absolute standard, of intelligence (which ironically is largely where we get lost in the woods in such discussions). I'm not an expert in the field, but I can at least attest that any IQ test I've ever taken has relied on a certain "framework" of thought which may or may not actually measure intelligence.
The above being said, I recall a long-term study regarding the migration of certain African people to certain European nations over a few generations. It's been almost two decades since I studied this in college, so please forgive the vagueness; maybe somebody with a fresher recollection can post a link to the actual academic papers. But in a nutshell, the first generation immigrants scored very low (some ~30 points below the median) and by the second generation, this gap had completely vanished. Did those people become magically smarter? Or was their mindset adapted to a more western mode of thought that was better suited to the problem solving skills required of the IQ test(s) in question?
If accurate, this premise basically throws the "inferior races" argument right out the window. Yet, it may speak to cultural tendencies which don't lend themselves well to disciplines like science and engineering. If there is a genuine problem being alluded to by IQ results, my opinion is that is it, not a substantial difference in actual intelligence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @07:09PM (1 child)
That does not explain some cities in USA... to put it as nice as possible.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cwadge on Thursday November 02 2017, @09:21PM
Sure, it absolutely does. Education is a key aspect of culture, whether that education is formal or not.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 03 2017, @01:19AM
He met Michelle at Harvard.
He has a half-sibling back in the old country.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]