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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: 2) by Spamalope on Thursday November 02 2017, @07:07PM (3 children)
And as a practical matter, any limiting factors for G are things we want to find an reduce as much as possible. But if the answer always comes back to genetics, what then? Eugenics leads to spectacularly awful places.
For UN outreach/nation building/actual well intentioned efforts to help: Western or Asian methods of improvement may require average IQ of near 100 to work, so those solutions would be doomed to fail in a place with a lower average IQ. This information could reduce the frequency of do-gooders causing harm, and points out that research/studies/trial or pilot programs should be done to make sure you're not doing harm with outside aid and to search for the best way to actually help. (avoiding famine; war; oppression etc)
It's a tough, emotionally charged problem wrestle with politically.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @08:47PM (2 children)
Gravity does too; people fall to their death every single day.
But even if we forbid every mention of gravity, we'd not gain the power of spontaneous flight.
Wilful ignorance is damaging. Always.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @09:11PM (1 child)
And never before has any comment on SoylentNews been such an exquisite example of the very point it is making! Gravity is racist! Ha! So are sharks, with or without lasers on their fricking heads.
You should have went with a car analogy. Like so: Some car owners are just stupid because they buy stupid cars. Take the "Juke" for example. Alright, that doesn't work, because ugly is not the same a stupid. How about the Lamborgini "Diablo"? Not so much stupid, but for some reason the majority of these vehicles do not wear out, but are totalled in high-speed crashes. Stupid car. And then there is any GM product. Especially Chevy trucks. So why do we not talk about this? We are not going to solve the problem of stupid car owners if we just try to sweep Chevy pickem-up trucks under the carpet of silence!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @11:27PM
Ford F-1fixme owner detected!