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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday November 02 2017, @05:57PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Thursday November 02 2017, @07:44PM (1 child)

    by jmorris (4844) on Thursday November 02 2017, @07:44PM (#591286)

    For instance, Marilyn vos Savant has supposedly the highest-measured IQ. What has she ever accomplished, other than that incident about the Monty Python question? Her career has been as a small-time columnist on the back page of some section of the newspaper, answering puzzle questions.

    We live in the age of the Internet and you write something that dumb? No wonder you want to poo poo the idea some people are smarter than you. First learn to use a search engine, then you shall be permitted to request reentry into adult discussions.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @01:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @01:06AM (#591454)

    You've been excluded from the grown up table, no amount of shifting blame will get you no where.