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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 Friday November 03 2017, @04:11AM
Calling it bullshit is ignorant, the measure is perfectly fine for what it intends to measure. The main problem comes when people try to expand the meaning to cover other things that it's not meant to predict. IQ isn't meant to predict success in life in general, it's meant to measure the suitability of a particular person to the kind of education that was going on in Europe at the time that it was first developed. Using it for other things leads to questionable results.
Most people calling it bullshit are less intelligent than they think they are and complain about the test because it didn't tell them what they wanted to hear.
Personally, I've got a high IQ and I don't put much stock in it, mainly because the situations where the skills measured by the test are that important are few and far between. Most of the time, you'd be better off with a slightly lower IQ and some grit.