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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 Saturday November 04 2017, @04:39AM
Yes, the tens of thousands of years humans were outside of Africa is far more than sufficient to develop into various breeds. The evidence is visible not only in physicality, but mentality, and numerous other even very high level measures. And of course the genetic differences are vast.
And no, I did not say or even suggest all blacks are mostly the same. Straw manning is a great indicator of your belief in your own words... I simply discussed the fact that as groups are isolated away from one another, they tend to merge into different 'breeds' with their differences becoming, aggregately, larger than the population they separated from. Japanese have [much] more in common with Japanese than any Asian individual, even though the period of their separation is only ~15,000 years. And Asian individuals, including Japanese, have more in common than they do with any 'black' individual.
The reason I use 'black' as a catch all (which I suppose is where you're getting your straw man from) is the same reason you use 'white' as a catch all. Skin color is more indicative of 'breed' than geographic location. Even in dogs - a German Shepherd is certainly no more German in location than an British Bull Terrier is British in location. And similar a white is no more European in location than a black is African in location.