Germans most intelligent in Europe, Brits beats French

[Ecthy]

Similar to Az: I don't believe in them, have never taken any "serious" one, but I think I'd score pretty damn high.

Mensa = bunch of losers

[Dr Strangelove]

Could it be that Professor Lynn has biased his own results? What type of test was used? Paper and pencil IQ tests tend to be in reality closer to achievement tests than true intelligence potential tests. Were the tests in each country administered to represent a true sample, or might subtle biases in sampling have occurred? For instance, if the tests were given to high school students in some countries the tests might not have been taken by vocational students or by drop outs.

One might also point out that the countries tested don't have equal proportions of 'native' populations. The higher scoring nations IMHO tend to be the European nations with the proportionally smallest immigrant populations. Maybe that's why they tested higher. People tend to score better on tests given in their native languages.

Please note how low the Irish scored. There are more Irishmen living in Britain than in Ireland. Could this explain the results?

Remember the guy in America who claimed that the average black had an IQ of 70? Did anyone take the time to figure out what that meant? An IQ of 70 is at the demarcation of mild retardation. If a population had a mean IQ of 70 then half would be retarded. Of that half of the population about 3/5ths to 2/3rds would be in the IQ range of 70 to 55, merely mildly retarded. Some would be able to barely manage for themselves, but many would require supervision. The other 1/3rd to 2/5ths, whose IQs were less than 55 would be utterly helpless and would require institutionalization. That would translate into 5 million black people. It's pretty easy to check that out. There aren't that many black people in institutions caring for the retarded, so we can look upon the data with healthy skepticism.

[Elok]

Er, no. If a population had a *median* IQ of 70, you would expect about half and half. Averages are easily skewed by extreme values. If there were a bunch of incredibly dumb black guys out there (say, due to asbestos in a crowded majority-black neighborhood causing fetal defects), and the rest were about average in IQ, it might average out to seventy. Which is not to say that said "fact" isn't almost certainly false; the proportion of stupidity in a population seems to remain constant throughout all races in my experience. I'm just being insufferable about statistics.

[Barnabas]

I am an ethnic german (although bolivian)

I should be happy but I dont believe this.


How could France give birth to Descartes, Pascal, Evariste Galois and so many other geniuses with an iq of 94?

I would expect the frennch to be one of the smartest European Nations.

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Dis
I feel like stirring some **** up.

Now what would happen is someone posted a similar survey/statistic showing intelligence among europeans, americans, south americans, asians, and africans? I'm thinking that would not be politically correct. So why is this okay then?

Now I put that out there, time to run away from that discussion.

Get me banned



According to this chart, bushmen/khoisan/hottentos and native australians are in average borderline retards.

Made by

Richard Lynn who wrote

"Race Differences in Intelligence: An evolutionary analysis"

While Lynn has made valuable and original contributions to a number of psychometric issues, IQ&tWoN, and his recent work with sex differences, confirms that group differences in intelligence are clearly his forte, and since so few other researchers dare to touch the issue, the field is mostly wide open for discovery. Which brings me to Lynn's fifth recent and latest book, Race Differences in Intelligence, which Lynn himself describes as ". . . the first fully comprehensive review that has ever been made of the evidence on race differences in intelligence worldwide". (p. 2) In contrast to IQ&tWoN, RDiI does not contain a newly created thesis. This is not to say it is unoriginal, many of its ideas (and much of its copious data) certainly originates with Lynn himself, but the theory, its basic outline and many of the key references of this book were almost all first presented 15 years ago in Lynn's Mankind Quarterly article 'Race Differences in Intelligence: A Global Perspective' and its companion piece 'The Evolution of Racial Differences in Intelligence', while an even more basic version appeared in his 1978 chapter 'Ethnic and Racial Differences in Intelligence, International Comparisons' in the book Human Variation.

See discussion in genetics blog

http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/02/world-of-difference-richard-lynn-maps.php

[alva]

I've seen some studies claiming that the average IQ - in the west - has risen about 5 - 10 points over the last 50 years.
Given that we feed better, I wouldn't say that's entirely impossible.

[GePap]

I say we put Lynn in the middle of the Khalahari desert and see him wow those retarded Bushmen with his amazing survival skills.....

He should be dead in about a week.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Paper and pencil IQ tests tend to be in reality closer to achievement tests than true intelligence potential tests.

Doc

I have always wondered what the knowledge in English (or some other localised language) and number sequences have anything to do with measuring intelligence.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Elok
Er, no. If a population had a *median* IQ of 70, you would expect about half and half. Averages are easily skewed by extreme values. If there were a bunch of incredibly dumb black guys out there (say, due to asbestos in a crowded majority-black neighborhood causing fetal defects), and the rest were about average in IQ, it might average out to seventy.

Uh, that's highly improbable.

Lets make it simple and use a small sample of 100 persons. Since you can't have the dumb ones having an IQ at 70 and still have an average of 70, lets make it 50 (that's serious stuff).

We get an equation (50x + 100(100-x))/100 = 70

Solving for x, we get 60. So you need 60 persons at an IQ of 50 to make the average IQ of 100 persons, assuming those are merely average (100), to be 70.

That's more than 50%. It will be even more if some of the other group are above average.

IQ is not like wealth, where one man could have billons and billions. So, on one hand, a very few very rich people can easily skew the average income number, the same can't be said about IQ scores.

That's assuming IQ scores mean something, which doesn't seem to be the case.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Using IQ to measure intelligence is like using a crooked ruler to measure length.

Yes, Martin Gardner should be used as the standard reference for intelligence.

[VetLegion]

Well, I don't think the results of IQ studies in general can be completely disregarded. I don't think they tell us anything about "value" of individuals or nations, but it would be interesting to know what affects the results.

Education certainly does. People in Africa without it are bound to score less, despite claims that tests are culturally independent.

Then, there could be something in the upbringing. Cultures in which "it's God's will" type of resignation is prevalent are probably going to score lower than "can do" cultures.

Finally, there's genes. It's not politically correct to talk about it, so scientists generally avoid the subject, unwilling to risk their reputations. But I think we'll see a lot of progress in that area pretty soon.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Well, I don't think the results of IQ studies in general can be completely disregarded.

IQ measures something. No idea what, though.

Originally posted by VetLegion
Finally, there's genes. It's not politically correct to talk about it, so scientists generally avoid the subject, unwilling to risk their reputations. But I think we'll see a lot of progress in that area pretty soon.

The thing is, there are more difference between individuals than across "race" boundaries.

Furthermore, a lot of these countries are of the same "race."

[PLATO]

U.S. IQ's by state:

1 New Hampshire 104
2 Wisconsin 103
3 Oregon 103
4 Massachusetts 103
5 Kansas 102
6 Colorado 102
7 Iowa 102
8 Nebraska 102
9 Montana 102
10 Oklahoma 102
11 North Dakota 102
12 Connecticut 102
13 Vermont 102
14 Minnesota 102
15 Washington 102
16 Illinois 102
17 Ohio 101
18 Missouri 101
19 Utah 101
20 Alaska 101
21 Wyoming 101
22 Maryland 101
23 Michigan 101
24 New York 101
25 Virginia 100
26 Arizona 100
27 Nevada 100
28 South Dakota 100
29 Idaho 100
30 West Virginia 100
31 Rhode Island 100
32 Maine 100
33 Pennsylvania 100
34 California 100
35 New Jersey 100
36 Indiana 99
37 Hawaii 99
38 Delaware 99
39 Florida 98
40 Arkansas 98
41 Texas 97
42 Tennessee 97
43 North Carolina 97
44 Georgia 97
45 Kentucky 97
46 Alabama 97
47 Louisiana 97
48 New Mexico 96
49 Washington DC 95
50 South Carolina 94
51 Mississippi 94

[GePap]

8 Nebraska 102
9 Montana 102
10 Oklahoma 102
11 North Dakota 102

Hard to believe, as those people are dumb enough to live in those states....

[PLATO]

Originally posted by GePap

8 Nebraska 102
9 Montana 102
10 Oklahoma 102
11 North Dakota 102

Hard to believe, as those people are dumb enough to live in those states....