Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

[Bagpuss]

IQ tests are not supposed to measure educational abilities, but logical reasoning, comprehension etc.

However, you can learn how to be good at IQ tests, and the more you do, the better you become.

Really, the whole thing is pointless and divisive.

Of course, the less education the less practicing the tests, it's meaningless. There is a difference between uneducated and thick.

Like many scientists he seeks information to support a hypothesis he has already emotionally invested in.

a/Look at the question, work out the confounding factors, design a robust instrument of collection, recruit a population large enough to give you a reasonable estimate of the effect with adequate precision, adjust for confounding factors, model the data, interpret the results.

b/ or cobble together a poorly designed, underpowered 'study' that gives you the answer you want.


something tells me he went for b/

[shaunbhoy]

Of course, the less education the less practicing the tests, it's meaningless. There is a difference between uneducated and thick.

Like many scientists he seeks information to support a hypothesis he has already emotionally invested in.

a/Look at the question, work out the confounding factors, design a robust instrument of collection, recruit a population large enough to give you a reasonable estimate of the effect with adequate precision, adjust for confounding factors, model the data, interpret the results.

b/ or cobble together a poorly designed, underpowered 'study' that gives you the answer you want.


something tells me he went for b/

Well if all else fails there is always a seat for him on the IPCC advising on how to "adjust" computer models to ensure that the research grants keep rolling in!

[sasguru]

I thought I put my reasons for this in the first post.

Please indulge me and recap. As SB says, my memory skills and intelligence are not of the highest order

[sasguru]

Of course, the less education the less practicing the tests, it's meaningless. There is a difference between uneducated and thick.

Like many scientists he seeks information to support a hypothesis he has already emotionally invested in.

a/Look at the question, work out the confounding factors, design a robust instrument of collection, recruit a population large enough to give you a reasonable estimate of the effect with adequate precision, adjust for confounding factors, model the data, interpret the results.

b/ or cobble together a poorly designed, underpowered 'study' that gives you the answer you want.


something tells me he went for b/

Most "scientists" who claim there is evidence cite "The Bell Curve" published in the 90s. This was an essentially a meta-analysis of the results of IQ tests administered in various areas and various times in the past. The authors were not trained statisticians yet used pseudo-statistical techniques to draw "conclusions" from the data while overlooking basic statistical concepts such as representativeness, stratification etc.
I don't believe a single statistician in the world takes that book seriously.

Here is a balanced critique:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/29636.html

[KathyWoolfe]

.
so, on balance, I'm inclined to say that the debate is a bit irrelevant. Since we can't define and measure intelligence in a reliable way, its meaningless to try to do cross-racial or cross-cultural studies.

As well as being unable to reliably measure intelligence we also can't measure racial characteristics or even cultural characterisstics except in the most extreme cases.

[Bagpuss]

It's probably fair to say Black people on average do worse in IQ tests than
white people

But it's about as informative as Red cars go faster than Green cars

[AtW]

But it's about as informative as Red cars go faster than Green cars

Maybe a better analogy would be Ferraris' go on average faster than Fords'.

People in Africa have other priorities in life than calculus - getting food and drink is much more important.

[Bagpuss]

Maybe a better analogy would be Ferraris' go on average faster than Fords'.

That was my point, the statement is confounded by other more important issues, the effect is not determined by the colour

[mrdonuts]

i dont think the professor quoted the bell curve, that appears to have been added by the writer, it would seem he is calling on his well developed understanding of DNA to make his claims

[xoggoth]

To simply dismiss something because it not PC is no better than embracing it because it suits a racist agenda.

The arguments against these studies do not add up - all the experts have no idea how to make a culture independent test? (in fact they include things like counting backwards) Why should cultures in different parts of the same US cities be different anyway? How can all the tests be conducted by closet white racists if the same conclusions have been reached by others and they put whites behind Asians?

In practice I think the important points are:

a) There is an enormous overlap.

b) The differences are within the bounds of demographic variation. The brightest are supposed to be Jews but the theories say they should be behind Chinese etc. It is selective breeding. In Africa too, bad diet is a factor.

c) Considering that we second raters have ruled the world for much of the last five hundred years while the brighter Asians have languished, intelligence is clearly not the major factor in success anyway.