Monday, December 08, 2008



The most incorrect truth of all: IQ

When I began my university studies in 1964, our introductory psychology texbooks told us that IQ research had begun late in the 19th century and that in the seven decades since, the reality and importance of IQ had become well established. IQ was in fact regarded as one of the most important contributions to knowledge made by psychology. And one thing that had emerged from those decades of research was that there was a very large gap between the average IQ of blacks and whites -- though it was also pointed out that a few individual blacks were highly intelligent.

Then there came the great political and cultural upheavals of the 60s, which resulted in a huge rise to power of the cultural Left, with their refusal to acknowledge anything that did not suit them. And, like all Leftists since the French revolution, "all men are equal" was their creed.

But if all men are equal so are all races. So the most well-established finding in psychology had to go. And various attempts were made to explain away the black/white IQ gap. If YOU think YOU can explain it away, be sure that lots of others have thought of that idea long ago.

And the criticisms did result in some advances. It was confirmed, for instance, that nutrition could in extreme cases play a small role -- explaining up to 5 points of the 15 point IQ gap. But most of the criticisms were shown to be wrong by further research. The IQ gap is now one of the most scrutinized findings in the whole of psychology and the gap still remains -- no matter what other factors you allow for. Prof. Richard Lynn has recently summarized the findings on the topic in a small book. I did a brief review of the book here.

So the objections to the finding are political, not scientific. Therefore THE FINDING MUST NOT BE MENTIONED. But an economics Professor has recently decided to ignore that:
"An economics professor from Loyola University in New Orleans traveled to Baltimore's Loyola last week to give a lecture, and everybody's been apologizing ever since. Everybody, that is, but the professor, Walter Block, who chalks up the flap to political correctness.

College officials have declined to elaborate on just what Block said. Apparently it was so offensive that they can't even bear to say why they're offended.

He said he'd told the audience that differences in IQ might account for why blacks and women earn about 30 percent less than their white, male counterparts.

Source

The IQ gap between men and women is smaller -- only 4-5 points -- and has only recently been established. It was masked for a long time by the superior performance of women on verbal tasks.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I returned to college some years ago, and took a psychology course on intelligence. The instructor stated that there was a difference in performance by race, never suggesting a definite cause. Behind his back, he was routinely denounced by students as racist.

This is, apparently, a pretty dangerous area academically, which is unfortunate. If you can't acknowledge a problem, you can't work to a solution.

Anonymous said...

How objective have IQ tests been, especially in the past, where cultural knowledge is assumed or confused with "intelligence", or the different types of "intelligence" that exist.

Anonymous said...

Truth and facts, (be they scientific, medical, etc.) are no longer acceptable under The New Order. Political correctness has replaced not only truth and facts, but reality itself. The only thing PC proves is how weak and mindless the people have become.

Anonymous said...

"How objective have IQ tests been,"

IQ tests (not those "free intelligence tests" you find on websites, but the real thing) have a fixed format that aims to prevent bias towards specific cultures.

Their main weakness is that they're point measurements, and the value recorded for a single person can vary wildly over even short timespans, but such swings are similar for people of different ethnical backgrounds so when large numbers are employed don't affect comparisons between group averages.

Ideally however when trying to get a reliable figure for a single person that person should be tested under a variety of conditions (different time of day, different weather conditions, etc. etc.).

Anonymous said...

If it is true........

Where do we go from here.

What value is in this knowledge?

How will it help the world?

Anonymous said...

"If it is true........
Where do we go from here.
What value is in this knowledge?
How will it help the world?
"

Well, it certainly could help in the placement of students, providing a basis for determining in what areas the child needs to improve. Focusing to improve on those deficiencies can help the child excel better in the world.

Anonymous said...

"If it is true........
Where do we go from here.
What value is in this knowledge?
How will it help the world?"

Well, it certainly could help in the placement of students, providing a basis for determining in what areas the child needs to improve. Focusing to improve on those deficiencies can help the child excel better in the world.


There is the problem, we need to evaluate the kids as individuals, a person from any race could be highly intelligent.

Anonymous said...

Ignoring the facts... this road only goes one way.

Figure out why the numbers trend the way they do and come up with a solution.

-darko