Are there differences in I.Q among various races?

Question

Are there differences in I.Q among various races?

Answer 1

IQ or Intelligence Quotient is not  measure of one's ability to learn, but of how much one has learned. A person of Einstein's native ability was not taught or taught poorly, that person would have a low IQ score. This whole thing is just another attempt to justify someone's bigotry.

Answer 2

It's tough to measure IQ between races.  This is because IQ tests are culturally specific.  If I took an IQ test designed in China, it is likely I would not do very well (because I'm American).  Intelligence can also vary depending on nutritional factors.  If a cultural group (or "race") is discriminated against somehow, they may do worse on an IQ test.  (Hunger, war, poor nutrition, no income, etc., can affect this.)  There are different types of intelligence, as well.  Some people are book smart (engineers, philosophers), others have intelligence based on the natural world and are very resourceful outdoors.  There's musical and artistic intelligence, as well.

Answer 3

There are difference in IQ among various PEOPLE.

If you plot IQs, they'll be all over the place. If you split that plot by "race" (which is a bogus concept that falls apart, anyway), each group will be all over the place.

There is MUCH greater variation within each group than between groups (and there are historical reasons for the relatively tiny between-group averages).

Same with most other groupings, such as s*x.

There's also the question of what, exactly, IQ actually measures. There's lots of different kinds of smart and dumb. IQ is only a tiny sliver of the story.

Answer 4

Nope, there are stupid idiots of every race.

Answer 5

There are, but it doesn't correlate with skin color.  See, this is a tricky area, because it's too easy to look at Africa's slightly lower average IQ compared to, say, the US and claim that it has something to do with skin color.  There's no evidence that the genes responsible for skin color and the genes responsible for intelligence are the same or are attached to one another.

What you're looking at here is history, not genetics.  Intelligence is partly genetic, sure, but far more important are things like nutrition, activity, education, parental involvement, good schools, and all the rest of the things that come with a fairly prosperous background.  All other things being equal, a rich kid's going to be smarter than a poor one.  The rich kid has a computer in her room, parents who check her homework and get her the best tutors when she needs them, and she goes to a great school.  Her mom ate healthily while pregnant and went to all the doctors' appointments, and she's never went hungry a day in her life.  The poor kid's mom didn't have access to prenatal care, he's probably skipped more than a couple of meals or ate inadequate ones, his parents work too much to be able to spend as much time with him, and they're too poor to provide all the other things that our rich girl gets.  Of course she's going to test better.

And that's the thing.  The populations that tend to score lower are populations that are poorer, like Africans or black Americans.  This is not even going into the way IQ tests aren't really any good for determining intelligence, or the way they're skewed towards a certain population.  You'd fail miserably at an African IQ test, because you don't have African cultural knowledge (I'm assuming you're not African here, of course).  But in general, the only reason that intelligence looks like it's affected by skin color is because the things that do affect intelligence are also things that certain races tend to have and others don't.

Of course, there's also other cultural reasons.  Asians tend to test very well, but that, again, has little to do with skin color.  It has everything to do with a culture that puts a high premium on learning and doing well for your family.  There's a lot of pressure on those kids to do well, so they do.  It's the same with Orthodox Jews- they aren't, as a population, any smarter than the rest of us.  They are just from a culture that puts a very high premium on learning.

Answer 6

That stuff was on CNN tonight...

and that would be a no.

Answer 7

That stuff is totally bullshit. Its just pure racism, theres no proven fact that it is true, and if everyone is equal, how can one race be smarter than the other?

Someone may have a high I.Q. but have no common sense, so it doesn't weigh up or someone can have high educational intelligence but have no common sense.

Whoever said that, can suckulate my balls and eat my **** because its just a heap of **** information.

Answer 8

An interesting question.

Putting aside any prejudicial considerations and sticking strictly to scientific fact and societal studies, the following site has a great article on Race and I.Q.

It is well if you read the entire article before judging it, one way or the other. It starts out setting up historical markers for the trend of thought on the subject and how concepts have evolved with time and study.

Along the way it examines various viewpoints, including some that are quite narrow-minded and prejudicial. These ideas are not presented as the author's point of view, nor as the ultimate point of view; but are presented for historical perspective.

In the end, it all boils down to this:

"It is possible that some day we may be able to look at people of different races and see them as human beings without losing sight of what is special and unique about racial or ethnic membership. We do not need to be colorblind, nor should we strive to ignore racial differences. But they should be seen in a proper perspective: significant in forming us, but irrelevant to our status as human beings capable of both the highest moral and intellectual behavior and of bestial depravity and moronic incompetence."

"In the meantime, we should heed Peter Singer's words:

...the genetic hypothesis does not imply that we should reduce our efforts to overcome other causes of inequality between people.

...the fact that the average IQ of one racial group is a few points higher than that of another does not allow anyone to say that all members of the higher IQ group have higher IQs than all members of the lower IQ group....

"And, having a higher IQ does not justify racism (Singer, 1993), or any other kind of -ism, for that matter."

It is quite a worthwhile read. Here is the link:

http://skepdic.com/iqrace.html

Those who can read this with an open mind will find it quite educational. Those who can't will retain thier personal ignorance of facts; which don't always point to a cosmic equality; and will maintain their individual bias. And they will continue to argue thier point, as though history is as incapable of change as they are.

(("The three great strategies for obscuring an issue are to introduce irrelevancies, to arouse prejudice, and to excite ridicule...." ---Bergen Evans, The Natural History of Nonsense))

Answer 9

Yes: Dumb people of all races have lower IQs than smart people of all races.

Answer 10

Abolish Racism....

☼☼ Long Live The King Of Pop ☼☼

Answer 11

Yes, all of the other Homonids, including Neanderthals, were either too dumb, or too unlucky, not to have become extinct...

Answer 12

Yes, they range from the average of 50s in some African countries to 107 in some Asian Countres.  Some of the poltically correct object to this information being on the net.

Google "IQ by country."  I will make no comment on the reasons or results of these IQ tests, but many arguments as to their accuracy exist. Equatorial Guinea has the lowest average IQ at 59 & Hong Kong the highest at 107.

Edit:

Note the thumbs down for posting the requested information! This makes my point about the dangers of poltical correctness, which is far closer to a religion than to any field of science.  Careful, these twits hate science & would drag us into the dark ages given the chance.  

A final note... skin color has nothing to do with IQ, but some haplogroups do very poorly on IQ tests, for some undefiined reason.  For some reason those in Western cultures with an IQ in the 60s are far less able to cope in their society than those in an African society.  This is likely something  being overlooked in the IQ tests or the methodology thereof.

Answer 13

On a scientific basis, I do not think it is impossible, probably due to genetic threads and what not. But this is a very sensitive issue which should be approached with respect.

Answer 14

intelligence is not measured with iq tests