Do Whites and Blacks differ in intelligence?

Question

I'm trying to understand the extent of the IQ differences between the races. At this moment, I am not concerned with the social significance of those differences. I am asking only about their existence and, if they exist, about their magnitude.

It may be helpful to know about racial gaps in IQ test scores, in the scores from military mental competency tests, and in the scores from standard tests of scholastic achievement. How persistent have such gaps been historically?

Answer 1

I should punch you out, it's just a skin colour, it has nothing to do with your intelligence. Everyone is different.

Answer 2

In some countries, school is 8hrs a day 6 days a week, so they would naturally have more book smarts than those in other countries. Does it really matter? Why just black vs. white do you wonder this? There are many other races & nationalities to compare. History has shown it's not intelligence that wins, it's force/violence and untruths.

Answer 3

Why would the amount of pigmentation in a persons skin have any effect of their IQ?  That is just ridiculous.  That is about as stupid as Freud saying woman basically have p***s envy. I swear, where do these crazy ideas come from.  I suppose because I have blond hair, and hair obviously grows on top of my head in which is directly on top of my brain, that I must also have a low IQ because some dummy decided blonds were dumb.  Give me a break.

Answer 4

i dont know. but in order to properly test this and get accurate results, you'd need to raise a white person and a black person the exact same way, and teach them the exact same way until adulthood, then make them take the test. Due to present day social discrepancies.

Answer 5

This question is offensive, and I cannot believe the amount of misinformation that exists in the answers.  You need to look up the American Anthropological Association's statement on race.  In short, it doesn't even exist.  

There is absolutely NO evidence of cognitive differences (or brain size differences) between human populations.  None.  Citing racist blogs as a "source" doesn't count.

Oh, and ... my Black, African husband is one of the top astrophysics Ph.D. candidates in the world ... so .... yeah.  

Can you imagine how offensive it would be to him to read something like this, when he grew up under Apartheid and had to literally fight tooth and claw to earn an education?  He slept in an abandoned building and stole bread to survive when he was an undergraduate.

The question is racist.

Answer 6

If this were true then all people of one race would have to be  the same intelligence.  There are many different levels of intelligence no matter what race you are.  Not all white people are extremely smart.  My daughters intelligence is in the genius range and my mother is illiterate.  They are the same race, so that cannot be considered a factor.

Answer 7

it does not make a diffrence; now does it? u can see that a very intelligent black man is running for president of the country that u live in and he probably does have a very iq: fyi.

Answer 8

I dont wanna comment or someone will report me....

Answer 9

A BIG NO!!!!!!!

INTELLIGENCE DOES NOT DEPEND ON WHICH RACE OR COMMUNITY ONE BELONGS TO.

AS FAR AS SCIENCE IS CONCERNED THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN TAKES PLACE TILL THE AGE OF 12 OR SO. THE AMOUNT OF INTELLIGENCE  THAT ONE HOLDS IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FOLDS THAT ONE HAS IN THE BRAIN. THEN THERE ARE FACTORS WHEREIN  THE LONG LASTING  MEMORY COMES INTO PICTURE. IT DEPENDS ON THE FACT THAT THE NEURONS IN THE BRAIN STOPS GROWING AT THE AGE OF 12-14. AND THERE ON THERE IS NO DEVELOPMENT  OF BRAIN TO KEEP THE MEMORY SHARP AND FOREVER LASTING U NEED 2 BREATHE MORE OF OXYGEN. COZ LACK OF OXYGEN ELIMINATES THESE NEURONS AND CAUSES LACK OF MEMORY IN THE LONG RUN. SO BRAIN IS DEVELOPED BY ONE HIMSELF N NOT BY COLOUR,CREED, RACE OR s*x

Answer 10

I would think not. But it may depend on their upbringing, and access to schools/education, which a lot of underpriviliged youth don't have.

Answer 11

Maybe the statistics show that black people are lax but we have no idea how many of those people are ready to hatch a plan that works for them. As far as history goes...black people weren't really awarded the opportunity by God to be blessed with modern bull stuff that has only gone to show how ignorant we are as white people. Can you say Global Warming? We would've been better off leaving them in the jungle and joining them and being their slaves. They had it right and we had it wrong. Don't you think?

Answer 12

A study from Yale University by Robert J. Sternberg in "Intelligence, Race and Genetics" argue that the overwhelming portion on the intelligence, race and genetics is based on folk taxonomic rather than scientific analysis. They suggest that because theorists of intelligence disagree as to what it is, any consideraton of its relationships to other constructs must be tentative at best. They further argue that race is a social construction with no scientific definition. Thus, studies on race and other constructs may serve social ends but cannot serve scientific ends. No gene has yet been conclusively linked to intelligence. So attempts to provide genetic link of race and intelligence are not feasible at this time.

Answer 13

i dont think there is, because ther are and have been some very smart whites and blacks, but i think that there is a difference in determination

Answer 14

I do agree that there are significant differences between the races, but you seem to have left out the other races. As many people will attest that Asians far excel in these areas that you are trying to infer that blacks lag behind in. Privileges and sacrifices attribute to the advancement of all groups. But when one group has been "starved" of these basic needs generation after generation, it must have some or many types of effect on the following generations. Justice lacks in many urban areas,police officers who, fearing job security, are as much the cause for escalating crime as ignorance and false fears of poverty do.

Answer 15

Yes, indeed, they do differ. And the difference is substantial.

IQ tests use puzzles to mimic on paper the sort of intellectually demanding challenges that might be faced by a student in a college classroom, by an employee in the workplace, by a scientist in a laboratory, or by political leaders facing a foreign threat.

The measured average IQ for American Whites is 103, with a standard deviation of 15 points. The measured average IQ for US-resident Blacks is 85, with a standard deviation of 12 points. The distributions in IQ for both races is very closely approximated by a normal distribution curve.

Note, however, that 85 is the average IQ of Blacks resident in the United States. The average for African Blacks is only 70. Psychologists have speculated that part of the reason for the higher intelligence of US-resident Blacks, relative to their African cousins is cultural and nutritional. However, part of the racial gap between Blacks and Whites is obviously genetic, since despite the span of time, and the number of generations, in which US-resident Blacks have been living among White Americans, that gap has not closed, and the IQ gains that might reasonably be expected from better nutrition, cultural elevation, social welfare programs and compensatory education have already been made. Furthermore, it has become clear that the IQ's of mulattoes (persons of mixed Black and White ancestry) are nearer to the racial average of whichever race dominates their lineage. The lighter mulattoes are usually the smarter ones.

If, for a particular purpose, it is necessary to hire employees having a minimum IQ of 130, then out of all the available Whites about one in 28 will meet or beat the requirement. However, only one in 11310 Blacks will qualify. That's quite a large difference in proportion.

Whites outnumber Blacks in the United States by a factor of about 5.8. Suppose that an employer selects his workers from a racially random pool of job applicants. He hopes to hire only people whose IQs are 130 or higher. Let's imagine that 100,000 Blacks and 580,000 Whites apply for jobs at the employer's company, since that proportion of applicants mirrors the racial populations in the United States.

Of those 100,000 Black job applicants, only nine of them meet or exceed the employer's minimum IQ requirement. But of the 580,000 Whites who apply, 20839 of them meet or exceed the same requirement. Thus, if the employer is racially "fair," he will hire Whites and Blacks in the proportion of about 2300 to 1. In other words, if Blacks occupy more than 0.043 percent of the employer's hirelings, then that employer has shown a racial bias in favor of Blacks.

The national average scores on the SAT 1 are:

Whites, math, 1997 = 526

Whites, math, 1998 = 528

Whites, math, 1999 = 528

Whites, verbal, 1997 = 526

Whites, verbal, 1998 = 526

Whites, verbal, 1999 = 527

Blacks, math, 1997 = 423

Blacks, math, 1998 = 426

Blacks, math, 1999 = 422

Blacks, verbal, 1997 = 434

Blacks, verbal, 1998 = 434

Blacks, verbal, 1999 = 434

The racial difference is clear, and the figures have been holding steady over the years. However, you should know that a straight ratio comparison of White and Black SAT scores can be misleading. The SAT 1 is "firewalled"; that is, students get 200 free points for the math part of the test, and another 200 free points in the verbal part of the test, just for showing up to take the test. Those points are UNEARNED, and they must be subtracted from the total score before a ratio comparison is made. That will increase the White to Black score ratio. (One suspects that the reason for firewalling in the first place was to obscure the racial score ratios.)

Furthermore, since 1994 the way the SAT has been scored has been changed. Nowadays, students get further extra free points from a fudge-factor called "recentering." Over the years, SAT scores had been dropping, and the College Board decided to add more free points to get the scores back to the middle of their grading scale. But they didn't give everyone the same number of extra points. Students who would have been low scorers by the original scoring method got more points than higher-scoring students did.

In particular, the average White student gets 100 extra points from recentering, but the average Black student gets 130 extra points. This has the effect of closing the racial gap in the scores by artifice.  It is, in other words, a politically correct form of cheating.

If you remove the unearned points from both firewalling and recentering from the SAT 1 all-time national average composite (math plus verbal) scores, here are the ratios of the races:

Asians: 1.0286

Whites: 1.0000

Mexicans: 0.7043

Blacks: 0.5860

There are other scholastic aptitude tests, of course. The SAT isn't the only one. Here are the national average scores from the Stanford 9TA.

Whites, total reading: 82.3

Whites, total math: 84.8

Whites, language: 76.3

Whites, science: 88.3

Whites, social science: 82.2

Whites, partial battery: 80.8

Whites, total battery: 82.3

Blacks, total reading: 40.3

Blacks, total math: 44.7

Blacks, language: 38.5

Blacks, science: 45.7

Blacks, social science: 39.3

Blacks, partial battery: 43.5

Blacks, total battery: 43.7

The ratio of the average in the Black scores to the average in the White scores, from the Stanford 9TA, is 0.5125.

Answer 16

That is an excellent question. The same applies with sport , why are some nationalities  better at a sport than others?

Answer 17

due to living conditions blacks are more intelligent

Answer 18

dont be a racist please

people are all different...it will depend on the parents' genes and traits that are passed down... if the person reads a lot, that could be a factor... your question doesnt really have an answer; cant be resolved through experiments or whatever...

Answer 19

No they do not, everyone differs in IQ no matter what race ,gender,

Answer 20

Madhavan must be retarded.  "Due to living conditions, blacks are more intelligent"... wtf?

As an Anthropologist, I would approach this question from two different angles.  Nature and Nurture.  

From the nature side, each race should have every physical reason to be as intelligent as the rest.  

From the side of nurture though, things can differ quite a bit.  Intelligence is not only innate it is something that can be acquired.  Sadly, in America a larger percentage of Blacks are living in poverty than Whites.  This can help attribute to a lower intelligence.  

From my personal experience, in general Blacks are not as intelligent as most Whites but I also know some which are very intelligent.

Answer 21

I don't think there is a difference in IQ. I think the difference is in perception. The way different people see each other.

Answer 22

no...

1. race DOES NOT exist..... race is a cultural phenomenom

2. people are smart or dumb according to the type of environment they grow up in.

3. a lot of people claim americans are really stupid (non-americans) does it mean there is something out in the air that makes americans inherently dumb?

NO!! it;s simply the environment you develop in.

Answer 23

Simply talking about biological differences to explain IQ gaps misses at least half of the equation: environment.  Environmental forces (things like family life, socio-economic status, culture, etc) account for at least half of the influence on a person's intelligence.

For example, Asian cultures tend to put a high value on achievement.  They put more pressure on themselves to go farther, do better, etc.  So they will often achieve higher on IQ tests as a result of this cultural difference.

To further this example, students in poor urban areas (for example, many black students) with little intellectual stimulus, will do worse on IQ tests.  Studies done on identical twins separated at birth and having different upbringings have shown conclusively that the environment a child is raised in has a very significant effect on their achievement on an IQ test.

This can apply to people not raised in the testing culture as well.  I'll use an example: if you were raised in the States and you went on the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" you'd easily be able to answer questions from the beginning to at LEAST the $1000 question.  That's what they're designed for.  But if someone from another country were to try and answer some of those questions, it would be far more difficult.  There's an assumed shared experience there before the questions are even asked.  IQ tests also have a cultural component to them; perhaps not as obvious as the Millionaire example, but it is still true.

If you've ever heard that there is often more variation among people of the same race than people of a different race you've heard right.  Race isn't a very good scientific category; and genetics doesn't account for your total IQ.  

IQ tests also tend to be extremely subjective and the results of which should always be taken with a large dose of salt.  There are MANY factors influencing how someone will do on an IQ test that can't be seen simply by breaking it down to race.  Or gender.  Or hair color, for that matter.

Answer 24

I dont think there are differences in intellectual ability. I think there are differences in intellectual use. I think that there are cultures that for environemental reasons have had to use and exercise parts of the brains that other cultures may not have had to. For instance, if there is a culture that has a high need for aggression and strategic thinking then that part of the brain will develop more acutely. If a culture has no need for complex aggression then it does not.

As far as IQ...The best indicator in the IQ test for general intellegence is the Performance subtest...least influenced by culture or opportunity.

Answer 25

This is tricky to answer without being offended....eek.

Well, people have evolved.  They always have been, just not noticably.

Have you noticed that oriental people are shorter?  I know it's random but it's a display of intelligence.  Oriental people are smarter, shorted and have less testosterone (and yes women, this means they are more romantic and don't just want to sleep with you!...in general that is).

Oriental people are the most evolved of all humans, they have developed all the things needed to survive as a human, which is mainly intelligence, and as I said, the lower amount of testosterone.  Society today calls for romantic men who can woo their women, not men who can hunt, as they used to be needed for.

Black men are taller, and generally stronger.  They are better built for hunting and fighting (look at boxing and other violent sports).  People have evolved not to need this ability to fight, and they needed intelligence.  Also, black people have a higher amount of testosterone, so they can be more violent, have a higher s*x drive and be more temperamental.   But they have bodies which are stronger and taller built which appeal to women who are more likely to concieve...I know that sounds silly...

When women look for things in men, they look for intelligence, a sense of humour, all that stuff.  And this is why intelligence has evolved into our society.

I know I'm beating around the bush a bit...kinda forgot what I was saying.

But yes, there is a variety in IQ around different races, but it doesn't necessarily mean certain people are smarter...there is a lot of debate about this.

Some people find it easy to absorb information, they can listen and repeat things and apply them to similar situations.  But people have evolved (particularily oriental people) to be able to "think outside the box" to use intelligence to work things out and introduce new ideas and explanations.  So IQ tests can't be 100% accurate.  Somebody might be really good and understanding and applying things to different subjects, and think outside the box...but they may not have learnt something, even though they are an intelligent person.

Sorry for the long and dragging explanation lol.  Hope it helped.

PLEASE NOTE...these are generalisations, not all people of these races apply to these generalisations.  It is not intended as an act of racism, it is a relay of information that has been collected scientifically.

Answer 26

No, why do you ask such a question?

Answer 27

We are still attempting to find a method of measuring intelligence.  The IQ test does appear to measure some types of intelligence, but not all.  Strangely Africans with very low IQ are far more capable of  functioning  in society than are Europeans or Asians with low IQ.  Several countries in Africa average in the high 50s to low 60s on IQ tests, but they appear to function well in their environment.

All attempts to find genes that contribute to higher intelligence have been unsuccessful, to date.  So far we have not been able to reconcile the low scores of sub Saharan Western Africans on tests intended to measure intelligence, but something other than environment or culture "appears" to be at work here.

We do know that color of skin has nothing to do with intelligence, but Africans are a very diverse group consisting of many haplogroups... (L0, L1, L2 & L3) those from East Africa do well on IQ tests.  North Africans are an even more diverse group & probably not in the group you are looking at.

Like many in the science fields, I constantly worry that science will be used to sterotype some people.  Until we can quantitatively measure intelligence... or even identify it, I would hesitate to venture an opinion.  Historically, African abilities have been downplayed... probably to justify slavery & discrimination.  We don't need that again.

Answer 28

Ask the estonian peasants of northern europe etc they didnt figure out how to measure time until the 19th century.The older generation have never had a bday.

"Intelligence" is a broad general term,like other useless terms such as black and white,it's a matter of culture not colour.

I do think some of us are wired differently and thats got little to do with race.I'm dyslexic and they are shown to have symetrical brains,the right hemisphere is equal to the left.This is why alot of us are very good at art,design,music right brained things but not so strong on left brained linear things like "reading" [which is a fairly modern occurence in human history] and relys on the left brain,as does logic/reason.

The majority of us have "asymetrical" brains,left bigger than the right.

It's likely we all had symmetrical brains until we learnt to read,now the left is larger than the right,so there is has been a greater reliance on the rational/left hemisphere and all the factors on intelligence that comes with that.

Alot of slavs/finns/estonians/balts northern europe/germanic tribes [some of the whitest people on earth incidentally] were not literate until very late compared with the rest of europe and the middle east,and it is usually exposure to writing that precedes "intelligence" so as far as africans writing is still new there, the culture and the mind is probably not yet wired for european left brained/ word based ideas of intelligence.

Answer 29

i understand ur question, but sorry why "black" people and "white" people should differ in intelligence? IQ don't make differ about race it only needs the brain so in such circunstances we should ask: Do u think that there is a difference at the brain also?

Sorry, but we always complicate things when they easy and clear, and sometimes we still acting blind about it....

Answer 30

no it dont matter by ur race everyone is just as smart as someone eles it just depends on if u want to learn or not

Answer 31

i dont think so,people are people ,your dumb or your smart or in between