How can one refute evidence that average intelligence levels between races differ?

Question

Some would say that it's not only evident that races differ in average intelligence, but such a development would be expected as races diverged from their common origin. How can the argument be refuted? Are there any prominent black social scientists (for example) that agree that black IQ averages are lower for genetic reasons?

Answer 1

All races are made up of individuals, so worrying about "average intelligence" may only serve to stir up racism.

Some people from other races are cleverer than I am, and some are not.

Answer 2

It seems to me that language difference would affect our so called intelligence. Asians have many more symbols in their languages which has to somehow expand their thought processes but it should cause slower thinking having to process more information. Being exposed to written language for many generations could cause a slight adjustment in the brain causing individuals who inherit that adjustment to seem more intelligent but there is always offsets since the brain still has the same amount of mass. This is something that has occurred to me and may not have any merit.

Answer 3

Because the difference are so minor that it would be reasonable to assume that it is cultural differences alone affect the results.  How you do on the test isn't necessarily an accurate test of your intelligence.

Answer 4

Thank goodness for the answer about symbols and their physical effect!!  At the risk of simplifying things too much, I say that intelligence is comparable to the notion that "you are what you eat."  

Intelligence, especially in terms of genius, knows no racial barrier, so we know that IQ isn't genetic. I don't think that you'll find any social scientist -black or white- who will support your claim.  

Maybe you should consider the social/societal reasons for your opinion.   Maybe you should research your chosen definition of intelligence.  If you're a true anthropologist you'll be up to the task of gathering data for yourself.  Real research  is amazing.  You'll be amazed with what you discover.

Answer 5

I'm thinking the first thing to do is to get past the bad science of multiple races. There is but one race alive on the planet for the last 35,000 years give or take 5,000.

We have ethnic differences due mainly to weather in given areas and, of course, evolutionary mutations such as skin color, eye shape, hair type and height.

Science used to teach three different basic races giving rise to various miss conceptions of superiority between them.

Now we have mapped the human genome, well, the bad science is out the window!

If you're white and from the deep south...the blackest human on the planet is related to you and not that long ago, you shared ancestors. Beautiful, I love to see the ignorant expression on the face of people when I tell them that!

It is truly a thing of...beauty!

Answer 6

You can't!

Answer 7

The media portray that the mainstream view is that IQ doesn't vary by race. This is the opposite the the views held by psychologists. Only about 15% support an 'environment only' cause of IQ difference with race. 45% supported, 'a mix of genetic and environment' and the rest had no anwer.

The text involving this study is on this link.

http://mathilda37.wordpress.com/2008/07/...

The claim seems unlikely to be refuted, in spite of a lot of people trying very hard to do so, they've not come up with any decent evidence to support an 'all environmental' cause. Lately, MRI studies have been adding weight to the genetic side of the argument.

Where do people get the idea that IQ isn't genetic? The studies on it's heritability all come out at between 40% to 80%. Studies on adopted 'virtual' twins show their IQ's have no relation to each, even when they are raised in the same family, but they do resemble their birth parents whom they've never met.

Answer 8

While an IQ might be a good test for measuring certain cognitive and social aptitudes, it's nothing close to a measure of the actual intelligence of an individual. In fact, there is no clear scientific definition of the word "intelligence," which is, frankly, all you really need to know to answer your question. People who say that one race is more intelligent than another are blowing smoke, intentionally or not. It's not possible to obtain such information. Even if one race is actually more intelligent, there's not a scientific way to tell.

While IQ scores correlate and vary in some very promising ways if you're going to do race-based studies, they correlate and vary in some equally frustrating ways for those studies. While IQ tests appear to test for some things that are probably components of intelligence, they also test for some things that are probably not components. Then go ahead and look up how many different kinds of IQ tests there actually are.

The only thing I've ever been able to find that IQ tests measure definitively is a person's IQ score.

Answer 9

What race are you? it seems your IQ is rather below average.

I think that you have IQ mixed up with social development.

What is your evidence?