IQ and the Wealth of Nations question?

Question

For those of you who have never heard of the book, it's a hated piece of research that compiled the data of IQ tests administered in different countries and basically came to the conclusion that Asians are smart, Europeans are normal, South Americans and Middle Easterners are dumb, and Africans are retarded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iq_and_the_wealth_of_nations

Please make note that I am neither endorsing nor discrediting the book. I take a completely neutral stance on it.

My question is this: some people say that poor nutrition and lack of education are the reason for low IQs in certain undeveloped countries. But I know more than a little about IQ; for example, a common IQ test called the Raven Progressive Matrices does not require any knowledge whatsoever, as it consists of sets of abstract shapes. You complete the set, find the next logical shape, etc. And it's been found that the demographic groups in question perform poorly on this test too.

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Answer 1

I'm pretty sure, but don't follow this closely since I tend to ignore incendiary racist nonsense like this, that you'll find that brain development is closely tied to neonatal and early childhood nutrition.  In particular, protein deficiencies during gestation and early childhood can lead to delays in brain growth.  The 80% of IQ is genetic does not take into account developmental deficiencies.  

Clearly though, you have an agenda and want to think you're smarter than other people.  But you're not.  You got lucky and got born in the Northern Hemisphere.  How nice for you.  But you should keep in mind that historians have quipped that a nation of chimpanzees, given the natural resources found with the contiguous 48 states of the USA, could not help but to develop into a world power.  

I suggest you read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond for a great discussion of how basically all people are the same and societies develop more or less rapidly according to the available natural resources.

Answer 2

"Clearly you have an agenda" LOL yes, obviously you must have an agenda for asking an unpleasant question. *rolls eyes*

To answer your question, it's the chicken or the egg. If a population had high intelligence they would migrate the heck out of an area that wasn't yielding enough food. Or they would develop more efficient ways to cultivate the land so they wouldn't starve. But if they were already starving they would be neurologically/intelectually stunted which would preclude their ability to remedy the situation. So yes, I believe the two things feed each other (pardon the pun).

I believe, and this is my own belief which may or may not be rooted in good science, but I believe that intelligence is a trait which evolves through natural selection like any other, depending on whether it's beneficial, neutral or detrimental in a population's environment. In cold climates it would be strongly preferred because the environmental hardship makes it easier to die of exposure and such, but in an easy climate like the tropics it wouldn't be so important to be smarter, so evolution doesn't prefer intelligence there as strongly. This is just a rough hypothesis and you're free to discard it. But in a nutshell I think intelligence is overrated, it's a trait that can be useful or near-useless depending on geography or other things. Whatever.

But then that brings up the question, if people in hard climates have to be so smart, wouldn't they be smart enough to go live in an easier climate? Hah.

Then there's the matter of those low-IQ populations when they migrate to the US and other western countries. Their children's IQs end up higher than the average of their home countries, so obviously nutrition and education do play an important role in IQ. BUT: they still end up with lower IQs than the Western majorities. And that's after adjusting for socioeconomic status, education, environment and nutrition. See the twin studies done on this subject. So clearly the issue is also genetic. So in the case of dirt-poor countries, both issues combine and enhance each other. And that's just the way it is.