Is intelligent people predominant in one race or ethnic group than the other?

Question

Is intelligent people predominant in one race or ethnic group than the other?

Answer 1

The bottom line is the rich & powerful will always say they are superior.

Going back in history you will see how this cycle was in the past and how it will be in the future

Answer 2

Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews always score higher than everyone else, the average IQ score is 112. They also have the highest proportion of Nobel prize winners of any ethnic group.

It's funny, but even though mainly Europeans set the tests, the East Asians score better at them, by an average of about 5 points, and it's the maths sections they usually do best on. So much for cultural bias in favour of middle class white folks. Even uneducated Korean peasants score better than Europeans.

Answer 3

You seem to be under the impression that there are biological differences between modern humans today. While this is true to a point, the differences are so insignificant as to render them useless in comparing the races. In fact, the likely common ancestor of all humans today probable only lived 5,000 or so years ago - not a whole lot of time in evolutionary terms.

IQ tests are not a good indicator of intellingence because they are culturally biased. Even if they weren't, factors such as education, access to resources, etc. have a profound effect on so-called intelligence.

There were some studies back in the Dark Days of anthropology that claimed that some "races" (I use the term race pejoratively, since there are no races among humans) have smaller brains than others. However, this is a function of climate and not intellingence - people who live in colder areas (read: Europe) will tend to have larger brains because a larger brain holds in heat better. However, brain size is not necessarily relevant in determining intelligence; Neanderthals had bigger brains than any modern human, but few will contend that they were our intellectual superiors. So, the volume of a braincase is not an indicator of intelligence necessarily when it comes to humans.

Given the recent common ancestry of all humans on earth, there is simply not enough variation in humans to cause an imbalance that favors one group of people. We're pretty much all the same in the intelligence department, at least biologically. Again, "race" in humans is an idea that's been debunked in Anthropology for years. Implying that people of a different race are more intelligent is like implying that people with Blood Type A are smarter than people with Blood Type O. It's just that your blood type isn't as easy to see as your skin color!

Answer 4

No - some people might cite IQ tests proving that there are racial differences in ability but they fail to consider that the IQ tests used are culturally specific and gendered - they are devised by white males, so it should some as no surprise that white males score highest in them. Should these same brilliant minds sit an IQ test devised in another culture and by women they will do badly enough to prove, say, that native African women are the most intelligent. It's all a lot of bollox.

@estenbarrachos Physical differences in brain are just that - physical differences in brains - they can only be applied to learning once you have defined what "learning" is, and again, what is valuable and measured is different between cultures and different over time - there is no absolute measure of intelligence.

Answer 5

which person is more intelligent? The person who does the calculus to send a rocket to mars, or the woman who knows how to survive in the amazon forest?

Answer 6

Actually, there is PHYSICAL proof that some races are less able to learn because of the way their brains are wired, than others... MRI's have shown a physical difference in their brain structures... but since you can't tell the TRUTH anymore... someone will no doubt  flag this answer as being racist, so you will never read it.

Answer 7

Intelligence has not been scientifically defined. Trying to measure it, and then compare those results between different cultures, socioeconomic groups, or even individuals, is like trying to run races without a definite measure of what a meter is. Who wins? Well, it depends on who you ask. The idea that certain cultural groups, that are distinct from the groups that prodominantly design these tests, do very well on the tests, is probably a good indicator that this branch of science still has a few bugs to shake out of its sleeves. I continue my immense surprise that the designers of IQ tests are the one group of people who have managed to simultaneously evaluate accurately, and equivocate universally, every individual on the freaking planet.

Answer 8

In addition to whatever capacity for intelligence is bred into a given individual, you must consider the nutrition and the environmental stimuli that developing individual receives.  A fetus and child robbed of nutrition and raised in a low-stimulus environment would not develop as much of the intelligence potential compiled when the sperm fertilized the egg as would the fetus/child that grew in a nutrient and stimulus rich environment.  I suppose if you found an entire group of people so deprived you could say that group is less intelligent than others, but you couldn't say they are inherently so.  Replace the junk food with real food, cut out celebrity reality TV, get them reading, viewing, and doing things that require thought and imagination, gross motor skills, a bit of effort and discipline, and an attention span measurable in something longer than seconds, and their kids'll be fine.

Answer 9

Not Really there are intelligent people in all races and cultures. Given appropriate education opportunities they will show up in all races and cultures.

Answer 10

Now, education alone has not created intelligence, but I have noticed that the educated people's like the Greeks, Scots.  Chinese, Japanese and the Israelis  (and so giving  the Jew a Nationality) are far more intelligent than the uneducated rest. If I have left anyone out please use your intelligence and insert your chosen people.

Answer 11

Don't forget societal pressures.  A child raised in a culture that stresses education such as many Asian cultures and Jewish culture, will probably score higher then a child not raised to value education and learning.  This says not a thing about genetic ability, just about the culture people come from.

Answer 12

Intelligence has enever, to my knowledge been properly codified or even defined scientifically.  there have been many attempts such as using brainwave patterns as proxy data for 'intelligence', IQ tests - which are based on cultural categories and really only explore a person's ability to conform to social expectations, and many others.  Many of us remain unconvinced that these have a great deal to do with real individual intellectual potential.  Sorry, but the question is, as stated, unanswerable, in my opinion.