Working class people are of lower intelligence?

Question

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080522/tuk-working-class-has-lower-iq-6323e80.html

Can it be true? Or is it just that they want you to believe it as it fits with the future plans

Answer 1

My friend's father worked in a factory and my friend is now a head teacher. I have worked with royalty and many of them can't tie up their own shoe laces.

The reason the working class didn't do well many years ago, was because the people at the top such as corporation owners trapped them into poverty with no health and safety at work or a chance to have a good education so it's not surprising they couldn't do well.

Anybody can practise to have a better IQ for those tests as they're just like a quiz, and I don't see how they they can test for a person's general life skills and common sense.

Answer 2

I can see how it would be possible as many children from poor backgrounds do not benefit from good diet and appropriate stimulation from an early age.  Children from poorer backgrounds are often raised on a diet of junk food and constant television which does not allow them to fulfill their potential.  

It doesn't cost much to feed children good food and it costs nothing to read to them, but many parents from poorer backgrounds simply don't do it as they don't understand the importance of these things.

It's not really about the money, it's about the aspirations.

Answer 3

Working class people have always been expected to do badly, it's bullsh!t. I'm from a working class background and I have an MEng in Aeronautical Engineering and will probably do a PhD (for real) soon.

Why not include an IQ test in the university admission procedure? See how many toffs (Like Tim nice but Dim - Harry Enfield show) fail? Because the elitist f*cks know it'd backfire.

Answer 4

I am working class and obtained 13 GCSE's 10 A*'s and yet I am slightly dyslexic. I was not able to go to university because my father had been laid off, my sister was partnered and my brother was also not working at the time, so, finding fees for university was out of the question. I started work and continued my education to A level on a part time basis while also going to college one day a week for my job. This allowed me to bring money into the home. Working class people are as intelligent as anyone but circumstance and lack of funds often draw those with the ability to move up in the world back and down. Education should be readily accessible to all and not a lever for the rich to climb up on the poor mans back.

ATB Red

Answer 5

It's not true.  Where is the man getting off?  We are a society that no matter where you come from it's about your 'get up and go.'  If you want something really bad you will strive to achieve it.  I do think however it has a lot to do with your family's attitude and the way you are raised.  My hubby was brought up on a rough council estate and is now an MD of his own company.  Both myself and my brother have also achieved academically and are successful career people.    My mother worked in a factory and my father a building site.  Working class and very proud. TOSH is all I say!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Could be true or could be some cultural difference inherent in the test.  It also depends on how you define that completely meaningless phrase "working class".

Answer 7

Well if the evidence says this is true, then it obviosly is. But if it is true, then I think it is only down to the fact that working class kids are likely to have working class parents, and let's face it, they are working class for a reason. I'm sure there are many working class people who are intelligent, but they will not have had the intelligence genes of many of the upper and middle classes. Also, there is the fact that working class people get a far worse education. If they can't read or write when they are 11, how can one expect them to do well on an IQ test. Perhaps if we improved the education of these people, the gap between their average IQs would decrease.

Answer 8

That is an absolute pile of c**p, we are all born with the same potential (save for learning disabilities etc obviously)

The reason middle class people are recorded to have generally higher IQs is probably because of the education they have received and aspects of their upbringing, they have had no others stresses to interrupt their education.

I am from a working class family and both myself and my brother are dyslexic and well above average intelligence.

It's about nurutre, not bank accounts.

Answer 9

Some working class parents who don't value education do their children a great disservice. In contrast, middle class parents look to get their children into good schools because they know the value of education.

Class has nothing to do with intelligence.  It's the quality of earlier education that determines who makes it to university.

Answer 10

Does he compare working class people to the royal family, who aren't known for their intelligence and academic success?

Answer 11

So it has nothing to do with the fact that working class students can't afford to go to university nowadays?

Answer 12

In my view this man should be confining his research within his own academic field and arguing out his findings with his cronies and not airing his views about what govenrment policies should be, until he is asked, and I hope he isn't.  As far as I know he isn't a government advisor, yet, so we needn't worry too much about their future plans, so this may just be a rather upsetting storm in a teacup.  I think he needs to be watched though.  Oh yes and by the way, he also thinks universities should charge higher tuition fees so they can offer better quality.  He also supported James Watson who was an academic who was sacked from an American university for saying the same sort of thing about IQ, and, yes, you guessed it - race.

Bruce Charlton edits a journal called Medical Hypotheses in which this sort of thing gets published:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/jou...

Answer 13

This is a statement which is subjective to create a headline. I mean there are more questions to be asked about which specific group of "working class" people they mean. There are levels and groups and groups within groups. Yes you are correct this is a headline to fit "someones"future plans.

Answer 14

we are working class, and my brother was very clever, went to edinburgh university, and is now a head teacher, so that i not the case////

Answer 15

The individual working class person may not be as academically smart as 'higher class' people but I would like to see the 'higher class' mob build a building or scrub a floor or get down and get dirty.

Answer 16

This is what happens when you try and give an upper class twit an education; they come out with silly ideas.Thank God they are no longer the "Ruling Classes".

Answer 17

Chipmonk said it all.

You can't buy intelligence.  All my family are very intelligent, with fantastic jobs.  We are working class.

Answer 18

I'm all for putting that theory to the test.

The only way to do that is by promoting equal access to the best schools for all children.

We used to have something like this in the heyday of Grammar schools. That was a time when meritocracy was being given a real try in Britain - a time when social mobility was at it's highest.

Since then Comprehensive schools like the one I went to have been promoting mediocrity for everyone who can't afford a private school education. As a result the social disparity in higher education is on the rise.

If we want to know who's bright and who's not we need a fair test and that means promoting academically rigorous state education for all pupils regardless of social background.

Unfortunately both main parties are against grammar schools so we can't properly test the validity of this man's claim.

Answer 19

Hi Trish

Our IQs are not effected by how much money our families have - it's a silly notion

One problem is academics judge people on knowledge of subjects like fine art, literature and classical history - topics that often do not interest people who can't afford to buy great pieces of art or have the time to study classical music and history

Answer 20

I think it is more a case of lowered expectations. You grow up in a working class and everyone around you simply expects you will do no better than your family before you. If you are told that often enough, you eventually come to believe it and stop trying.

The opposite is true for the wealthy. They grow up in privilege and are raised believing that they can do anything they want. When you don't see limitations, you simply do it.

Answer 21

Not only do these people wipe their asses with $100 dollar bills, they call the working class less intelligent. Just because they were born into a family of people that are rich, they have to be motherfuckers too.

Answer 22

Surely it is what we do with our IQ that matters.  With no compassion, 'clever people' exploit.  Sadly too many of us are struggling to get by and much of our latent potential remain undeveloped.

Answer 23

So this prat is a reader in evolutionary psychology...Wow.

University has become very expensive, so it's heading back to being a place where only the wealthy can go.

It has nothing to do with intelligence.

As the middle class becomes poorer, we will have the toffs & the poor, once again.

Answer 24

Thats a load of rubbish.Working Class people have the same IQ or higher than them born with a silver spoon in there mouths.

Answer 25

Complete load of codswallop. Of course those from wealthier backgrounds have better opportunities. Their parents can afford tutors, extra books etc etc, and of course they have the money to send their children to university which is something most working class families are just not able to afford. That doesn't mean that they are naturally more intelligent than people from working class backgrounds, just that they have the means to do better. If money was not an issue and everyone had an equal education and an equal chance of going to university I doubt very much that social class would be an issue in terms of intelligence.

Answer 26

Ha Ha Ha! The IQ test is based on the middle class white male. I've always said I find alot of the thickest people I've come across are those with degrees. They just come from privileged backgrounds that's all so get the best 'education'! Unfortunately they seem to greatly lack life skills!

Answer 27

Bruce Charlton has the worst combination of attributes, low intelligence combined with high academic qualifications.The ability to retain and reinterpret other people's information to gain qualifications is 99% memory and 1% intelligence.

I think Bruce Charlton is a collection of other people's information and his comments are pathetic.

Answer 28

Across the board we all have the same potential I.Q.'wise.Mix toffs with toffs then add better schooling I.Q. rises.Give working classes same opportunities same happens.In the long run the whole country benefits so why squabble because some d**k of a professor puts the point across badly?The class system will disappear in time.He obviously likes to think he's a cut above.

Answer 29

What a pompous prig, throughout history their have been working class people, who have given the world a far greater input than the wealthy he is taking about.

As the saying goes, when needs must, the poor will survive.

Well that's my philosophy anyway.

Answer 30

I suspect this is a false deduction for many children from working class families have grown up to be some of the wisest people in the world. Perhaps they have had to work very much harder to fulfil their dreams and working class families will find it dificult to fund further education for the children. I believe intelligence is relative to the chances you have in life and we have to admit the wealthier you are the greater are the choices available to your children.

Answer 31

No.

Don't think so.

Just blunders and slip-ups with human errors created back in the past  with self lack of knowledge without being aware of it being expose in time.

With living human kind living in misery at loss and blurr without going through the mystery and process of being "Born again",

With loss of sovereingty - basic human rights in going through the process of being "Born again" to our creator's universal gifts of life that was lost with time without being aware of it.

Luke 8.5-8,10-17

What do you think?