Sunday, November 05, 2006

IQ and Africa

At the London School of Economic Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is in trouble over his conclusion that low IQ, not poverty or disease, is the primary cause of Africa's problems. In Ethiopia, for example, the average IQ is 63 and life expectancies are in the mid-forties. People are upset about this because it seems racist and threatens to revive the idea of eugenics. In fact, Kanazawa's research is a) almost certainly true and b) unremarkable. I wrote about this subject some years ago - see Selected Articles - and came across the Flynn Effect. This was the discovery by James Flynn that IQ in the developed world seemed to be rising at the rate of 10 points per generation. Flynn had simply given old intelligence tests to new children. His results showed that an average child in 1918 had an IQ of 85 or lower, whereas an average contemporary child would have an IQ of 100 or higher. But this did not really mean that within a few years we would be bumping into waves of Aristotles, Kants and Newtons on the street. It meant that the results of IQ tests are linked to educational and cultural factors. The children who tooks the tests in 1918 would have been found to have an average of around 100, since that is the average the tests are designed to produce. If that is the case, then, as I say, Kanazawa's findings are unremarkable, indeed entirely predictable. IQ is not an absolute measurement, true at all times in all places. It is culturally determined; it measures the ability of an individual to function within the culture that is setting the test. In these terms, it is an amazingly accurate indicator of success in life for inhabitants of the rich nations. Conversely, an entirely African IQ test would probably show Africans were the most intelligent people in the world. But the real point is that the rich world's idea of intelligence is, for the moment, the most effective at delivering goods like education, health and wealth. Africans needs these. If they get them, then, in time, their IQs would rise to the levels seen in the developed world. It is supremely improbable that a phenomenon as complex and diverse as intelligence is determined by race to any significant degree. All of which should not entirely allay the fears of the politically correct left. For, if Africa is locked in low IQ misery from which it can only be rescued by institutional and educational systems developed by the high IQ nations, then a new colonialism would seem to be the most rational and humane response.

31 comments:

  1. This is an important article, Bryan and I'll draft a response on my site later. I believe it is as stated here but confess never to have thought of this aspect before. How does that then relate to my article yesterday about Branson in Africa and his attempt to foster entrepeneurship? It would appear to be doomed.

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  2. I think that if you're hungry and suffering the ravages of disease, you're not going to care too much about taking an IQ test. Unlike our little whipper-snappers in the Western world who are competing for the high scores, the Africans tested probably felt -- Jeez, just another hoop I have to jump through to get some aid.

    IQs as low as you have reported would indicate mental retardation. I don't believe it. I think perhaps the scorers saw what they wanted to see. We have some great examples in this very city of anatomists who used skull size to determine IQ (we have two major skull collections in Phila., collected by doctors in the early 19th century). Be danged if one of the collectors didn't "prove" that blacks and Jews were far less intelligent, based on their skull size. Of course, he also set aside all the black and Jewish skulls that went against his theory and undermined his proof.

    If the African study you cite said the average IQ was 90, I might buy it: That could be accounted for by the stress of the lifestyle. In the 60s? No way.....Philip Walling, I'm with you. Smacks of racism and imperialism to me!

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  3. I'm Susan B's husband and a psychometrician. At her urging, I am responding to the remarks on Africans' IQ. First, such a low average score must have been partly the result of a written test applied to illiterates, or a complicated non-verbal test for which the goals were not made clear. (If you were handed a test in Swahili and told to mark boxes on it, you would likely score in the retarded range as well.) But an IQ test, unless very limited and carefully designed, is also partly a test of literacy, test-taking experience, and cultural knowledge.
    Aside from the language barrier, I would be willing to bet that a couple of weeks' instruction in testing and Western conventions would have vastly improved the African subjects' scores. If so, the test was only masquerading as an IQ test, if we believe that IQ is relatively fixed in each person.
    Second, there is plenty of evidence that even intelligence conceived of as entirely culture-free can be improved with practice up to certain limits. I do not have the capability to be a professional rugby player no matter how much training I get, but practice would certainly make me better at the sport. On the other hand, the greatest natural athlete in the world will not be good at a sport without some training. In the modern Western world, most of us have had the opportunity to train our intellects up to our highest potential. Therefore, we tend to view IQ test results as a reflection of our upper limits of intelligence. A century ago here or today in Africa, this was/is not the case.
    However, this does not imply that the best way to improve Africans' intelligence is to train them up to be able to do well on Western IQ tests. I suspect that training in logic and practice at thinking would vastly improve the Africans' "African Intelligence", whether or not it is the same as our "Western Intelligence", and that the African version would would serve them better at succeeding within their own cultures.
    Finally, I will note in passing that cultures and religions vary more in Africa than they do in the homogenized West, so even referring to an "African IQ" is a gross oversimplification of the issue.

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  4. I subscribe to the idea that there are multiple intelligences: social, athletic, emotional, as well as various sorts of intellectual. The type of intelligence that is important in one society or situation is not necessarily as important in another - but all should be valued for their own sake.

    I believe that this is very much like what you are saying here - but perhaps in a broader sense.

    Very interesting article, thank you.

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  5. I concur with the various people, including you in your post, Bryan, who have said that there is a cultural component to IQ. If one normalised the African test in that way, the scores would probably be on the same scale -- or at least one could have that as a null hypothesis.

    As a pragmatist, rather than an "anything else-ist" I find it quite hard to tell what any conclusion about IQ in these areas of the world actually means. What is the consequence of an average population IQ being lower or higher than another population's IQ - after normalisation, naturally?. There are plenty of people in our western cultures with low IQ but who are productive in the societies in which they live, in the sense of contributing positively to the economy.

    I suppose that what you say about colonialism, Bryan, would make sense if you measure the "value" or "output" of that society by those "colonialist" yardsticks. I'm not so sure, however, that to include IQ as part of the equation is that helpful in the sense of leading to practical suggestions. I have not gone back to read the original article to which you link, but Africa is a huge continent and each country within it has a different set of issues, all complex in themselves.

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  6. The speed and accuracy with which a computer achieves a certain task is a product of both the hardware specification of the computer and the software which is running on the computer. A poorly educated child is analogous to a computer which is running inferior software. Even basic mental speed and agility will be the product both of the brain's hardware (its neurophysiology), and the basic software running on it (determined by experience in early age). You don't need to believe that the brain is literally a digital computer, executing algorithms, to see the analogy here.

    I don't know if these IQ tests were properly conducted, but it wouldn't surprise me if African children recorded lower IQ levels, precisely because they are poorly educated.

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  7. What a lot of rubbish you people spout. What about the possibility that part of the discrepancy is simply due to malnutrition? This proposition has the great merit that it can be tested.

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  8. Allan, I think we broadly agree. But you have missed out one key point in my post. I don't blame you I was trying to get a lot in very few words - I hate long posts. The point was that, whatever kind of intelligence IQ tests measures in the west, it is a kind that is very good at producing certain technologies. These technologies - antibiotics, efficient agriculture, effective engineering, particulalry in transport and so on - would obviously by life-saving on a massive scale if widely applied throughout Africa. Now I don't doubt that innate African intelligence is the equal of anybody's, but it has not succeeded in producing these goods. We can say that's fine and they must pursue their lives and cultures in any way they like. But does that mean letting them die of easily treatable diseases or starve for lack of simple food? Clearly we could just give them all of these things, but that, in itself, turns them into our clients. Or we could find ways of encouraing them to developt such technologies for themselves. But this latter is evidently a very long slow process and would have to be done via insttutions embodying Western methods. It would, therefore, be a form of colonialism.

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  9. ...What a lot of rubbish you people spout. What about the possibility that part of the discrepancy is simply due to malnutrition?...

    Which is very much,in an intergenerational sense, linked to low IQ.

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  10. Bryan, surely most IQ tests are testing basic mental speed and agility, and this kind of intelligence is a universal requirement for survival and prosperity? The basic mental capabilities required for survival and prosperity on the African savannah, are the same capabilities which are also being employed in the First World to develop modern medicine and technology; the difference is simply education and knowledge.

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  11. I think if anything - and I stress anything - this study shows that the western world as a whole is culturally set up for European-whites to succeed. Rather than such an IQ test being a true indicator of intelligence, I believe it shows that non-whites are inherently disadvantaged - not in terms of education, entrepreneurship, etc, but in terms of instinctively understanding the western world.

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  12. "I think if anything - and I stress anything - this study shows that the western world as a whole is culturally set up for European-whites to succeed. Rather than such an IQ test being a true indicator of intelligence, I believe it shows that non-whites are inherently disadvantaged - not in terms of education, entrepreneurship, etc, but in terms of instinctively understanding the western world."

    A perfect example of egalitarian ledgerdemain. Make group differences in intelligence go away by making the very concept of intelligence disappear.

    When the ceiling for intelligence becomes nothing more than any level of cognitive abilility selected to suit its respective evolutionary niche, anything and everything can be said to be as intelligent as anything and everything. It's reductionist flapdoodle.

    You egalitarians REALLY are afraid of this stuff aren't you? Well I have bad news for you. You're losing the argument. How could you ever hope to win with such byzantine nonsense?

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  13. What kind of IQ will we have a a norm in say 500 years?

    /Pat

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  14. And let us mention in passing that many "non-white" groups do very well on these tests that the excuse makers responding to this post believe to be so biased towards whites. Why do East Asians score so well? Why to Eskimos have an average IQ one standard deviation above blacks? Your shopworn , flippant attempts to disregard what this data means is being crushed repeatedly in the laboratory. You can't even work up the gumption to seriously engage in the debate, preferring to wave it all away with nary a second thought given to your shallow interpretations.

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  15. I live in Africa and cant seem to find a reason why it is in this state of permanent poverty when billions in aid have come our way. It does boil down to IQ I'm afraid. Intelligent decisions made at government level are rare and as usual the poor will always remain poor so that fat cats can benefit. Democracy is just a word and not really practiced. Crime and corruption is the order of the day and average african people remain in dire straits. Sad but true!

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  16. I'm an African living in Kenya who has just taken an online IQ test and scored 113. The test was culturally biased since some questions mentioned pies and ducks, stuff that most Africans have never heard of.

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  18. Going by this theory China and India probably had a really poor IQ. They were both extremely poor nations. Their rapid development and double digit GDP growth in recent year must be due to some miracle potion that increased their IQ ??

    The only use or relevance that these western IQ tests have for
    People in Darfur and Ethiopia is probably burning them in bonfire to cook food or warm their hands.

    People with poor IQ and lack of reasoning ablities should be banned from publishing IQ related articles or conducting research on those topics!

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  19. I get upset about people getting upset about anything just because it doesn't suit their PC notion of the world. It would be nice to see back up studies on this IQ thing, which really must be affected by conditions and intergenerational issues.

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  20. There is a very good study on the effect of nutrition and IQ. Yahoo had an article on the study just recently: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080201/hl_afp/healthnutritioneducation;_ylt=AowBlY7vpuFfPVhYn_OhdBbVJRIF

    Adult wages are improved, men are stronger, and women smarter when given even a little bit better nutrition as young children.

    Keep in mind, this was in an area without critical nutrient deficiencies to begin with. In regions where iodine deficiencies frequently cause cretinism, for example, a little extra nutrition cculd go even further.

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  21. Interesting Article. I believe the truth about Africa's poor performance in virtually all categories of human development is NOT just because of poor nutrition and disease. The mere fact there is abject poverty and disease is a symptom rather than the cause of their failure. All human cultures and racial groups have had to overcome these same life challenges, some cultures thrived, and others have failed. Most of Sub Saharan africa is fertile , abounding with natural resources, there is no tangible reason why many of these counties shouldn't be wealthy and prosperous. If not WHY not? Perhaps they are happy the way it is?

    6000 years ago we were all hunter/ gatherers no matter where we lived as Homo Sapiens, about on the same playing field. The FACT is some cultures and racial groups have raced ahead of others in human development, the question is, how and why? Can we honestly tackle this issue without offending certain groups of people?

    Europeans for example have had to overcome famine, disease and poor education, even in recent history. If fair IQ tests proved, on average,if sub Saharan Africans were currently inferior intellectually at this snapshot in time, what good is it going to do? Most of us can draw this conclusion anyway by looking simply at the performance of many of these African countries and Haiti when blacks were left to their own devices. Are their any countries that have mixed ethnicity where blacks are the top teir in wealth and academic performace? I do not know of any, but would like to know if it exists.

    Do I think Blacks on average have demonstrated less intelligence in tackling certain problems humans face, the answer is possibly yes.
    Do I also believe that Blacks are physically quicker and better athletes in most categories than the rest of humanity, again the answer is probably, yes. Can we accept physical differences, but not intellectual? When was the last time anyone but a black person won the 100 meter dash in the Olympics?

    I for one do not get upset that Chinese and Japanese score higher on IQ tests than Europeans. This probably explains why we graduate so many PHD's to Asian people at our American universities. How do we explain THIS, it sure likely isn't better nutrition or environment.

    In our politically correct Western World, the poor performance and poverty of certain cultures will likey never be blamed on intelligence, when its likely the most obvious conclusion one could or should come to.

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  22. unfortunately this board has become a racist board where people seem to be more interesting in finding uncorrelated and uncorrobarated data to run down people with black skin color.
    Trevor:
    The mere fact there is abject poverty and disease is a symptom rather than the cause of their failure

    I believe you will have to substantiate your claim ..writing a sentence on a board doesnt make it a valid scientific inference. It makes your guess and wishful thinking.

    Also Trevor says the IQ tests in Africa were conducted on well nourished people-by which yardstick the well nourished black people in UK shoudl also do poorly in UK. Also where is the evidence that only upper class well educated blacks are immigrating to UK? Are you just making up sentences in the air?
    Is it not likely that the upper class blacks will rather stay in their country than immigrate..immigrants is most cases are middle class and poor people..except if they are from politically unstable countries caught in civil war

    About the anonymous comment after trevor ..how stupid it is to use one persons anecdotal story of a black womens comment to say the entire race is stupid..

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  23. Remember the figures are averages, there is overlap amongst groups. However, the media has consistently adopted the view that IQ studies are discredited. They aren't. In fact, they quite strongly predict academic performance. For instance, East Asians have a higher average than whites, and this is reflected in better graduation rates. Also, research shows that Ashkenazi Jews have a particularly high average and again this is consistent with their academic performance (the idea that they scored poorly in the turn of the century is a cannard).

    "Among white Americans, the average IQ, as of a decade or so ago, was 103. Among Asian-Americans, it was 106. Among Jewish Americans, it was 113. Among Latino Americans, it was 89. Among African-Americans, it was 85. Around the world, studies find the same general pattern: whites 100, East Asians 106, sub-Sarahan Africans 70. One IQ table shows 113 in Hong Kong, 110 in Japan, and 100 in Britain. White populations in Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States score closer to one another than to the worldwide black average. It's been that way for at least a century...

    How could genes cause an IQ advantage? The simplest pathway is head size. I thought head measurement had been discredited as Eurocentric pseudoscience. I was wrong. In fact, it's been bolstered by MRI. On average, Asian-American kids have bigger brains than white American kids, who in turn have bigger brains than black American kids. This is true even though the order of body size and weight runs in the other direction. The pattern holds true throughout the world and persists at death, as measured by brain weight.

    According to twin studies, 50 percent to 90 percent of variation in head size and brain volume is genetic. And when it comes to IQ, size matters. The old science of head measurements found a 20 percent correlation of head size with IQ. The new science of MRI finds at least a 40 percent correlation of brain size with IQ. One analysis calculates that brain size could easily account for five points of the black-white IQ gap."


    http://www.slate.com/id/2178122/entry/2178123/

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  24. Good article Bryan.
    I'm with the posters calling Occam's razor on this one. Anecdotal observation provides so much evidence that I find it hard to ignore:
    African nations do badly (compared not just to Caucasian but South and East Asian nations), african immigrants to other nations do badly (compared not just to Caucasians but South and East Asian immigrants) and the preponderance of those who "break out" have a non african parent (Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton).
    Obviously, we're talking averages here - there are certainly african geniuses and fools of all races, but averages are important to a society - politicians, scientists, engineers and professors are drawn from a narrow pool of people anyway - shift the bell curve a little to the left and the pool dries up and makes it impossible to build a functioning, complex, modern society.
    Are there ways forward to build a world with opportunity and fairness for all? Yes. Should we ignore what the science is telling us about Africa? No - we should confront the unwelcome truth: IQs are lower, and solutions that work elsewhere will not always work there.
    Yes, the problem is vastly exacerbated by nutrition, but the gap is till 15 points in the US, where no-one is really malnourished.

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  25. the lolz of my last comment aside (it was all 4 the lulz...)

    if u study human migration and humans staying in ONE place...

    Africans stayed in one place since begining... their IQs are like in the 70s.

    East asians and germanic tribes moved FUCK LOADS b4 settling.

    Jews settled 50 years ago - i also doubt it's permanent.

    Native american IQ is not necesarily as important for them... I feel that the native americans COMPLETED their evolution, and it was not necessarily about overwhelmeing dendritic connection causing them to use lots of math to make a ton of money. The native americans have powers of vision and knowlege of ecology and botany that western judeo-christian belief REFUSE to accept. They refuse to believe that the native american's REALLY can talk with spirits and animals and plants. they REFUSE native medicine, they REFUSE to be moved to tears by their own kind putting addictive forms of nicotine to make people kill self on cig when they could conserve tobaco smoking through nose, conserve animals through vigilant hunting, conserve land through living OFF of the land, not the consumption thereof.

    I am a MASSIVE MIX of "dumb" to "average" so called genetic code - native american, hispanic, a few bits of eastern europeans (the europeans with mullets that sing rock about peeing on people btw), - the only thing i got a fair amount of is like 37.5% english. I also have an IQ between 137 and 164 (the tester said a lot of shit messed up and if i wanted to figure out real # i ocould take it a 2nd time - i was 9 it only messed up cause i cried and gave up 2/3 in). I am a VERY bizarre type of intellect however. I can not help myself worth SHIT, i am easily stolen from (only ever been stolen from by negroz tho DAMN IT outsmarted by apes), i can't focus and would prefer to smoke weed and just like be a hobo or something with a long beard studying plants - only i dont have enough balljuice to grow beard cause of nativeness. I can still do really fucked up math (i dont memeorize any rules either i do it with very basic algebra in nontraditional ways) and like solve rubik's cubes without directions faaast. I have never met someone that was not easily understood on deep psychological levels quickly - and the smart ones are the easiest. Mixed breeds are fuckkkked up. have kids with anything but africans.

    I also am fairly certain i inherited some of the spiritual visionness(?) of the native american. I now devote my time not to making money but rather observing celestial / solar / lunar patterns in relation to how open my 3rd eye is. I have dreams that show me the future a few times a week. I am also one of the most skeptical sons of bitches youve ever met - It took me 20 years to finaly believe what had been happening all my life.

    My dream is to marry a japanese girl OR jewish girl (whatever i dont marry i will position my family in a place that my kids will have THEIR shot @ being with never even noticing it was planned using demographics). That shit would be SO cash.

    Hopefuly people learned something from the whole lot of nothing i jsut posted. Im enjoyin me some FIRE water tonight...

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  26. The other day a friend of mine had some trouble with his aeroplane and had to parachute over central Africa. When he landed Albert Einstein and a typical African male offered to help him to safety. Who did he chose?

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  28. Nobel-winner James Watson
    Nobel-Winner William Shockley
    University of Calfornia's Arthur Jensen
    Harvard University: Murray & Hernstein
    London University Han Eyseck
    Researcher Rihcard Lynn.

    All science-journals have publishing the same data for 50-100 years now.

    African IQ 70 in africa. 85 in usa.
    Facts known to the world.
    Truth known to the world.
    Not a secret to anyone
    Not a secret to world.

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  29. IQ results are not cross culturally justifiable in ascertaining true innate intelligence. I can list countless simple traditional tests, riddles, verbal anagrams and quantitative logics, used in testing the intelligence of toddlers in remote villages in Africa, as early as the 13th century, and if I were to subject either East Asians or Europeans with supposedly high IQs to these simple tests I doubt if they'll be able to surpass the intellectual capacity of a 7 year old in this villages. But that does not give me a scientific justification to conclude that these East Asians or Europeans have a lower level of intelligence than an average 7 year old African.

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  30. What is intelligence? Is intelligence building the atomic bomb? The weapon of your own destruction? Is intelligence destroying the very condition of your survival, just the way some have decimated their entire fauna and flora in no time? Certainly Africa has been proven to be the longest inhabited region of the world yet Africans have managed to keep the most pristine fauna and flora on the planet. That is real intelligence. Living while the conditions of your survival are almost intact.

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  31. Hello, I'm a student in Africa studying mathematics. A friend and I recently discussed this topic, regarding the book "The Bell Curve" and others that assert that blacks are genetically disadvantaged. This was quite shocking to hear since, evolutionarily speaking, Africans had to go through more hardships that would have put selective pressures on increasing ingenuity (but that's just baseless speculation, as are most statements regarding racial evolution). But I think it's all nonsense. The research methods were flawed, the authors had obvious potential biases, and offers a very simplistic conclusion without ample corroboration (i.e., "it's all genetic, and our evidence is that blacks are poor and score low on IQ tests"). Once again, I'm in university studying mathematics--and I don't come from some super-rich/super-smart family. I don't think we need to try to offer rationalizations for these studies. I think this subject should stay in its rightful position, in the alleys of pseudoscience.

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