What's Wrong With This?

R

Retief

What's wrong with this article from Science Now:

Psychologist Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen of the University of Tampere in Finland searched the published literature to come up with measures of average IQ for 81 countries. They also estimated IQ for another 104 countries by averaging the IQs of nearby nations. Hong Kong topped the list, with an average IQ of 107. The authors argued that national differences in IQ at least partly explained differences in national wealth. In 2006, they expanded the data to include IQ measurements from 113 countries and new estimates for 79 more.

Several groups have attempted to explain the pattern. In the new study, Christopher Eppig, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and his colleagues propose that low IQ is tied to the toll of infectious diseases. Their idea, which the researchers call the "parasite-stress hypothesis," is that children who contract "parasites," which they define to include everything from intestinal worms to bacteria and viruses, devote more energy to fighting off infection. As a result, they have less energy available for brain development. Countries where infectious diseases are prevalent, Eppig and colleagues argue, will have lower intelligence.
More...

Here's the photo showing the top IQ countries (purple is the smartest, red the dumbest):

<img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2886874">

Anybody have an alternative explanation for why the children have higher IQ's on average in the countries shown in purple? Link to the original article:

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/do-parasites-make-you-dumber.html
 

Attachments

Yes. I had read somewhere that children that are exposed to some kind of trauma will affect their IQs. As you can see, Africa has the lowest IQs, but you notice that they live in countries where the violence is very high. If a child sees his parents killed, or sees his sister get raped, or some other kind of traumatic experience, it stays with them for the rest of their lives.

Even in the united states, you will notice that children that live in violent neighborhoods are generally the ones with the lowest IQ. Children that live in peaceful neighborhoods where they are not exposed to traumatic violent events have higher IQs.

This pretty much holds true in most of the world.

You will also notice that sometimes a child from a violent neighborhood will rise up and be shown to have a very high IQ. If you look at the way the kid lives, you will notice he doesnt socialize well with his more violent surroundings and tunes them out and generally keeps to himself. This is why you sometimes see a smart kid come from a bad area.
 
Autocorrelation problems. Low income / political instability / resource limitations -> disease -> poor performance > etc etc

The people who tend to get sick are poor.
And poor tend not to have great access to education (a resource that costs $$$).
Sickness helps reinforce lack of learning...

The causations are all intertwined.

Only controlled experimental techniques can seperate this out. And those aren't quite practical... So until then we'll have to use common sense.

ie, start with babies of different ethnic groups. control for sickness, wealth, cultural values, etc...

Adopted kids into foreign environments could best answer the question.
 
Yes, the Italians do seem to be a bit smarter than other Europeans.

I have a KISS explanation (keep it simple stupid): Asian children are genetically smarter. That's why China and Japan are purple. And the trend holds true even if you remove them from their native countries and transport them to a far away place, like North America. You see it the universities in North America, where the top students are dominated by Asians. That's why MIT is jokingly referred to as "Made in Taiwan".
 
Quote from sumfuka:

So far, so good. We haven't become red yet. :p
More...

Don't worry, USA will not become red.. coz many intelligent people from all across the world migrated there but now the trend is changing a little bit.. many intelligent people love to migrate to Europe, Canada or Asia.
 
What's wrong with this article from Science Now:
-----------------

A biologist is going to correlate IQ to infectious disease. A transportation engineer is going to correlate IQ to the automobile and a theologist is going to correlate IQ to religion.


Adopted kids into foreign environments could best answer the question.

What is common is brain trauma within the first few years of life. (Disease, violence, etc).
The pathways to development are impaired or broken. These can be repaired with various therapy but by no means introducing a child into a different environment by itself is going to repair the damage.
 
Another explanation is IQ is linked to the culture of hard work. That's why China and Japan with Confucian views on importance of education rate high.
 
Quote from LeeD:

Another explanation is IQ is linked to the culture of hard work. That's why China and Japan with Confucian views on importance of education rate high.
More...

Agreed :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top