Is it possible for one ethnic group to have higher average IQ than another?

Question

Obviously, one ethnic group may be generally taller than another one.
So,how about IQ?

Answer 1

A lot of the answerers apparently don't know what IQ is, nor what IQ tests measure.

In the first place, the extent to which an IQ test is culturally dependent can be quantified. There are such things as culture-fair or culture-free IQ tests, and when a psychologist wants to measure intelligence across cultural lines, he would naturally choose a test with very low, or zero, cultural loading.

Second, IQ is distributed within a race along a bell curve, or normal distribution. The IQs of most people in each race will cluster near the average IQ score for that race. However, each race has its own average IQ. Some races have higher averages, and some races have lower averages. These average scores aren't culturally dependent; they reflect a real racial difference in cognitive ability.

One of the ways you could tell that you had a racially mixed (large) group of IQ test takers, without looking at the people involved, is to graph the spread of their IQ scores. A single race would show the bell curve. More than a single race might show a bimodal distribution, or a skewed distribution, or a plateau where the hump should be... unless by coincidence both races had the same average IQ.

Generally, races differ in their IQ distributions. Asians average 104; Whites average 102; Mestizos average 92; US-resident Blacks average 85; and African Blacks average 70. The Australian Abos may have an average IQ less than that of African Blacks, though I can't seem to locate any relevant data. Curious, that.

Answer 2

Some think that's it was evolutionary pressures on the Ashkenazim - only the smartest had the abilities to survive. Others look more genetically at Tay-Sachs, and think it offers what is known as a "Heterozygote Advantage". One such example is Sickle Cell Anemia, which produces the "sickle" shaped Red Blood Cells that aren't good for your overall health but make it so that you don't suffer from Malaria. Tay-Sachs, though, is thought to kill the babies who have two copies of the gene, but one infant with a solitary copy would still produce enough of what the full-dosage babies lack to survive and that the non-lethal effect increases overall intelligence, at least that which is measured by IQ. I can say it's not mixing. At least not much. The Ashkenazi gene pool is known for being completely shut off from the European one, and thus has been subject to various tests before. Now, that's to explain highest average IQ. That's not a general rule, nor should you ever discount anyone because all kinds of people can be quite intelligent. It's a myth that certain ethnic groups are less than others, and overall we tend to average out quite nicely; though, it's still true that in the end the Ashkenazi Jews still have the highest deviation to the right of the IQ test score averages. As for Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, I can't really say. IQ score differences don't indicate a thing, and overall I'm sure that while specifically Ashkenazi Jews have high ones, that theirs aren't far behind. Actually, it'll greatly surprise me if Sephardi Jews are significantly different, since they are also a unique group that tends to be successful.

Answer 3

ON average? It is not only possible, but it is. I can hear all the ideological social science rationalizations now, but the truth does not need any ones belief to be true. There is an average variance, though the cause is still being debated. It is ignorant, though, to lay the variance to cultural bias. The G heavy parts of the test are testing for things such as reaction time, counting backwards and rotating objects in space. all, invariant, culturally and the biggest part of the tests that vary. This of course, need not have any weight in policy. It seems, though, that the very people who have seemingly that policy position, are the very people who deny the truth and come up with endless rationalizations. On the other hand, the people who would seemingly use this information disparagingly, are the very people that say it must be made fair for all in outcome. That was the gist of Thornhill and Palmer's book, " The Bell Curve ". That in an enlightened society, one who works hard and plays by the rules, regardless of IQ, should be given all fair breaks. This central theme of this book is usually overlooked by the ideological crowd.

Answer 4

I love how people are spewing 'NO' without any evidence or knowledge on this topic. Brilliant...


The answer is actually yes. IQ does differ from race to race, even on culturally unbiased (or so we are told) tests, where the differences are almost exactly the same.

There are a lot of explainations to this. Does it mean some races are smarter than others, on average?

This isn't a question that can be answered. Why? Because noone can properly define what smart means, and depending on how you define it, the answer can change from yes to no in an instant.



Either way you look at it, you can look at it this way. Evolution can't be stopped and does not have feelings that abide to what you want. People are going to be born unequally. Populations are not created equally...everyone is different. Therefore, someone has to be better than someone else in one way or another in any situation.

The big trick just comes down to defining what 'better' is, and depending on how you do that, you can have whatever answer you want.

Answer 5

I am confident that one ethnic group could have higher IQ's than another. That doesn't mean that any one individual is smarter than the next, but the IQ of the complete group would be higher. It would be in direct relation to what the group places the most value on. I was brought up to work hard at everything I did, including, but not limited to, good grades, athletics, and conduct. If the group doesn't place their values in things that cultivate and nurture the use of the brain, then surely the collective IQ would suffer.

Answer 6

Yes absolutely. Not because one "race" is necessarily more intelligent than another, but because different societies rank intelligence in different ways. For one thing, IQ becomes locked fairly early in mental development, and so a child in an underpriviliged area will probably not develop the same critical thinking and analytical skills a child in a wealthy area will. In addition to that, the tests used to determine IQ are often biased towards the social learnings of a particular group, usually middle-class and wealthy whites. The SATs have been under increasing pressure for being racialy biased.

And please don't cite the Bell Curve. That book is laughable.

Answer 7

It's not provable, nor is it relevant. Theoretically it is possible, but in actuality it's not.

IQ is a measure at a certain snapshot in time. The same person will score differently at different lifestages and in different situations. The result is ultimately a variety of subjective ranges that cannot be matched with exactitude.

Of course, many IQ tests I've taken presuppose knowledge of certain social conventions or objects; if a person grew up in a situation of poverty or isolation and had not been exposed to these, they could misread the question and get it wrong, and their possibly high IQ would be undetectable. Too many possibilities for error to ever try to measure such a thing.

Answer 8

no, it's possible for one person of an ethnic group to have a higher iq level than a person, but not the whole ethnic group. It depends on the people, not their ethnicity. There are smart people in a certain ethnic group, and then stupid people in that same group. For example, my cousin, she's indian, is brilliant, then there's my other cousin, he's also indian, a dimwitted fool. Then my friend, she's chinese, she's very very smart, then theres this other chinese kid, not very smart. So no, it isn't possible for a certain ethnic group to have a higher IQ than another ethnic group.

Answer 9

It's possible. In fact, one of the problems with IQ tests is that the questions give an advantage to certain ethnic groups. This doesn't mean that one group or another is smarter; it just means the test is biased towards them. IQ tests aren't really an accurate measure of intelligence. They can give you an idea of one facet of intelligence, but they are prone to bias towards certain groups. Also, there are plenty of people who are quite intelligent who do terribly on tests due to learning disorders or just not being good at that.

As for intelligence, while it would be entirely possible, given the right amount of time and the right evolutionary pressures, for one race to be smarter than another, that simply hasn't happened. Any difference that we can see right now is generally due to economic status, bias inherent in the tests, or culture (some groups value scholastic achievement more than others, for instance). Correcting for those things, no race is inherently smarter than another.

Answer 10

It seems that members of the ethnic group that devised the IQ test would do best on it, since their own knowledge base and cultural values will be reflected in the test. Does this mean that other ethnic groups are less intelligent...? Nope, I don't believe so.