Nicholas Kristof: Rising Above I.Q.
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
Nicholas Kristof: Rising Above I.Q.
In the mosaic of America, three groups that have been unusually successful are Asian-Americans, Jews and West Indian blacks — and in that there may be some lessons for the rest of us.
Wonderful piece and I think Obama is on to the same logic, he’s pushing education over all else.
Reminds me of various Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker pieces that discuss education, IQ, success, practice, and more: Gladwell New Yorker Archive.
Wonderful piece that is totally misleading. Of course the environment matters. No one denies that.
However, a ton of twin studies show that variance between individuals in terms of intelligence & other behavioural traits is significantly due to hereditary factors.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126993.300-highspeed-brains-are-in-the-genes.html
See here for recent research on personality factors being significantly fixed at birth.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10566320
Sandra Scarr, after conducting the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study:
“Within the range of ‘humane environments,’variations in family socioeconomic characteristics and in child-rearing practices have little or no effect on IQ measured in adolescence.” P. 476
“There is simply no good evidence that social environmental factors have a large effect on IQ, particularly in adolescence and beyond, except in cases of extreme environmental deprivation.” P. 476
By adulthood, all of the IQ correlation between biologically related persons is genetic. P. 178 Phenotypic g closely reflects the genetic g, but bears hardly any resemblance to the (shared) environmental g. P. 187
2. From that study the black children adopted by white families matured to have IQs that are consistent with their biological peers; Asian children adopted by white families mature to have IQs that are consistent with their biological peers and which are higher than their adoptive parents.
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/004064.html
“Data from more than 8000 parent-offspring pairs, 25,000 sibling pairs, 10,000 twin pairs and adoption studies provide evidence that genetic factors play a substantial role in the variation of general intelligence, with heritability estimates ranging from 40 to 80%” –Burdick et al, Cognitive variation in DTNBP1 influence general cognitive ability. Human Molecular Genetics, 2006, Vol 15, No. 10.
“A substantial body of literature from twin, family and adoption studies documents significant genetic effects on human intelligence. Heritability estimates range from 40 to 80% and meta-analyses suggest an overall heritability of around 50%” Dick et al, (2006) “Association of CHRM2 with IQ: Converging Evidence for Genes Influencing Intelligence.” Behavioral Genetics.
Chi: I don’t think anyone is denying the effects of genetics on intelligence, the editorial is making the point that we tend to forget the other variables that affect a person’s cognitive development thinking that genetics trumps them all. I’ve never believed that, it’s too deterministic for my taste.