Race Differences in Intelligence

"Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis" is a 2006 book by Richard Lynn claiming to represent the largest collection and review of the global cognitive ability data, by nine global regions, surveying 620 published studies from around the world, with a total of 813,778 tested individuals.

Lynn's meta-analysis lists East Asians (105), Europeans (99), Inuit (91), Southeast Asians and Amerindians (87 each), Pacific Islanders (85), Middle Easterners (including South Asians and North Africans) (84), East and West Africans (67), Australian Aborigines (62), Bushmen and Pygmies (54), Homo Erectus (50), Apes (22), and Monkeys (12).

Ashkenazi Jews who Lynn classifies as Middle Eastern/European hybrids, average 107-115 in the U.S. and Britain, but Ashkenazi Jews in Israel average 103 [Race Differences in Intelligence pg 94] . Lynn argues that the U.S. Ashkenazis represent the elite who were intelligent enough to escape persecution in World War II. However, countering this argument, two million Ashkenazi Jews arrived in the U.S. between 1880 and 1920, the vast majority of whom were relatively poor when they arrived in the U.S.

Like much research regarding race and intelligence, Lynn's work has been controversial [ [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oup/sochis/2003/00000016/00000001/art00157 IngentaConnect The Science of Human Diversity: A History of the Pioneer Fund ] ] . When taken as national averages, the data available, particularly regarding the developing world, is speculative due to limited sampling, year of testing, and varying type of cognitive ability test used. Lynn's survey is an expansion by nearly four times of the data collected in his 2002 "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" with Tatu Vanhanen, which dealt with the relationship between IQ and economic development. "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" was criticized for error, alleged bias, and racism, but the book has also been used as a source of IQ data and hypotheses in several peer-reviewed studies. [( [http://www.suz.unizh.ch/volken/ThomasVolken/pdfs/IQWealthNation.pdf Volken] ). (Kamin 1995).] Lynn argues the surveyed studies have high "reliability" in the sense that different studies give similar results, and high "validity" in the sense that they correlate highly with performance in international studies of achievement in mathematics and science and with national economic development.

As with Lynn's and Tatu Vanhanen's book "IQ and Global Inequality", the book was published by Washington Summit Publishers. [ [http://www.wspublishers.com/bookdetail.php?n=1034&eds=all Washington Summit Publishers ] ]

Overview

Lynn devotes a chapter to the data on each of the nine genetic clusters or population groups identified in previous genetic cluster analysis, which Lynn regards as races. The book subsequently defends the reliability and validity of the measures, concluding that, though additional evidence may be required to confirm some of the racial IQ estimates, that they correlate highly with performance in international studies of achievement in mathematics and science and with national economic development.

Reception

Book reviews

Three reviews of "Race Differences in Intelligence" have been published in the scholarly literature. [cite journal | author = Rushton, J. P. | year = 2006 | month = | title = Lynn Richard, Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, Washington Summit Books, Augusta, GA (2005) ISBN 1-59368-020-1, 318 pages., US$34.95 | journal = Personality and Individual Differences | volume = 40 | issue = 4 | pages = 853–855 | doi = 10.1016/j.paid.2005.10.004 | url = ] [cite journal | author = Loehlin, John C. | title = Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis | journal = Intelligence | volume = 35 | issue 1 | month = January-February | year = 2007 | pages = 93–94 | doi = 10.1016/j.intell.2006.05.001 ] [cite journal | author = Mackintosh, N.J. | title = Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis | journal = Intelligence | volume = 35 | issue 1 | month = January-February | year = 2007 | pages = 94–96 | doi = 10.1016/j.intell.2006.08.001] At least two of these are written by persons who, like Lynn, are connected to the Pioneer Fund. [http://www.pioneerfund.org/Bibliography.html]

The review by N.J. Mackintosh, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, criticizes Lynn's occasional manipulation of data, some of it originally collected by the reviewer, from which distorted conclusions have been drawn. Mackintosh expresses astonishment that Lynn infers elsewhere that Kalahari bushmen, with an average measured IQ of 54, should be regarded as mentally retarded; and that an 8 year old European child with the equivalent mental age would have no problems surviving in the same desert environment. He concludes: [cite journal | author = Mackintosh, N.J. | title = Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis | journal = Intelligence | volume = 35 | issue 1 | month = January-February | year = 2007 | pages = 94–96 | doi = 10.1016/j.intell.2006.08.001]

"Much labour has gone into this book. But I fear it is the sort of book that gives IQ testing a bad name. As a source of references, it will be useful to some. As a source of information, it should be treated with some suspicion. On the other hand, Lynn's preconceptions are so plain, and so pungently expressed, that many readers will be suspicious from the outset."

Criticism

Hunt and Wittmann (2008) write of Lynn’s IQ data:

The majority of the data points were based upon convenience rather than representative samples. Some points were not even based on residents of the country. For instance, the “data point for Suriname was based on tests given to Surinamese who had migrated to the Netherlands, and the “data point” for Ethiopia was based on the IQ scores of a highly selected group that had emigrated to Israel and, for cultural and historical reasons was hardly representative of the Ethiopian population. The data point for Mexico was based on a weighted averaging of the results of a study of “Native American and Mestizo children in Southern Mexico” with result of a study of residents of Argentina [Hunt, E. & Wittmann, W. (2008). National intelligence and prosperity. Intelligence. Vol. 36, 1, January-February pp. 1-9.] .

Upon reading the original reference, they found that the “data point” that Lynn and Vanhanen used for the lowest IQ estimate, Equatorial Guinea, was actually the mean IQ of a group of Spanish children in a home for the developmentally disabled in Spain. Corrections were applied to adjust for differences in IQ cohorts (the “Flynn” effect) on the assumption that the same correction could be applied internationally, without regard to the cultural or economic development level of the country involved. While there appears to be rather little evidence on cohort effect upon IQ across the developing countries, one study in Kenya (Daley, Whaley, Sigman, Espinosa, & Neumann, 2003) shows a substantially larger cohort effect than is reported for developed countries (p.?) [Hunt, E. & Wittmann, W. (2008). National intelligence and prosperity. Intelligence. Vol. 36, 1, January-February pp. 1-9.]

Crawford-Nutt (1976) found that African black students enrolled in westernized schools scored higher on progressive matrix tests than did American white students. The study was meant to examine perceptual/cultural differences between groups, and demonstrated that one’s performance on western standardized tests correspond more closely with the quality and style of schooling that one receives more so than other factors [Crawford-Nutt. D. (1976). Are black scores on Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices an artifact of method of test presentation? Psychologia Africana, 16, 201-206] . Buj (1981) showed Ghanaian adults to score higher on a supposedly ‘culture fair’ IQ test than did Irish adults; scores were 80 (Ghanaian) and 78 (Irish), respectively [Buj, V. (1981). "Average IQ values in various European countries." Personality and Individual Differences, 2:168-169 ] . Shuttleworth-Edwards et al (2004) conducted a study with black South Africans between the ages of 19–30, where highly significant effects for both level and quality of education within groups whose first language was an indigenous black African language, was revealed. Black African first language groups (as well as white English speaking groups) with advantaged education were comparable with the US standardization in IQ test scores (e.g. WAIS-III) [Shuttleworth-Edwards A., Kemp R., Rust A., Muirhead J., Hartman N., Radloff S. (2004). Cross-cultural Effects on IQ Test Performance: A Review and Preliminary Normative Indications on WAIS-III Test Performance. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology (Neuropsychology, Developm, Volume 26, Number 7, October 2004 , pp. 903-920(18)] .

ee also

* Evolution of human intelligence
* Hominid intelligence
* Intelligence and public policy
* "The Mismeasure of Man"
* Race and intelligence
* Brain to body mass ratio
* Height and intelligence
* Neuroscience and intelligence
* Sex and intelligence

References

External links

* [http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/In%20Press%20Review%20of%20Lynn%20in%20PAID.pdf Book Review] by J. Phillipe Rushton, "Personality and Individual Differences", in press, 2005.