Irish IQ Lower than some other countries :)

Eramen wrote: »

Haha, the equality god is a lie.

A study (1999) by Capron and Duyme of French children adopted between the ages of four and six examined the influence of socioeconomic status (SES). The children's IQs initially averaged 77, putting them near retardation. Most were abused or neglected as infants, then shunted from one foster home or institution to the next. Nine years later after adoption, when they were on average 14 years old, they retook the IQ tests, and all of them did better. The amount they improved was directly related to the adopting family's socioeconomic status. "Children adopted by farmers and laborers had average IQ scores of 85.5; those placed with middle-class families had average scores of 92. The average IQ scores of youngsters placed in well-to-do homes climbed more than 20 points, to 98.

David L. Kirp (July 23, 2006). "After the Bell Curve" . New York Times Magazine.

Eramen wrote: »

It means that we humans are diverse only by virtue of our genes, and that differences in body, mind and culture stem from the biological divergences of the assorted peoples of the world.

'Equality god' is the modern superstition that all people are exactly the same at all times, in all places, effectively giving the finger to Darwin/evolution.

'modern superstition that all people are exactly the same at all times, in all places, effectively giving the finger to Darwin/evolution.

Equality is not possible. Only hierarchy is possible.

Eramen wrote: »

Of course. Education and nutrition would also have an influence (though I'd suggest not a dominant one for the latter). Also remember our population is absorbing vast quantities of central and eastern European peoples, so I'd expect them to make an additional difference.

For further research I'd suggest looking at Latin America and SE Asia to see how biology may be a dominant factor, as they have decent education and nutrition levels. Also, things like brain size and cranial capacity have even been related to IQ, so their will be differences even between Irish people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

Eramen wrote: »

There's an infamous book called 'The Bell Curve' that examines both hereditary and environmental factors on IQ and the structure of society.

The last decade of the 20th century experienced a resurgence of genetically based theories of racial hierarchy regarding intelligence and morality. Most notably was Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve (1994), that claimed genetic causality for long-standing racial differences in IQ. In addition, it raised the time worn argument that the over-reproduction of genetically deficient individuals within our population would lead to a serious decline in average American intelligence. These authors provided no specific rationale for why these genetic differences should exist between human ‘races’. Instead, they relied heavily on the work of Canadian psychologist J. Philipe Rushton (in The Bell Curve, 1994, Appendix 5: 642–3). Rushton has advanced a specific evolutionary genetic rationale for how gene frequencies are differentiated between the ‘races’ relative to intelligence. He claims that human racial differences result from natural selection for particular reproductive strategies in the various racial groups. Rushton’s theory is based entirely on the concept of r- and K-selection, first explicitly outlined by MacArthur and Wilson in 1967. This article examines both the flaws in the general theory, and specifically Rushton’s application of that same theory to human data. It concludes that neither Rushton’s use of the theory nor the data that he has assembled could possibly test any meaningful hypotheses concerning human evolution and/or the distribution of genetic variation relating to reproductive strategies or ‘intelligence’, however defined.


Source: What a tangled web he weaves: Race, reproductive strategies and Rushton's life history theory Anthropological Theory Vol 2(2): 131–154

Venus In Furs wrote: »

Undoubtedly. I read somewhere before that IQ isn't a measure of a person's "untapped" intelligence and the actual stimulation of their brain that they are exposed to (i.e. the level of education they have access to) is what pretty much makes it up.