02-12-2004, 07:05 AM
We may want to be very careful with this topic. Especially those living the US. It is generally not considered appropriate to discuss these topics publicly.
There is some correlation between IQ profession. Those with IQ below 120 are unlikely to be in high profile scientific/technological professions. Amongst academicians, those below 120 are unlikely to be in science/technology (sort of explains the low IQ of the leftists in the liberal arts streams) <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
There has been no careful testing of IQs of the Indian population. In our school there used be a lot of Mensa activity. In this activity one of our forum members in this testing scored 180-190 quite consistently <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> , which is a sign of really high intelligence. But most of the people in the class were in the 100-130 range. We can get a rough measure of IQ from the 12th class results. In Maharashtra, 50-55% of the students passed the exam suggesting an IQ threshold of around 95. The rest of the population taking 12th exam apparently had a lower IQ than 95. Making sweeping statements about the average IQ of Indians as whole being greater than 100, may hence be a little too optimistic, but then the above is an indirect inference and not a direct test. Nobody has obejctively tested whether in India there is difference in IQ amongst different ethnic or socio-economic classes to find the correlations with these parameters.
In the US there has been the persistant claim that blacks have lower IQs than whites and Asians. While the claim may have some truth, the causes for this difference are far very clear.
IQ shows a strong heritability, that is there is a high r^2 value when IQ ofspring is plotted against average parent IQ. This suggests a significant genetic component for IQ. But this cannot be extrapolated between races because :1) the definition of races is often problematic 2) The 'races' being compared may have considerable inequality in other environmental factors. Especially in the case of blacks educational restriction and socioeconomic backwardness have not been objectively accounted for in IQ comparisons. The authors of the Bell Curve claim otherwise, but there are enough serious dissenting opinion, to view their claims with utmost caution. Murray, one of the authors, has openly claimed that there have been no discoveries of any significance outside Europe. So we know what his basic agenda is.
IQ has many different components (eg verbal, spatial, mathematical) and these may have variable contributions in different individual with the same IQ. Different jobs require vectors of this IQ, so having a particular IQ is not an automatic determinant of competency in a given activity.
I have to say that much of human personality and behavior has a strong genetic component. We should not shy away from this issue, but be cautious about extending conclusions to groups. Read Steven Pinker's book on the topic (a very balanced and professional presentation of the subject).
There is some correlation between IQ profession. Those with IQ below 120 are unlikely to be in high profile scientific/technological professions. Amongst academicians, those below 120 are unlikely to be in science/technology (sort of explains the low IQ of the leftists in the liberal arts streams) <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->. There has been no careful testing of IQs of the Indian population. In our school there used be a lot of Mensa activity. In this activity one of our forum members in this testing scored 180-190 quite consistently <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo--> , which is a sign of really high intelligence. But most of the people in the class were in the 100-130 range. We can get a rough measure of IQ from the 12th class results. In Maharashtra, 50-55% of the students passed the exam suggesting an IQ threshold of around 95. The rest of the population taking 12th exam apparently had a lower IQ than 95. Making sweeping statements about the average IQ of Indians as whole being greater than 100, may hence be a little too optimistic, but then the above is an indirect inference and not a direct test. Nobody has obejctively tested whether in India there is difference in IQ amongst different ethnic or socio-economic classes to find the correlations with these parameters.In the US there has been the persistant claim that blacks have lower IQs than whites and Asians. While the claim may have some truth, the causes for this difference are far very clear.
IQ shows a strong heritability, that is there is a high r^2 value when IQ ofspring is plotted against average parent IQ. This suggests a significant genetic component for IQ. But this cannot be extrapolated between races because :1) the definition of races is often problematic 2) The 'races' being compared may have considerable inequality in other environmental factors. Especially in the case of blacks educational restriction and socioeconomic backwardness have not been objectively accounted for in IQ comparisons. The authors of the Bell Curve claim otherwise, but there are enough serious dissenting opinion, to view their claims with utmost caution. Murray, one of the authors, has openly claimed that there have been no discoveries of any significance outside Europe. So we know what his basic agenda is.
IQ has many different components (eg verbal, spatial, mathematical) and these may have variable contributions in different individual with the same IQ. Different jobs require vectors of this IQ, so having a particular IQ is not an automatic determinant of competency in a given activity.
I have to say that much of human personality and behavior has a strong genetic component. We should not shy away from this issue, but be cautious about extending conclusions to groups. Read Steven Pinker's book on the topic (a very balanced and professional presentation of the subject).