Re: How fair is the race/IQ theory?

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Some scientists claim that race and IQ is related and that since negroids have 
> smaller brains they must
> have a small IQ level but since most humans can use a tiny portion of their brain, 
> the size probably has 
> nothing to do with it.
> 
> But have there been any other reasons why scientists claim that race and IQ are 
> related? does it have 
> something do with social science? or is it deeper?
> 
Well, it could simply be to do with education and nutrition.  IQ is (I 
believe) also correlated with parental wealth.  As is (in the UK and US 
certainly) race - Afro-Americans tend to be poorer.

There may be genetic variation between "races" in IQ, but I'm not aware 
of this having been investigated thoroughly - you need large controlled 
breeding designs to do this (especially as there is a large 
environmental component to the trait).

To make matters worse, this all becomes political, so the claims and 
counter-claims are difficult to assess.  And the experiments that are 
necessary to anser this are almost impossible to carry out in practice.

> [moderator's argh: Oh, goddam argh. Can we please take this stuff
> to an appropriate forum, like sci.anthropology? (I am astonished
> to find there's no sci.sociology forum!) 

There's a really unkind riposte to that, isn't there?

[moderator's note: Yes, and I _know_ some sociologists. More to the
point, however, I think we're stuck with this topic. Call it karmic
revenge for all my nasty remarks about talk.origins. - JAH]

Bob

-- 
Bob O'Hara

Rolf Nevanlinna Institute
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