Dr. James Thompson writes: Differences between countries with the lowest and highest ability levels are large. For example, in TIMSS 2011, 4th grade Yemeni pupils achieved 209 student assessment study (SAS) points, whereas South Korean pupils achieved 587 SAS points. If SAS points are converted to IQ points, the Yemeni would have an IQ of 56 and the Koreans would have an IQ of 113, a difference of 11 years of schooling. Psychometric IQ studies show similar results. For example, Malawi has an estimated IQ of 60, whereas Singapore and Hong Kong have estimated IQs around 108, a difference that translates into SAS≈233 and 555 or 16 years of schooling.
When authors give ability differences as “years of schooling” this always provokes the response that countries with lower levels of ability need more schooling. It really means “despite schooling, as if they permanently required 16 more years of schooling”. The main reason that intelligence is not a popular subject is that it has been shown not to be very malleable. At a rough estimate, anyone of IQ 93 and below finds it difficult to earn good wages.
Comments:
* My precise prediction is that such research will be funded in China and will produce the result that (almost) everyone knows to be true but many dread to admit.
That will be followed by a wonderful display of anti-racists saying you can’t believe any result published by Chinamen.
* Anatoly Karlin: My impression is that at least 80% of the US B-W difference is due to genetics, probably 90%, and possibly even all of it. A larger percentage of Blacks live in urban areas, which is one of the main factors found to be reliably associated with higher IQs, and they actually score relatively lower in “culture fair” tests than whites.
Internationally, I would put it at 50% – at least for the most extreme case, the difference between Sub-Saharan Africa and the developed world. The logic is pretty simple: The IQ average there is 2.S.D below the developed world, versus the 1S.D. difference that is the B-W gap within a single developed country. OECD adult skills surveys results for Korea imply that there is an approximately 1.S.D. increase associated with transitioning from being a Third World country to the First World. Naturally, the genetic component will be larger for most regions, other than the most destitute ones such as SSA and to a lesser extent the Indian subcontinent. It is an irony that the more the world develops in general, the larger the extent to which purely genetic factors will start explaining national IQ differences.
If it remains the case that the progress of science tends to privilege more accurate models of reality versus less accurate ones, I would expect this figure to creep steadily up. Razib Khan and Charles Murray are on the record expecting a revolution in the genetics of IQ in the next 5 years, so I think a rise from 20% to 30% or even higher is plausible.
