

What I.Q. doesn't tell you about race - tpyo
http://www.gladwell.com/2007/2007_12_17_c_iq.html

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mynameishere
The second sentence is a straw man. Skimming the text, I see that's much the
case throughout. Gladwell, if you look past his charming style, is extremely
sloppy. Everybody who has researched IQ has come across the twin studies which
amply prove that IQ is not immutable. But the only one ignoring such studies
is the actual "fundamentalists" who deny that genetics has anything at all to
do with intelligence.

The increase in IQ from nutrition and education is going to experience stark
diminishing returns, as has already been seen.

[http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordD...](http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ729986&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ729986)

~~~
hughprime
_The second sentence is a straw man._

Is there some kind of competition I don't know about to mention the words
"straw man" in as many threads as possible? It seems to pop up in just about
every thread, along with the words "correlation does not equal causation".

~~~
misuba
You see those a lot because they're two of the easiest forms of illogic to
spot.

~~~
tpyo
I would consider straw men arguments more difficult to point out because you
need to actually know about the subject to find them.

------
tokenadult
An interesting review of a very worthwhile book. Here are some more comments
on the same book:

"It is not just the fascinating effect that makes the book special. It's also
Flynn's style. There's an unusual combination of clarity, wit, apposite
allusion, and farsightedness in making connections and exploring unexpected
consequences. The Flynn effect, in Flynn's hands, makes a good, gripping,
puzzling, and not-quite-finished story..." \--Ian Deary, Edinburgh University

"This book is a gold mine of pointers to interesting work, much of which was
new to me. All of us who wrestle with the extraordinarily difficult questions
about intelligence that Flynn discusses are in his debt.." \--Charles Murray,
American Enterprise Institute & co-author of The Bell Curve

"This highly engaging, and very readable, book takes forward the Dickens/Flynn
model of intelligence in the form of asking yet more provocative questions. .
. A most unusual book, one that holds the reader's attention and leaves behind
concepts and ideas that force us to rethink all sorts of issues.." \--Sir
Michael Rutter, Kings College London

"Flynn provides the first satisfying explanation of the massive rise in IQ
test scores. He avoids both the absurd conclusion that our great grandparents
were all mentally retarded and the equally unsatisfactory suggestion that the
rise has just been in performance on IQ tests without any wider
implications.." \--N. J. Mackintosh, University of Cambridge

"Citing many scholarly works, Flynn paints a dynamic picture of what
intelligence is and the role of a person's genetic background, physiology and
neurology, immediate environment and broader social factors...he has produced
an impressively multidimensional and often wise look at the elusive topic of
human intelligence." \--Publisher's Weekly

"In What is Intelligence? James R. Flynn...suggests that we should not faciley
equate IQ gains with intelligence gains. He says that it's necessary to
'dissect intelligence' into its component parts: 'solving mathematical
problems, interpreteing the great works of literature, finding on the spot
solutions, assimilating the scientific worldview, critical acumen and wisdom.'
When this dissection is carried out, several paradoxes emerge, which Flynn in
this engaging book attempts to reconcile." \--Richard Restak, American Scholar

"The 20th century saw the "Flynn Effect" - massive gains in IQ from one
generation to another." \--Scientific American Mind

"In a brilliant interweaving of data and argument, Flynn calls into question
fundamental assumptions about the nature of intelligence that have driven the
field for the past century. There is something here for everyone to lose sleep
over. His solution to the perplexing issues revolving around IQ gains over
time will give the IQ Ayatollahs fits!." \--S. J. Ceci, Cornell University

"What Is Intelligence? is one of the best books I have read on intelligence-
ever...This is a brilliant book because, first, it helps resolve paradoxes
that, in the past, seemed not to lend themselves to any sensible
solutions...one of the best things about the book is Flynn's sense of
humility...this is a masterful book that will influence thinking about
intelligence for many years to come. It is one of those few books for which
one can truly say that it is must reading for anyone." \--Robert J. Sternberg,
PsycCRITIQUES

"...In this thoughtful, well-written book, Flynn offers an account of why the
so-called Flynn effect occurs and what it means (and does not mean)....This is
the clearest, most engaging work on intelligence....All will learn from the
author's nuanced arguments. Some may quibble with Flynn's observations, but
their work is cut for them: one cannot fault his clarity or ingenuity.
Essential." \--D.S. Dunn, Moravian College, CHOICE

"...James Flynn is best known for having discovered a stubborn fact...he
established that in every country where consistent IQ tests have been given to
large numbers of people over time, scores have been rising as far back as the
records go, in some cases to the early 20th century. What Is Intelligence? is
Flynn's attempt to explain this phenomenon, now known as the Flynn effect...
an important take on what we have made of ourselves over the past few
centuries and might yet make of ourselves in the future." \--Cosma Shalizi,
Assistant Professor in the Statistics Department at Carnegie Mellon University
and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, American Scientist

Link to description of the book (whence those reviews came):

[http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Beyond-Flynn-
Effect/...](http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Beyond-Flynn-
Effect/dp/0521741475/)

An in-depth transcript of a lecture by the author:

[http://www.psychometrics.sps.cam.ac.uk/page/109/beyond-
the-f...](http://www.psychometrics.sps.cam.ac.uk/page/109/beyond-the-flynn-
effect.htm)

------
akamaka
I lost any interest in what Malcolm Gladwell has to say about race after he
argued that East Asian children have better math skills because their
ancestors cultivated rice and not wheat.

[http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2009/09/outliers-whats-
rice-g...](http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2009/09/outliers-whats-rice-got-to-
do-with-maths.html)

~~~
Scriptor
The only connection between rice and math listed in that article is that
cultivating rice encouraged a stronger work ethic because it is a year-round
task.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that education has long been a
cornerstone of Chinese society, going as far back as standardized tests during
the Han dynasty.

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michaelkeenan
_Drawing heavily on the work of J. Philippe Rushton—a psychologist who
specializes in comparing the circumference of what he calls the Negroid brain
with the length of the Negroid penis—Saletan took the fundamentalist position
to its logical conclusion._

This essay doesn't attempt to accurately and fairly summarize opposing
arguments.

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panic
It's possible that education is increasingly providing the kind of skills
necessary to do well on IQ tests.

~~~
windsurfer
Education isn't supposed to improve IQ related skills. Test designers take
great pains to make up questions that should be largely universal and almost
entirely unaffected by amount of education.

~~~
goodside
The fact that education has little or no effect on IQ happens to be true, but
it's not guaranteed by definition or design. I.e., it's logically possible
(and, in fact, popularly believed) that education makes your brain work better
in general, and that learning French will improve your chess rating and your
grades in calculus class. It was _discovered_ that education doesn't help
general intelligence much through tests designed on more fundamental
principles like elimination of group factors and improving test-retest
reliability.

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chrischen
Could be that women go for smarter men. So evolution has done its part over
the years and weeded out the low IQ genes, hehe.

~~~
cousin_it
I'm pretty sure the Flynn effect is too fast to be explained by genetic
change.

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kingkongrevenge
> These days, when talk turns to the supposed genetic differences in the
> intelligence of certain races, Southern Italians have disappeared from the
> discussion.

Not been to the guido hood lately?

~~~
mdakin
Is there a non-bigoted interpretation of this slur-laced question?

