WHY SOME PEOPLE HAVE HIGHER IQs THAN OTHERS, AND WHY THEY’RE CHINESE

Global variations in average IQ scores have long been a topic of study and debate. What factors contribute to these differences, and how do they intersect with cultural, environmental, and genetic influences? Let’s explore the complexities behind intelligence metrics worldwide.  As can be seen, average IQs vary around the world. Europeans and Chinese score relatively highly, while Africa, the rest of Asia and South America less so.

 

The UK’s population contains people from all these continents:

 

I asked Chat GPT for possible reasons for the consistently high average IQs observed among Chinese populations, regardless of the country they live in. It responded that it can be attributed to a complex interplay of cultural, historical, educational, and potentially genetic factors, namely:

Cultural Emphasis on Education

Educational Systems and a tradition of supplemental education

Genetic Factors

Diet and Nutrition

Test-Taking Skills

It is assumed that these factors might also be relevant in the scores of people from other countries. Heavily impressed by its answer, I then asked Chat GPT whether mass immigration from countries with low average IQs and a current lowering of the UK’s average IQ levels might be linked. It responded by saying that the UK had a long history of immigration and went blah-blah on me. I responded as shown below

and it stopped speaking to me after that. That’s all I need – a sulky robot

Viking IQ

In Denmark, because they had gotten bored with being Vikings, they conducted a study, which showed that first generation immigrants did not perform as well as second generation immigrants, and that results correlated with IQ levels in their countries of origin. Being a Muslim it seems, also had a slightly negative affect:

“Immigrants in Western countries often have worse outcomes in life compared to people born there, but these outcomes vary a lot between different immigrant groups. We looked at how well students from 116 immigrant groups in Denmark did in school, focusing on their 9th-grade exam scores (GPA) at the end of mandatory schooling. Intelligence is a key factor in school and life success, so we expected that the average intelligence of people from the countries where immigrants come from (national IQ) would predict how well these groups perform. We also considered other factors, like whether immigrants were first- or second-generation and the percentage of Muslims in their home countries.

The results showed that school performance in Denmark could be predicted by national IQ (r = .47), the percentage of Muslims in the home country (r = -.40), and how selective Denmark was when allowing immigrants in based on their education levels (r = .35). When we combined these factors in a statistical model, they explained 46.3% of the differences in school performance.

First-generation immigrants did worse (β = -0.65), national IQ mattered (β = 0.29), the Muslim percentage had a negative effect (β = -0.21), and the educational selectivity of immigrants had a positive effect (β = 0.27). All of these findings were statistically significant. These results match other research on how intelligence and immigration affect outcomes.”

In a study based on the Danish immigrant population and IQ data from the military draft. the Danish immigrant population was estimated to have an average 89.9 IQ in 2013 and the IQ from the draft was 86.3 in 2003. (against a ‘Danish’ IQ of 100).

Netherlands

Not to be outdone, the Dutch did their own surveys too. Evidence from eleven samples indicates that the mean IQ of third world immigrants in the Netherlands was lower than the Dutch mean by approximately one standard deviation for Surinamese and Antillians, and by approximately one and a half standard deviations for Turks and Moroccans.

Since IQ tests provide the best prediction of success in school and organizations, it could be that the immigrants’ lower mean IQ is an important factor in their low status on the Dutch labour market. The IQs of second-generation immigrants are however rising.

United Kingdom

Most migrants in the UK were born in non-EU countries – 63%, according to the latest census. Indeed, the EU-born population in the UK is likely to have fallen in the early 2020s – net migration from EU countries became negative after 2021, with immigration from the bloc at low levels under the new immigration system.  Data was presented from the UK Millennium Cohort Study for a sample of 14,860 5 year old British children giving the IQs of whites and racial minorities. Africans, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis obtained lower IQs than whites, while the IQ of the Chinese was higher. These group differences in IQ were consistent with the differences in educational attainments and earnings.

We have all read of how Jamaican immigrants rebuilt Britain after WW2 when most of our 4.5 million servicemen had already returned home and had to be taught bricklaying. In the 1960s studies on the IQs of these immigrants began to be published. In an early study, the Inner London Education Authority (Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), 1967) published IQs of 82 for blacks and 87 for Indians in London, in relation to 100 for whites.  Subsequent studies have been summarised by Lynn (2006) who gives 22 studies of blacks with a median IQ of 86, and 12 studies of South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) with a median IQ of 89. It was not at the time possible to find any valid study of the intelligence of the Chinese in Britain, which was not only sneaky of them, but conversely proved how clever they actually were.

 

“The measured intelligence of immigrant children from the Indian subcontinent resident in Hertfordshire” – is the title of a PhD paper from an Indian academic resident in the UK in 1971 and worthy of note: “To sum up, children from the Indian Subcontinent when they come here either lack certain skills or have been able to develop them up to a certain level only. These are skills that are valued here but not in the Indian culture and hence their stunted development. They start to grow again in the enriched environment of the English schools and reach a stage not below that of native born English children.”

Academics have also considered the cases of asylum seekers and assessments of their intellectual ability of asylum seekers, to assess whether they have an intellectual disability and might need extra assistance. They noted that the general academic literature showed substantial differences in the mean measured IQs of different countries, but found found that, although there are numerous problems with these studies, the overall conclusion that there are substantial differences in mean measured IQ is sound.

Regional Variation

Don’t blame me. AI has a low IQ too

Well if IQ can vary between countries, can it vary within a country? Data shows that there are differences in mean population IQ in different regions of the British Isles. Mean population IQ is highest in London and South-East England and tends to drop with distance from this region. Mean population IQs are highly correlated with measures of intellectual achievement, per capita income, unemployment, infant mortality and urbanization. The regional differences in mean population IQ appear to be due to historical differences which are measured back to 1751 and to selective migration from the provinces into the London area.

Prison Population

Now we examine the elusive criminal mastermind, and I should point out that the average IQ of a prisoner in the UK is 87, and the nationality of UK prison population would on the face of it appear to be a mixed bag:

Viewed from an ethnic perspective, it’s slightly different, and an 82% white population produces only 72% of the prison population. Black people are three times over represented, and Asians about equal.

 

But that’s not the complete picture. When viewed from a religious perspective we can separate out Indians from Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Then we find that the Prison population is 0% Hindu and 18% Muslim. Bear in mind that Danish study that said Muslim was a slightly negative factor in IQ scores.

 

IQ and Cousin Marriages

The relationship between inbreeding and average IQ levels in populations has been the subject of scientific inquiry, particularly in genetics and behavioral sciences. Inbreeding, defined as the reproduction between closely related individuals, can increase the likelihood of homozygosity in offspring. This homozygosity can lead to the expression of deleterious recessive alleles, potentially causing genetic disorders and other health issues, some of which may impact cognitive abilities. It’s been studied in 72 countries, and a scientific paper on these studies is with the list if references at the bottom of this page.

Studies have observed a negative correlation between inbreeding and average IQ levels in certain populations. Inbreeding depression, a term used to describe reduced biological fitness due to inbreeding, can manifest in various ways, including diminished cognitive performance. For example, research on isolated or highly endogamous communities has sometimes shown lower average IQ scores compared to more genetically diverse populations. This phenomenon is largely attributed to the accumulation of harmful genetic traits that affect brain development and functioning.

IQ and Poverty

IQ and Poverty in the UK are of course correlated. Research over the past decades has shed important light on the effects of poverty-related adversity on cognitive functioning. It has been shown that differences in IQ scores between children from high- and low-income families already emerge in late infancy and almost triple by adolescence. It is not that having a HQ makes you rich, just that having a low IQ score is a reliable indicator of low income.

63% of Americans think that they are of above average intelligence, while a YouGov survey found that only 2% of the UK population was clever enough to know that they were of below average intelligence. 47% of the British population think they are more intelligent than the national average, while 43% think they are about average.

 

The prison population is on the left. Most of us in the UK fit in that blue average. The Chinese are on the right because they worked their way there. So if you’re poor, it just might not be white privilege and centuries of oppression. You might have come from a poor country, the effects of which take a while to erase. White people with low IQs are poor too. Just a thought.

 

 

References