srwilson@csws13.ic.sunysb.edu (Steve Wilson) (02/21/91)
Recently on the newsgroup, soc.culture.japan, there has been a buzzing about an aparent study that was conducted to find out which race is physically smarter due to the structure of the nervous system, etc... The study aparently said that Oriental and Jewish people were smater, followed by Caucasians... Is there any basis to this at all... Has such a study truly been conducted, and what were the results?... I thought these newsgroups might be good places to ask such questions... Please either send mail or post on this group if you have any information... Thank you... ############################################################################# # Steven R. Wilson State University of New York at Stonybrook # # srwilson@csserv2.ic.sunysb.edu # ############################################################################# # ...and now you're trembling on a rocky ledge, staring down into a # # heartless sea, can't face life on the razor's edge, nothing's what you # # thought it would be... # # # # --Neil Peart # #############################################################################
mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) (02/21/91)
I would think that the Japanese would win hands-down if they are taking IQ tests designed by Japanese. -) Problems with trying to decide "which race is most intelligent": (1) Intelligence is not a single ability; it is a combination of many different mental abilities. (2) You can't separate intelligence from the effects of education. This means you can't get a valid study, because you won't be able to get enough identically-educated people with different racial background.
denbeste@spdcc.COM (Steven Den Beste) (02/21/91)
In article <1991Feb20.203306.1463@sbcs.sunysb.edu> srwilson@csws13.ic.sunysb.edu (Steve Wilson) writes: >Recently on the newsgroup, soc.culture.japan, there has been a buzzing >about an aparent study that was conducted to find out which race is >physically smarter due to the structure of the nervous system, etc... >The study aparently said that Oriental and Jewish people were smater, >followed by Caucasians... Is there any basis to this at all... Has >such a study truly been conducted, and what were the results?... >I thought these newsgroups might be good places to ask such >questions... Please either send mail or post on this group if you >have any information... Thank you... I don't doubt that someone tried a study like this, but the fact is that the question is not meaningful at this time. What does "smart" mean? The closer you look, the fuzzier it gets. IQ tests not withstanding, there is NO precise quantitative way to evaluate precisely how "smart" any given individual is. "Intelligence" probably involves 15 or 20 different characteristics, each of which may be present to a lesser or greater degree in any given person. "IQ" tests at best measure about four of them, nor is it clear that they do even that. (Read "The Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Jay Gould for a beautiful critique of IQ tests. Read it anyway - it's a great book.) If I have an "A" score of 20 and a "B" score of 15, and you have an "A" score of 14 and a "B" score of 21, which of us is smarter?
mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) (02/21/91)
In article <1991Feb20.203306.1463@sbcs.sunysb.edu> srwilson@csws13.ic.sunysb.edu (Steve Wilson) writes: >Recently on the newsgroup, soc.culture.japan, there has been a buzzing >about an aparent study that was conducted to find out which race is >physically smarter due to the structure of the nervous system, etc... You are no doubt referring to the "work" of Philip Rushton, a professor at the University of Western Ontario. Rushton's "study" is methodologically flawed. His so-called research has been repudiated by just about every researcher in the field (other than his fellow racists, of course). From time to time, someone tries to prove that some race or other is superior. Since there is no satisfactory definition of what constitutes superiority (especially in the area of intellectual ability), such studies are a worthless waste of time at best. At worst, they are little more than politically motivated propaganda disguising as research. Rushton's work falls in the latter category. (If anyone is interested in seeing Rushton's research pulled apart, they have but to examine Canadian newspapers from about a year ago. His research is sufficiently ridiculous that I see no need to annoy everyone with its idiotic details.) Sincerely, Marc R. Roussel mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
ethan@ut-emx.uucp (Ethan Tecumseh Vishniac) (02/21/91)
In article <1991Feb20.203306.1463@sbcs.sunysb.edu>, srwilson@csws13.ic.sunysb.edu (Steve Wilson) writes: > Recently on the newsgroup, soc.culture.japan, there has been a buzzing > about an aparent study that was conducted to find out which race is > physically smarter due to the structure of the nervous system, etc... > The study aparently said that Oriental and Jewish people were smater, > followed by Caucasians... Is there any basis to this at all... Has > such a study truly been conducted, and what were the results?... I just want to let you know that these results are well known to be true by all of us who are Jewish or Oriental. :-) There have been a number of studies over the years designed to find out the answer to such things. The results have shown an amazing tendency to confirm the suspicions of the scientists involved. For a (somewhat vicious) summary read "The Mismeasure of Man" by S.J. Gould. More recent studies have stopped finding that northern Europeans are smarter and have tended to find that Jews and Orientals are smarter. I don't know how you would judge whether superior intellectual achievement by an ethnic group was genetic or cultural. (I note that these groups in America place a larger emphasis on intellectual achievement that the population as a whole.) And now for something completely different..... A friend of mine once told me that as an undergraduate and graduate student in NYC (some 30 years ago) she couldn't help but notice that the vast majority of the top students in her classes were Jews. Of course being a good liberal she knew that this was the result of cultural influences. Still, there was always a warm feeling in her heart that while all ethnic groups might be equal, some were evidently more equal than others. Then she started teaching at Rutgers. She told me that she felt she had made an amazing discovery. "This is where all the stupid Jews go to college!". (My belated apologies to alumni of Rutgers.) None of which says much about whether or not intelligence is largely determined by genes. The real problem is not whether or not some ethnic groups have more smarts (an unlikely, but just barely conceivable proposition) but how to resist the idea that we should make social policy based on what are evidently small (at most) statistical differences. -- I'm not afraid of dying Ethan Vishniac, Dept of Astronomy, Univ. of Texas I just don't want to be {charm,ut-sally,emx,noao}!utastro!ethan there when it happens. (arpanet) ethan@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU - Woody Allen (bitnet) ethan%astro.as.utexas.edu@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
schow@bcarh181.bnr.ca (Stanley T.H. Chow) (02/23/91)
I recall a recent news story that someone reported the speed of transmission along nurves was correlated to some measure of intelligence. I can't recall the details, but the "someone" was a "well-know" scientist in a different field, and the measure of intelligence used is success in college or some such. Of course, I myself being (confidently) in the most intelligent class, I read the promptly ignored it for being self-evident. :-) Stanley Chow BitNet: schow@BNR.CA BNR UUCP: ..!uunet!bnrgate!bcarh185!schow (613) 763-2831 ..!psuvax1!BNR.CA.bitnet!schow Me? Represent other people? Don't make them laugh so hard.