|
Category: News & Opinion (General) Topic: Culture
& Society
|
|
Synopsis:
|
|
Source: VDARE.COM
|
|
Published: August 12, 2004 Author: J. Philippe Rushton
|
|
For Education and Discussion
Only. Not for Commercial Use.
|
In two earlier VDARE.COM articles I discussed the low average African IQ of
70 reported by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen in their path-breaking book
IQ and the Wealth of Nations.
As their IQ map of the world illustrates, the average IQ for all countries
is 90 (The Wealth of Nations is mapped by their IQ, By Glen Owen, November
10, 2003). Less than one in five countries has national IQs equal or near
the British norm of 100. Almost half the countries have national IQs of 90
or less.
If IQ and the Wealth of Nations is correct that an average IQ of 90 forms
the threshold for a technological economy, this poses a serious problem.
But can that African 70 average IQ be real? It is indeed extremely low, the
lowest found in any comparable area. This has caused many to dismiss the
finding.
I know that the figure is not a fluke, however, because for the last six
years I have collected African IQ data on hundreds of students at the
prestigious University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The average IQ for these African students turns out to be 84. Assuming they
score 15 points above the general average, as university students of any
group typically do, then an average African IQ of 70 is implied-exactly
what the direct measurements show.
An IQ of 70 suggests mental retardation-at least it would in the White
populations of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. There it
would frequently be associated with dysfunctional social behavior and
visible deficiencies.
This is because, as Arthur Jensen pointed out in his 1998 book, The g
Factor, retardation in Whites is often the result of a single gene or
chromosomal anomaly, which also causes physical abnormalities and
mechanical deficiencies effecting motor or speech skills. But, clearly,
these abnormalities and deficiencies are not seen in the bulk of the black
population of Sub-Saharan Africa.
What's going on?
One way to think about an African IQ of 70 is in terms of "mental
age"-that is, a person's mental age in relation to his chronological
age. Nowadays, standard scores based on the normal distribution (or
"bell curve") have replaced the concept of mental age. But it
still provides a way to understand differences.
An average IQ of 100 is set to a mental age of 16. Adult Whites, then, have
an average mental age of 16, with a normal range (plus or minus one
standard deviation) of from less than 14 years to over 18 years.
African Americans average about 25% European ancestry and have an IQ of 85,
which is equivalent to a mental age of nearly 14, with a range of from 11
to 16 years.
An IQ of 70 in adults, then, is equivalent to a mental age of about 11
years. This would make the normal range of mental ages found in Africa to
be from less than 9 years to almost 14 years.
Eleven-year-olds, of course, are not retarded. They can drive cars, build
houses, and work in factories if supervised properly. Eleven-year-olds can
even wage war-and do so in many parts of the world.
Thus in a recent TV documentary on the wars engulfing the Dark Continent,
Kalashnikov (the inventor, of the AK47, the famed Russian assault rifle),
as well as a U.S. military expert, both said the AK47 was the weapon of
choice in the Third World because it was so durable and so simple.
In the latter's telling words: "Even a child can learn to use this
weapon."
Still, the low African IQ of 70 remains hard for many to accept. One reason
for the disbelief: Africans-and African Americans-display high levels of
social competence. They are outgoing, talkative, sociable, warm, and
friendly. Psychometrically speaking, they score high on the Extraversion
personality dimension. They are also much less anxious, shy, and fearful
than Whites-they are low in the Neuroticism dimension. This combination of
high Extraversion and low Neuroticism results in a socially dominant
personality profile.
It is this "winning personality" among Blacks, I believe, that
makes it hard for so many to accept the validity of their failing tests of
abstract reasoning ability.
A typical academic story comes from professors who, on first exposure to
African students, express their delight in the high levels of classroom
performance. The students are described as engaged, offering lively
opinions, and giving a clear impression of brightness. Only when the
students took objectively measured essay or multiple-choice examinations
did it become painfully obvious to even the most well-wishing faculty
members that their grasp of abstract material failed to live up to their
classroom rhetoric.
Millions around the world delighted in the badinage between Muhammad Ali,
perhaps the greatest boxer of all time, who failed the IQ test for his
military induction physical, and TV sports announcer Howard Cosell.
"I'm gonna whoop him Howard. You just watch!" Cosell responded,
"You're feeling very truculent today, Muhammad." Without batting
an eye (or opening a dictionary) Ali uttered one of his trademark retorts,
"Truculent? If that's good, I'm it!"
Asked on the CBS news program Face the Nation, "Muhammad, you say
you'd never throw a fight, but what about that IQ test?" Ali shot
back, "I told you I was the greatest, not the smartest!"
Over a century ago, Sir Francis Galton initiated research into individual
and race differences in intelligence and temperament. He was the first to
propose the study of human twins and of selective breeding in animals to
disentangle the effects of heredity and environment. And it was Galton-who
spent several years exploring in what is now Namibia as a young man-who
first contrasted the talkative impulsivity of Africans with the taciturn
reserve of American Indians, and the placidity of the Chinese.
Galton further noted that these temperament differences persisted
irrespective of climate (from the frozen north through the torrid equator),
and religion, language, or political system (whether self-ruled or governed
by the Spanish, Portuguese, English or French).
Anticipating later studies of transracial adoptions, Galton observed that
the majority of individuals adhered to racial type even after being raised
by White settlers.
In my book Race, Evolution, and Behavior, I review the evidence accumulated
since Galton's pioneering studies. This shows that his views were largely
correct. Twin and adoption studies (such as those of identical twins raised
apart by Professor Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. at the University of Minnesota)
show that traits like Extraversion and Neuroticism are substantially
heritable.
Temperamental differences, measured objectively by activity recorders
attached to arms and legs, show up in babies. African babies are more
active sooner and develop earlier than White babies who, in turn, are more
active than East Asian babies. Motor behavior is a highly stable individual
difference variable. Even among Whites, activity level measured during free
play shows highly significant negative correlations with IQ: more
restrained children average higher intellects.
Parallel results are found in four- to six-year-olds using teacher ratings.
One study carried out in Quebec, Canada, had teachers rate immigrant
children in French language preschools. The teachers reported more outgoing
temperament among children of African descent than among those of European
descent, and especially than in those of East Asian descent.
The racial differences in temperament are also found on standardized
personality tests. Blacks consistently score more outgoing, active,
socially dominant, and impulsive than do Whites, while Whites consistently
score more active and socially dominant than do East Asians.
It may be surprising to learn that Blacks also have higher self-esteem than
Whites and East Asians. This is true even when Blacks are poorer and less
educated. In one large study of 11- to 16-year-olds, Blacks rated
themselves as more attractive than did Whites. Blacks also rated themselves
higher in reading, science and social studies (but not in mathematics).
The Blacks said this even though they knew they had lower actual academic
achievement scores than White children.
In contrast, East Asian students, even though they score higher in academic
achievement than Whites, often score lower in self-esteem.
What I am suggesting then, is that Blacks have a self-assured
"bright" talkative, personality, which leads many people to
over-estimate their abstract reasoning ability. East Asians provide a
"compare and contrast" case study with people under-estimating
their IQ because of their quietness and otherwise "subdued"
personality profile. East Asians who average higher than Whites on IQ tests
(107 versus 100) have often been described to me as seeming "dull and
uncreative" compared to Whites, achieving what they do only through
unimaginative rote learning, imitation, and memorization.
The relative restraint of East Asians contrasted with the noisiness of
Africans is apparent to anyone visiting their home continents. When the New
York Yankees played the first game of the 2004 baseball season before a
packed stadium in Tokyo, Japan, the announcers noted how very much quieter
the crowd was than those at games in the U.S. But it was a more tranquil
disposition, not a lack of interest in the game, which hushed the stands.
Because of the time difference, people all over Japan regularly get up at
two in the morning to view games broadcast from the U.S. featuring American
teams which include Japanese-born stars.
Like any other group, Whites look upon themselves as the norm. Whites tend
not to speak up if they don't know the answer to a question. Nor do they
like to intrude on the privacy of others. They erroneously assume that,
because Africans are talkative, they must know what they are talking about.
The flipside is the reticence and reserve of East Asians. In the realm of
behavior, English traditionally uses the same term, "dumb," both
for being unable to speak and for being stupid or silly (though both usages
are quite Politically Incorrect these days). In the case of the average
mental ability of East Asians, dumb is hardly dumber!
The converse is that the greater talkativeness of Blacks does not indicate
brightness-it often masks a low ability to reason abstractly.
I hope to return to discussing other aspects of race differences in
personality in a future VDARE.COM article.
J. Philippe Rushton [email him] is a professor of psychology at the
University of Western Ontario and the author of Race, Evolution, and
Behavior: A Life History Perspective, on which this essay is based.
|