Month: May 2014

HVGIQ: U.S. Virgin Islands

The American Virgin Islands are a territorial possession of the United States. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 106,405 and an ethnic composition that is 76% black and 15.6% white. Almost all of the inhabitants live on three main islands: St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. Virgin Islanders, much like Puerto Ricans, are United States citizens, but there has not been a similar push for U.S. statehood in this small territory.

Here I discuss several studies that have looked at the intelligence and academic skills of Virgin Islanders.
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Research on genetic g and differential heritabilities

Multivariate genetic analyses and simple correlational analyses have been conducted to evaluate the extent to which the general factor (g) of intelligence is differentially heritable, compared to, for example, group factors. A positive correlation would be supportive of Jensen’s view, notably advanced in The g Factor (1998), of the heritable g. This can be interpreted to say that what makes people being good at all tests has more genetic component than what make people being good at one specific test. On the other hand, if environmental effects are smaller at the g level, it would mean that what make people being good at all tests has less environmental component than what make people good at one specific test. Similarly, if heritability is large at the g level and environment is small at the g level, then g differences between persons are largely genetic, not environmental (Plomin, 2003, p. 186).

The present article is a review of the studies published so far and can be seen as a complement to my article on the genetics of intelligence. Brody (2007) and Deary (2006) have already reviewed a large part of the existing studies. But some features need to be highlighted. The article can be subjected to modifications if I happen to read some more studies not listed here. Shortly, there seems to be some proof of differential heritabilities, higher for g. But it’s not overwhelming.

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Educational attainment, income, use of social benefits, crime rate and the general socioeconomic factor among 71 immigrant groups in Denmark

Fuerst, J., Kirkegaard, E. O. (2014). Educational attainment, income, use of social benefits, crime rate and the general socioeconomic factor among 71 immigrant groups in Denmark.

Abstract

We obtained data from Denmark for the largest 71 immigrant groups by country of origin. We show that three important socialeconomic variables are highly predictable from the Islam rate, IQ, GDP and height of the countries of origin. We further show that there is a general immigrant socioeconomic factor and that country of origin national IQs, Islamic rates, and GDP strongly predict immigrant general socioeconomic scores.

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