Human Varieties

Category: HV Global IQ (Page 2 of 2)

HVGIQ: Bermuda

May 3, 2013 / / 12 Comments

Bermuda is a tiny British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean, some 600 miles from the East Coast of the United States (population: 64,700). Even though Bermuda is 1000 miles from the Caribbean Sea, there are a number of sociological similarities between Bermuda and the Caribbean island nations; it is an associate member of the Caribbean Community. Its economy, much like the Cayman Islands and The Bahamas, is largely based on finance and tourism, and it likewise enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world.

According to the 2000 census, Bermuda is 54.8% black and 34.1% white. IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) did not include intelligence data for Bermuda, but IQ and Global Inequality (2006) reported an IQ of 90, as the average of two studies. In this post I discuss some overlooked data which suggest that Bermudian blacks have an IQ that is very close to 100, and that there is no IQ gap between black and white Bermudians. There is also some overlooked test data which suggest otherwise, and we are left with some uncertainty over the meaning of the conflicting research. Continue reading

HVGIQ: Dominican Republic

April 11, 2013 / / 10 Comments

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but has a much higher standard of living. Jared Diamond offered some characteristically plausible-sounding reasons for this disparity in his 2005 book Collapse, and these ideas received a fair bit of media coverage following the Haiti earthquake in 2010. While race and human capital both played a part in those explanations, Diamond did not mention intelligence differences (having already rejected this line of thinking as “loathsome” in Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997)). However, the theoretical relevance of this variable is obvious: intelligence and achievement tests are a more direct measure of individual human capital than input variables like education. Jones and Schneider (2006) found IQ to be “the most robust human capital measure” in an expansive dataset of international comparison measures—a better predictor of economic development than variables like educational spending and enrollment.

IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) did not include data for either Haiti or the Dominican Republic, but Lynn’s dataset has included one study for the Dominican Republic since the publication of IQ and Global Inequality (2006).

Here I scrutinize Lynn’s use of this reference and introduce a few more small studies. The data available for the Dominican Republic is quite meager. Continue reading

HVGIQ: The Bahamas

March 12, 2013 / / 5 Comments

The Bahamas is one of the most prosperous nations in the world (Third highest GDP per capita in the Americas, behind the US and Canada), with an economy, much like the Cayman Islands, primarily dependent upon tourism and finance. The population, not much larger than 350,000, is 85% black, 12% white, and 3% Asian and Latin American.

IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) does not have a study for The Bahamas, but estimates an IQ of 78 by using the score from Barbados (p. 74). IQ and Global Inequality (2006) estimates an IQ of 84 by averaging the scores from Cuba and the Dominican Republic (p. 55), and this is the estimate still reported in the most recent book (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012, p. 20).

Here I discuss measured IQ data for The Bahamas from two different studies. Continue reading

HVGIQ: Jamaica

March 1, 2013 / / 16 Comments

IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) cites one study for Jamaica (Manley, 1963 ). The sample size is nearly two thousand school children, and the reported IQ is 72 (p. 209). Lynn’s various updates to that book have included five additional references. However, in another anomaly, the most recent book contains only two references, both with relatively small sample sizes, and omits the large study altogether. The IQ estimate for Jamaica has also been lowered to 67! (Lynn, 2012, p. 403)

Here I review over 20 intelligence test studies from Jamaica. I find that Lynn’s numbers were not accurately reported, and that IQ is significantly higher in Jamaica than his books have claimed. Continue reading

HVGIQ: Cayman Islands

February 7, 2013 / / 2 Comments

The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory. In global comparison, this tiny dependency ranks near the top in standard of living and per capita GDP (currently sandwiched between the U.S., Ireland, Japan and Iceland). Lynn and Vanhanen’s books include data for Bermuda—another Overseas Territory—but do not mention the Cayman Islands.

At least one psychologist has administered intelligence tests to Cayman Islands school children (1960 Curti ), and this forgotten study is noteworthy because it is also one of the relatively rare instances where black and white IQ scores have been compared outside of the United States, Britain, and South Africa. Continue reading

HVGIQ: Cuba

January 31, 2013 / / 6 Comments

There are several intelligence studies for Cubans, including at least two Raven standardizations, some international assessment data, and a few different test measures for Cuban Americans. The message of all these test results is complicated and leaves us with a few puzzles.

IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) and IQ and Global Inequality (2006) both list one intelligence study for Cuba: a large Standard Progressive Matrices standardization (Alonso Garcia, 1973 ). In another anomaly, however, this reference has disappeared from the latest version of the dataset (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012). Cuba is missing from their list of ‘National IQs’ (p. 391), and the reference is not in the bibliography. But this omission is clearly a mistake, since one table (p. 22) still features a ‘Measured IQ’ score for Cuba—85—the same score paired with this study in the previous books. Continue reading

HVGIQ: Haiti

January 24, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Lynn’s international dataset lacks data for Haiti. The Global Bell Curve (2008) simply reports “Nothing is known of the intelligence of the population of Haiti” (p. 147). IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002) estimates an IQ of 72 by regional comparison with Jamaica. IQ and Global Inequality (2006) estimates an IQ of 67 by comparison with Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Dominica. This is the estimated value still reported in Intelligence (2012).

I have, however, located three intelligence studies for Haiti. Continue reading

The Human Varieties Global IQ Dataset

January 19, 2013 / / 3 Comments

Richard Lynn’s international intelligence dataset has proved useful to many different researchers. (For example, in the year 2012 it was used by Hafer, Jones, Kalonda-Kanyama, Rindermann, Woodley.) His dataset has also been criticized over its accuracy and thoroughness. Although this data has been elaborated and corrected over time, some errors have been persistent. For example, IQ & the Wealth of Nations (2002) reported an IQ of 59 for Equatorial Guinea, based on a small study by Fernández-Ballesteros et al. (1997). Lynn subsequently emphasized this as the lowest national score in the dataset (Lynn & Vanhanen 2006, pp. 1-2), and this peculiarity, paired with a meager sample size (N=48), made it an easy target for critical reviewers already discomfited by the low values for Africa in general (Barnett & Williams 2004; Berhanu 2007). However, only veteran anti-hereditarian, Leon Kamin, bothered to eventually check the reference, and indeed, he found a major error: the sample was taken from a school for mentally handicapped children. But even Kamin’s reading was inadequate, and the full extent of the error wasn’t reported until Wicherts et al. (2010): Continue reading

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