Based on personal observations:
Nope. Just harder working. Study harder during the course of your life, your IQ scores will be higher. Anyone who says anything else is factually incorrect.
If this is true, then doesn’t that mean that intelligence–the thing that IQ testers are supposedly measuring–is not a static thing?
“Supposedly” is right – intelligence is a nebulous concept. But whatever these tests tend to measure, I think that it’s usually found to have a fair amount of fluctuation up to a certain age – mid-teens, perhaps – and to be fairly (though not entirely) static after that. In other words, the intellectual, hard-working cluture that infuses many Jewish households is such that priorities and work habits are impressed upon a child, who carries them for the rest of her life. It would be harder, though not impossible, to internalize such things later in life.
Really?? You think it’s completely due to how someone is raised, and that genetics has nothing to do with IQ. I think there’s some fairly heavy statistical evidence that IQ scores are at least partly hereditary (I belive studies on adopted childrengive something like an 80% correlation between IQ scores).
A long time ago, I read a book by Dave Berg of Mad Magazine fame. He postulated (possibly tongue in cheek) that in the Middle Ages, Christians were actively breeding intelligence out of their genetic lines, because their smartest and most ambitious would join the priesthood and remain (at least in theory) celibate, while the Jews had no such restriction.
Then again, from my reading about the Middle Ages, celibacy among the clergy was one of those traditions honored more in the breach than in the practice.
I also doubt that this experiment in selective evolution was carried out long enough to make a difference. But feel free to discuss 
What is wrong with the idea that different racial or ethnic groups are different? Whites have higher skin cancer rates than blacks, and in Canada the aboriginals have 4x the rates of diabetes and obesity as the Canadians.
This isn’t the 1930s, its not like people are going to jump on info showing rates of X,Y,Z vary along ethnic or racial lines to justify racism or anything. I think everyone here is secure enough in the idea that racial and ethnic prejudice is wrong to do something like that.
Everyone “here”–in StraightDopeland–may be secure enough. But don’t pretend that there aren’t any people who would use the conclusions of these researchers to slide down a slippery slope. There are plenty of people like this. Whether these people have enough power to do anything is another question.
One implication of this study is that we may be able to screen for “intelligence” using certain genetic markers. The scientist in me finds this intriguing. But the humanist in me worries that an effort to select for intelligence may inadvertedly select against other useful attributes. Like creativity or physical prowess. The fact that clear tradeoffs are involved with these genes should also not be overlooked.
Yeah, the paper hasn’t even been published yet; however, it has (presumably) been vetted by anonymous referees for a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so you should pause before saying that it’s dreck. Don’t let ideology close your mind.
There are obviously a lot of questions to be answered before the hypothesis is acceptable; e.g.,
These two links sound pretty sketchy; in addition, the nurture question is a pretty important one. If a culture is more suited to identifying exectional intelligence, which I’m told the N. European Jewish culture is (no cite), then they will probably have a higher incidence of outliers groomed for success.
I guess I’m most concerned that scientific research isn’t penned in by ideology. Sure, human intelligence is so malleable that saying one group is smarter seems to be outrageous. Yet looking into an apparently observed effect in order to find the cause is not dreck, even if the research seems silly ex ante. If they’re wrong, they we’ve learned something valuable; if they’re right, then we’ve learned something valuable as well.
Nice content-filled post you have there, handsomeone.
How about we do an informal study of our own.
There are about 6,200,000 Jews in the United States, or roughly 2.2% of the nation’s population.
If, among Dopers in the US, more than 2.2% are Jewish, then we might have a case that, indeed, they are smarter. ;j
Has there ever been a minyan at a Dopefest?
On the other hand, consider this: “Gregory Cochran, a noted scientific iconoclast, is prepared to (state his controversial theory) anyway. He is that rare bird, a scientist who works independently of any institution…And more controversially still, he has suggested that homosexuality is caused by an infection.”
“Rare bird” or attention-seeking loon?
This smells like the claims of William Shockley, noted scientist and Nobel Prize winner, who got a bee in his bonnet over race and declared that blacks were genetically inferior in intelligence. While in this case Cochran’s conclusions sound like a compliment, they will also be used by bigots to stir up resentment and hostility.
And I’ve got them there “smart” genes, so I must be right. 
Oy! Vat’s mit all de “shmart Jews” talk? Stop already.
Vy can’t nobody else be shmart for a change? Ve’re not so shmart! Look at Jerry Springhill and Jeraldo Rivera! Like a hole in the kopp, ve need dem!
Eh. I’m tink I’m going to plotz from de heat und de humid. It’s like a sauna out der! It’s crazy!!
:smack:
Springhill… Springman… Springer… Vat’s de difference! Oy. ;j
Now, you’ll notice that I took for granted that the journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. I strongly doubt that a threat to come out with a theory if it isn’t published would really carry that much weight with the editors.
Keeping in mind that the bible code was first published in a scientific journal (well, a math journal, but you get the idea), it is certainly true that not everything published through peer review is great stuff; however, the process does help to ensure that people who know a hell of a lot more than we do about the subject have vetted it and declared it suitable for entry into the scientific discourse.
As for those so-called smart genes, why should I think you are one of the exceptional outliers? 
They don’t have enough power to do anything (at least not in western civilization).
Hasn’t genetic breeding been a part of our heritage since time started? I thought that was why women desired smart, powerful, respected, successful men. Because those men were successful within the context of that particular subculture (the definition of success varies from culture to culture) and their genes would predispose the kids to be successful (ie survive) too. If so, genetic breeding has been going on since time started. This is nothing new.
I disagree. We’ve always selected for certain traits based on phenotype. We’ve never selected for certain traits based on genotype (not among humans at least). I might assume you’ve got “smart” genes if I’m attracted to your intelligence, but it may be that you’ve really got “dull” genes packaged along with a “suave and witty” gene. What I’m actually selecting for is the ability to charm others, not intelligence. In the long run, it doesn’t really matter as long as the bills get paid and the babies grow up.
If I have a bunch of embryos and I’m screening through them, looking only for one that has a “smart” gene, I may very well end up with a person with average learning capacity. Or I might end up with a brainaic who is prone to mental illness because the “smart” gene rests close to a “crazy” gene on the chromosome (the stereotypical “smart” Jew is also stereotypically neurotic). Perhaps the trait “intelligence” comes at the expense of the trait “penis size” when it interacts with the “curly hair” gene. Who knows what’s going to pop out?
A geneticist doesn’t, that’s for sure!
You put too much faith in this precious western civilization. There are Holocaust survivors still among us. I think you need to wait awhile before making a conclusion like that.
I think Nelson Mandela would agree with that, too.
Most Jews I have known in my life are very bright, smarter and more successful than most other Americans.
Just about every successful doctor or lawyer I’ve personally known is Jewish. And they all make a bit more money than I. I hate to generalize, but frankly I’d trust my life to an American Jew than to other just about every other ethnicity.
Jews are less than 1% of the population but have 20% of Nobel Prizes.