Does anyone have any idea why Asians are so good at math?
Cause they study and work hard at it?
Because their parents force it on them from an early age?
Have you guys seen the Claude Steele study of reinforcing stereotypes? Could this be a valid factor as well?
Probably for the same reason those gay guys are all so well dressed.
Another possible reason to kick in:
The Asian people in the US (I’m assuming you’re American) you’re meeting are those who were smart enough to be part of the brain drain to America. They left their home country to attend graduate school in the US and then just settled down here with a job and start families. What you see is just the smarter, more successful part of Asia that came here.
Having taught in South Korea from 1993-1999, I can assure that the bell curve distribution of IQ is as valid there as here. Asian kids are no smarter or dumber than any other racial group–the only difference I can see is that the cultures are competitive and the parents drive the kids to excel. In South Korea, for example, students have challenging classes, 7 hours a day, 6 days a week. After regular school, students attend hagwans, private institutions where students take classes in English, Korean, Chinese characters, math, science, and many other subjects. Korean schools are extremely competitive, and the choice of university completely determines a student’s future success. Students have to take qualifying exams to get into university, and every year there are far more students than there are places in university. Consequently, the pressure to succeed and get not just good grades, but the best grades, is absolutely crushing.
In short, Asian kids aren’t smarter, just much more driven to succeed by their parents.
There’s an asian girl working at my local 7-11 and I can assure you that she’s dumb as a bag of hair. I think she can only count above 10 with her shoes off (she’s given me incorrect change so many times it’s now a running joke).
Anyhow - she’s nice enough, but certainly not a math wiz. Are you meeting your group on a university campus or something?
God, it’s a mystery, but fortunately, the Asian assimilation is going quite nicely, allow me to allay your fears and assure you that within ten years, no Asian will be any better at math than any other decent, non-kung-fu-fighting American.
Heh, heh. It is because we are all so inscrutable, ah so? 
Seriously, though, I wish it were true. I’m part Asian and when I took calc in H.S., it was just me and some boy (who I didn’t know at all) representing that bundle of ethnicities, and the two of us were easily the worst students in the class.
I remember one day near the end of our senior year, when the teacher was returning a graded quiz or test, and she looked at him, and then looked at me, with this priceless expression of despair and disbelief… as if she felt that she had just tumbled into the Twilight Zone or something. Bizarro High School… where the Asian kids are the bakatare*!
I never had the slightest affinity for chemistry, physics, or computers, either. [sigh]
*Japanese for “idiot, fool”.
Anyone else amused by the dichotomy between the OP and the OP’s sig?
LoL I didn’t even notice it until you said something, iampunha. Very delicious though…
Before answering this question, I would really need to see some sort of statistical proof that people of Asian descent are better at math, and further proof that performance in that study was not influenced by stereotype threat.
Without those two things, I think the only question we can really answer is, “Why does the popular stereotype of Asians include good math performance?” I think gobear and Gopher answered that about as well as it’s going to be answered.
Unfortunately, the field of stereotyping and prejudice research is relatively new and there are many gaps in the literature. Some articles you may find of interest:
Chen, Mark & Bargh, J. (1997) Nonconscious behavioral confirmation processes: The self-fulfilling consequences of automatic stereotype activation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 541 - 560.
Cheryan, Sapna, & Bodenhausen, G. (2000) When positive stereotypes threaten intellectual performance: The psychological hazards of a “model minority” status. Psychological Science, 11.5, 399 - 402.
Shih, Margaret, Pittinsky, T., Ambady, N. (1999) Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 10.1, 80 - 83.
Same reason Jews are so good with money.
d::R!
I would want to see it too. Anecdotally, it’s common on university campuses to meet oriental/asian students who are good at math but not as good verbally. But try visiting a top law school these days – you’ll find plenty of asian students who are doing just fine (although a lot of them seem interested in patent law . . . hmmm)
Because there are so fucking many of us. We need to be able to count beyond our own fingers, see?
Seriously, we’re not all good at maths. I’m not.
On the other hand, I’m half white so maybe that proves your point.
Because the other ethnic groups got all the fun stereotypes?
What dichotomy?
Easy…
Math skill happen on a curve. In order for someone to be bad at it, someone else has to be good at it. This is basic statistics that everyone knows. Because blonde women are bad at math, someone had to get their math skills, and it turns out it was Asians.
You can see this fact at work in other areas as well. Black men got all the basketball skills that Asians lack. Lesbian women got all the softball skills that geek high school boys lack.
Really, didn’t you learn anything in math?
I thought lesbians were bowlers.