# Is intelligence inherited?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intelligence-inherited/551433>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 25, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intelligence-inherited/551433 "2010-08-25T19:10:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Michael\_Corleone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Michael\_Corleone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Corleone)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intelligence-inherited/551433/21 "2010-08-26T14:52:53Z")

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My parents say yes, but I say no. So there answer is no … I think?

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**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-intelligence-inherited/551433/22 "2010-08-26T15:48:51Z")

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> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> Oh for crying out loud. Yes, intelligence is largely heriditary. But the claim that an influx of foreigners would lower the general IQ is ridiculous. In fact, the opposite is much more likely.
> 
> Think about it, what kind of people are economic immigrants? They are the kind of people, compared to their countrymen, who show the most initiative, the most courage and determination. They leave their homes and countries to go work in another country another culture. Would you do that?
> 
> Such immigrants are quite often also the ones with the best marketable skills. You don’t go to another country if you don’t believe your work will fetch a higher price there. Now, in countries where education is not as advanced and omnipresent as here in the west, marketable skills will be highly correlated with IQ. A smart boy in a small rural village in Turkey might more easily become a kick-ass car mechanic then go to college, even when he has the IQ for it.

That was the case in the past, but unfortunately nowadays for a _highly visible minority_ of immigrants it is not.

[ul]  
[li]An unintended consequence of the decency to the less fortunate that the modern welfare state has established is that mere residence in a rich country is a source of a modest income. So marketable skills and education are not necessary anymore.[/li][li]Cheap air travel, availability of home country mass media and a sufficiently large established immigrant population mean that you can move to Berlin and not leave Turkey or Lebanon. So the courage to leave one’s comfort zone isn’t required anymore either.[/li][/ul]  
That said, Thilo Sarrazin is an \*ex-\*politican and his theses (published in advance in a Spiegel essay this week to promote the forthcoming launch of a book of his) were denounced across the spectrum from the moderate right to the left.

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