More funny than anything and absolutely much ado about nothing much – I put this topic here, in ‘The Pit,’ and not elsewhere, only because of the subject matter, which always seems to find someone with a personal or political ax to grind. Anyway, last election, and the presidential election before, there were lists showing states by average IQ. They seemed to make their way into every nook of every cranny of the Internet. The last list showed the states that went to Kerry as the “high IQ” states. Those that went to Bush, had lower average IQs. How these averaged IQs were derived was never indicated and later it was exposed as a hoax (at least according to the linked article). Steve Sailer, the author of the article, gets his new information showing the “real state IQs” from a “scientific journal” which he links there. The new, more “scientific” list shows little difference between the red and blue states and only a 10 point difference between the highest ranked state (Massachusetts, estimated IQ average of 104.3) and the lowest (Mississippi, estimated IQ average of 94.2). And little difference, but still some difference, among the red and blue states. That said, wonder if there might be comments – smartass or otherwise.
I rather doubt the data and haven’t seen any reliable stats on these supposed state ranges of IQ. I rather doubt that average IQ of any state is more than a point or two above or below 100.
FYI, folks, those links (vdare) lit up my company’s content filter with “hate speech” related material for whatever reason. Ya might want to avoid going there at work.
Given that 15 points would be one standard deviation, it’s a bit more than nits, and it makes me dubious of the methodology before even reading any further.
Oh for fucks sakes people. He links to the scholarly journal article right in his blog post. If you want to attack, attack the methodology of the actual article (of which there are plenty of criticisms) but what does it matter who the source is?
VDARE is a virulently anti-immigration site. Not just ILLEGAL immigration, but any immigration. Or immigration of certain ethnic groups. From the linked blog:
*Be wary, though, of that popular and pernicious myth—that “all” we have to do to solve the problems caused by diversity is to fix education, and then every student will be an above-average Lake Wobegon child.
The unpalatable truth: while we know how we could do a better job of keeping out low IQ foreigners, we really don’t have a clue how to turn their children into high, or even medium, IQ adults on average.
America has spent enormous amounts of money since the Great Society trying to narrow ethnic IQ and achievement gaps . We have only a little to show for it. *
Why not a more direct link to the paper in question? It was published in that famous “scholarly journal”, Intelligence.
*Intelligence is a scientific journal dealing with intelligence and psychometrics. It was founded in 1977 by Douglas K. Detterman of Case Western Reserve University (a signatorie of “Mainstream Science on Intelligence”). *
*“Mainstream Science on Intelligence” is a 1994 editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal on December 13. It was a list of 25 statements which upheld many of the findings in intelligence research discussed in The Bell Curve. The frequently-cited piece was reprinted in Intelligence in 1997 with additional information on its creation, the response, and a bibliography.
Roughly a third of the 52 signatories, including Gottfredson, have received grants from the Pioneer Fund. Eight of the signatories, including Gottfredson, currently (as of 2006) sit on the editorial board for Intelligence which reprinted it…*
Grants from The Pioneer Fund? Here’s what the Southern Poverty & Law Center has to say about that illustrious group:
*Academic Racism;
Key race scientist takes reins at Pioneer Fund
Race-based science might seem like a relic of the Victorian age, and eugenics an experiment in “human improvement” that passed away with Hitler.
But thanks in large part to the Pioneer Fund both subjects are still alive. Set up in to “improve the character of the American people” by promoting eugenics and procreation by people of white colonial stock, Pioneer has financed a number of leading race scientists, lavishing more than $500,000 a year on those who work to “prove” inherent racial differences that the vast majority of scientists regard as balderdash.*