Thursday, June 10, 2010

Scottish IQ Test Supports Larry Summers

I prepared the chart above for an article AEI's Christina Sommers is working on.  The graph displays the IQ test results from the article "Population Sex Differences in IQ at Age 11: The Scottish Mental Survey 1932," based on "80,000+ children—almost everyone born in Scotland in 1921—tested at age 11 in 1932."

Main conclusion of the article: "There were no significant mean differences in cognitive test scores between boys and girls, but there was a highly significant difference in their standard deviations ( P < .001). Boys were over-represented at the low and high extremes of cognitive ability."

As the chart shows, boys outnumbered girls both for: a) IQ scores below 95 and b) IQ scores above 115.  Further, the share of boys increased going out towards both ends of the distribution, so that boys represented 57.7% of the highest IQ scores of 140 (136 boys for every 100 girls) and 58.6% of the lowest IQ scores of 60 (142 boys for every 100 girls). 

The authors speculate that their findings might "explain such cognitive outcomes as the slight excess of men achieving first class university degrees, and the excess of males with learning difficulties.

This evidence also supports what former Harvard President Larry Summers said (and for which he was fired):

"It does appear that on many, many different human attributes- height, weight, propensity for criminality, overall IQ, mathematical ability, scientific ability - there is relatively clear evidence that whatever the difference in means - which can be debated - there is a difference in the standard deviation, and variability of a male and a female population."

Q.E.D.

8 Comments:

At 6/10/2010 11:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

IQ tests have fallen out of favor because our society likes to treat everyone as equal (not just equals under law, but potentially equal in ability).

This is an unpopular subject because if you allow for gender IQ differences then you must be open to documented racial IQ differences.

 
At 6/10/2010 11:56 AM, Blogger W.E. Heasley said...

“Many people fail to see the fundamental difference between saying that a particular thing – whether a mental test or an institution – is conveying a difference that already exists or is creating a difference that would not exist otherwise.

Creating a difference that would not exist otherwise is discrimination, and something can be done about that. But, in recent times, virtually any disparity in outcomes is almost automatically blamed on discrimination, despite the incredible range of other reasons for disparities between individuals and groups.” - Thomas Sowell: Fallacies about what’s fair.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fair-233570-europe-groups.html

 
At 6/10/2010 12:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's funny is that this is so easily observable in daily life.

The average woman is smarter than the average man. This (and other factors) helps explain why women prefer "office work": 'cause only an IDIOT would risk life & limb in the coal mines, at the nuclear plant, on the crab boat, etc., etc.

If you line up a bunch of army volunteer men and tell 'em, "Men: this is gonna be a tough battle; likely only half of you will come out alive," then I'mma tellin' ya: each guy is gonna turn to his left or right and say "Sorry, Smitty: I'm gonna miss ya!"

Do the same thing with a line of women, their gonna try to get out of it; why? NO! Not because they're weak or timid, it's 'cause they AIN'T IDJITS!

(The above was merely an illustrative example; please apply the concepts drawn therefrom to more relevant and quotidian situations.)

This also explains, sociologically, why we observe so many normal-ish women with so many, um... duds. The average woman is simply outnumbered by brutes, so she makes the best of it.

Hieronymus

 
At 6/10/2010 3:53 PM, Blogger Ron H. said...

W.E. Heasley said...

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fair-233570-europe-groups.html

Thanks. Excellent article. Of course, come to think of it, I can't recall ever reading anything by Sowell that WASN'T excellent.

 
At 6/10/2010 4:22 PM, Anonymous doubleBubble tripleDip said...

"
was a highly significant difference in their standard deviations ( P < .001). Boys were
"
Encryption

Does this indicate that girls were sharing answers but boys were not glancing at the girls papers? Does it mean that all the boys were only guessing but with a high standard-deviation luck-coefficient? Girls were not *Standard Deviants*? No! I'll have none of it.

It proves once and for ever that girls use mental-telepathy but have never given to the boys their public key, let alone the private key to the wireless local area network.

 
At 6/11/2010 8:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does Larry Summers get his job back?

 
At 6/11/2010 9:08 AM, Blogger juandos said...

"Does Larry Summers get his job back?"...

Good question but I have a better one, 'would Americans be better off if Larry Summers was down in Costa Rica for a few years getting repeated colonoscopy tests?'...

 
At 8/03/2010 6:39 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Heironymous has totally missed the point.

According to the data, it is FALSE that "The average woman is smarter than the average man."

RTFA

 

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