IQs in Italy are higher in the north: A reply to Felice and Giugliano

Does intelligence explain the association between generalized trust and economic development?

“…In particular, each region's average intelligence was obtained by first averaging scores across the three components (mathematics, reading and science) within each year, and then averaging across the two years (2009 and 2012). These data are very similar to the ones used by Lynn (2010Lynn ( , 2012b, who investigated the socio-economic correlates of intelligence among the regions of Italy. Lynn (2010) used data from the 2006 PISA tests, which were available for only 12 Italian regions, while Lynn (2012b) used data from the 2009 PISA tests.…”

“…At the same time, many studies in psychology have documented a positive correlation between intelligence and economic development (Dutton & Lynn, 2014;Kura, 2013;Lynn, 2010Lynn, , 2012aLynn, , 2012bLynn & Cheng, 2013;Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012a, 2012b; Meisenberg & Lynn, 2011;Pesta et al, 2010;Rindermann et al, 2012;Wicherts, Borsboom & Dolan, 2010a;Woodley et al, 2014). However, recent research has shown that trust and intelligence are themselves correlated, both across countries and among individuals (Carl & Billari, 2014;Hooghe et al, 2012;Oskarsson et al, 2012;Rindermann, 2008;Sturgis et al, 2010).…”

“…At the same time, a large literature in psychology has shown that intelligence is positively correlated with economic development (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2012a, 2012bMeisenberg & Lynn, 2011;Rindermann, Woodley, & Stratford, 2012;Wicherts, Borsboom, & Dolan, 2010a;Woodley, Rindermann, Bell, Stratford, & Piffer, 2014). This is true not just across countries, but also among regions within a country (Dutton & Lynn, 2014;Kura, 2013;Lynn, 2010Lynn, , 2012aLynn & Cheng, 2013;Pesta, McDaniel, & Bertsch, 2010).…”

Two Italies? Genes, intelligence and the Italian North–South economic divide

“…Some scholars reacted critically to Lynn, both on methodological and historical grounds (Beraldo, 2010;Cornoldi, Giofrè, & Martini, 2013;Cornoldi, Belacchi, Giofrè, Martini, & Tressoldi, 2010;D'Amico, Cardaci, Di Nuovo, & Naglieri, 2012;Daniele & Malanima, 2011a;Felice & Giugliano, 2011;Robinson, Saggino, & Tommasi, 2011). In replying to his critics, Lynn (2010bLynn ( , 2012a provided further evidence of a North-South IQ gap of about 10 points, and showed that Italian regional IQ differences are related to the frequencies of genetic markers for the percentages of North African ancestry in the Southern populations. Support for Lynn's thesis has been provided by Piffer and Lynn (2014), who considered, for five Italian macro-regions, the mean scores of 15-year old students in the PISA Creative Problem Solving test, a measure of the ability to solve problems in non-routinely situations.…”

Problems in deriving Italian regional differences in intelligence from 2009 PISA data

“…However, Lynn disputed the points raised by these studies (2010b; 2012). In particular, Lynn (2012) examined the achievement data obtained in the most recent PISA survey (OECD, 2010a) and offered counterarguments in favour of his thesis. In a latter paper, in agreement with the large body of evidence (e.g., Dick et al, 2007) showing the genetic bases of intelligence, Lynn also considered genetic differences between people living in northern versus southern Italy, further stressing the assumptions that there are strong differences in intelligence between them and that these differences are inherited.…”