The Intelligence of Nations

Reflections on Sixty-Eight Years of Research on Race and Intelligence

“…I gave the IQ in Iraq, Iran, India and sub-Saharan Africa as in the mid to low 80s; the IQ of Northeast Asians in Japan and Singapore as approximately 107; the IQ of Southeast Asians represented by Indonesia as 96; the IQ of Native American Indians as in the low 90s; the IQ of New Zealand Maori as approximately 94; the IQ of Micronesians and Polynesians as approximately 88; the IQ of Australian Aborigines as about 80; and the IQ of Kalahari Bushmen as approximately 55. These national and racial IQs have been largely confirmed by the numerous studies that have been published during the subsequent forty years that I have summarised in Lynn (2015) [17] and have been confirmed independently by David Becker in Lynn and Becker (2019) [18]. The only substantial differences are that the more recent data show the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans is approximately 70 and the IQ of Australian Aborigines is 62.…”

Secular trends in physical growth, biological maturation, and intelligence in children and adolescents born between 1978 and 1993

“…The hypotheses that have been put forward to explain the positive secular trends in various traits across the 20th century include, among others, improved nutritional quality and quantity [i.e., “nutrition hypothesis” advocated by Lynn ( 12 , 53 , 54 )], better health and health care ( 55 ), and advances in education and the educational system ( 56–58 ). It has been argued that high-income countries, including Switzerland, are currently approaching an asymptote: with environmental improvements having unfolded over past decades, large parts of the population have now reached their genetic and biological potential, and any further improvements in those environmental conditions may no longer result in an upwards trend in those traits ( 1 , 9 ).…”

The Bell Curve at 30: A Closer Look at the Within- and Between-Group IQ Genetic Evidence

“…If IQ tests are viewed as the product of wealthy and powerful White men who encouraged Terman, Wechsler, and others to create tests to "scientifically" validate their positions in society and the world (domestically and through colonialism/neo-colonialism), their bloodlines and positions required (1) the assumption of female-male genetic IQ equality (the wives, mothers, and daughters of the wealthy and powerful), (2) the assumption of the genetic IQ inferiority of the working class and people of color (the employees of the wealthy and powerful, and the lower classes they share a country with), and (3) the genetic IQ inferiority of the Global South (the colonial and neo-colonial "subjects" of the wealthy and powerful). Regarding the latter, Richard Lynn and other IQ hereditarians created a "National IQ" dataset, accompanied by maps frequently appearing in the social media, showing supposedly low national IQ scores in Africa and other areas of the Global South (e.g., Lynn & Becker, 2019). Several analysts have demonstrated that these datasets are based on highly flawed analyses (e.g., Kamin, 2006;Sear, 2022), with population and health professor Rebecca Sear concluding, "No future research should use this dataset, and published papers which have used the dataset should be corrected or retracted " (2022, p. 11).…”