What would eliminate this potential problem would be to point out the lopsidedness in the sub-scores: great verbal & math vs. middling or below-avg visuo-spatial, which is reflected in their accomplishments. So, there's little "jewbilation" going on in the world of painting, sculpture, and the visually artsier camps within film, architecture, furniture design, fashion design, graphic design, and so on, where the Mediterranean Europeans and East Asians rule.

Thus, it wouldn't sound like the Ashkenazim are trying to brag about how smart they are, but rather just reporting the mixed-bag reality. And given their group's above-avg knack for witty self-deprecation, I doubt pointing out this "fault" would offend any Jews.

"the region of the Netherlands and Germany has IQs in the area of 106-107"

The only data I can find on these two countries show IQ's of about 102 from Lynn's site:
http://www.rlynn.co.uk/pages/art...lligence/ t4.asp

Are there other studies available for these two countries?

That was a reference to Buj's data, but Lynn's table is better. I added another footnote.

"and 20% Arab with a mean IQ of 86, which is virtually the same as that of Arabs elsewhere."

Really...?
That an average on par with african-americans and others of low SES backrounds. Are there any data on the Arab verbal or performance scores? If all this is true, then we can assume that significant swaths of the Arab populous would obtain 70 and 60-somethings on the Wechsler, also like blacks, unless the bell curve centages were different. How do those Arabs in Michigan measure up?

Depending on the selective migration,and/or possible lack of genetics playing a role, probably higher. The Lebanese, for instance, despite a listed IQ of 86 for Lebanon, are a market dominant minority throughout Latin America and Africa. Also a book I caught at the library called 'Children of the Creche', if i recall, suggested that Lebanese children adopted into Lebanese-American homes had 100 IQs.

Other listed IQs for the Middle East include Iraq 89, Morocco 85. Egypt 83, Qatar 78, Turkey 85, and Iran 84.

Also low SES whites have IQs of about 95, not 85.

How do those Arabs in Michigan measure up?

arab american demographics:

Arab Americans with at least a high school diploma number 85 percent. More than four out of ten Americans of Arab decent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 24% of Americans at large. Seventeen percent of Arab Americans have a post-graduate degree, which is nearly twice the American average (9%).

Of the school-age population, 13% are in pre-school, 58% are in elementary or high school, 22% are enrolled in college, and 7% are conducting graduate studies.

My rule of thumb for thinking about Lynn's data is not to worry about individual countries average IQ scores, just pay attention to regional averages combining multiple countries.

The problem is that Israel is sui generis, so we're stuck. In Lynn and Vanhanen's 2002 book, there are two studies of Israeli children cited, one with a moderate sample size, one with a small one. If he's found more studies, that would be good, but if he's still only got those two, I'm not going to be reassured that we should trust those numbers terribly far.

You can see my table of all of Lynn and Vanhanen's studies at:

http://www.isteve.com/IQ_Table.htm

fyi, Mexico's Lebanese Carlos Slim Helu is the 4th richest man in the world.

Arab-Americans are largely christian. Does that make a difference? It sure seems to in Lebanon.

I think it is pretty obvious that Israel's Jews are dumber than American Jews. American Jews were self selected for smarts on several occasions.

[90% of american jews were russian-polish, and probably the elites of those jewish communities remained in nations where they were prospering. those who left were the masses, who nevertheless seem industrious, but, there was almost certainly no self-selection of the best & brightest, they didn't need to leave. i deleted the rest of the comment because it was dumb speculation]

Edited By Siteowner

Arab-Americans are largely christian. Does that make a difference? It sure seems to in Lebanon.

1) on the genetics, neutral markers do not suggest strong partitioning of variance between various christian and muslim groups, though selection might have operated (one assumes that a % of christians converted to islam every generation).

2) the lebanese in west africa tend to be shia. many muslims in latin america converted to catholicism. carlos memen, former president of argentina, for example is one. his wife and family remains muslim.

"...parroting sorry old wives' tales that you only use 10% of your brain."

Were "old wives" really the source of this tale? Old wives were not traditionally concerned with percentage of brain usage. They stuck to old wifely concerns. Be assured, it was a man decided what percentage of brain most people use, though I wouldn't speculate as to his age or marital status.
Scientists, philosophers and doctors have promoted a remarkable amount of malarkey through the ages.
Old wives' tales indeed.

No offense to wives, young and old. :)

My (not all that old) wife has accused me of using substantially *less* than 10% of my brain, on occasion. Though perhaps this isn't the source of the figure....

Steve et al,

Some criticisms I have of Lynn's - aka Tennis Player ;) - work:

1 - I don't think it is entirely accurate to compare countries using different IQ tests. Personally I would just use Cattell's Culture Fair Test.

2 - Lynn doesn't adequately explain the nip and tuck methods he uses to adjust scores

3 - He doesn't provide socioeconomic data for his population samples. So he may be comparisn high SES individuals in country A, with low SES individuals in country B, and it is widely acknowledged that to a greater extent IQ is correlated with SES - particularly in developed economies.

4 - He makes calculation errors in a number of places

If a country is poor and unsuccessful, low SES, and low IQ, probably predominate. What happens to an ecomomy when feeblemindedness becomes a general characteristic of the populous? In a very low IQ society, the high IQ leader sort (or inverter)may have some difficulty in gaining leadership or status. Hence, low IQ nations tend to stay that way, with the attendant poverty and other major problems being ubiquitous.

What I mean by #3 is that if I were to go to a village somewhere in the more "backwards" parts of China, like the North Western areas, I could probably get a sample which might be 1 SD below average.

Whereas, if I were to take my sample from progressive and affleunt areas, like parts of Shanghai or maybe Guangzhou, I could probably get a sample that was 1 sd above average.

Jason,
Regarding jasons comment "asserting something was caused by genetic drift even after mathematical models point strongly against this".

DO you realize who Neil Risch is? While even Rischs stature does not validate any given assertion, I'm pretty sure there are only a couple of people on earth as qualified to assess the merit of various genetic models. To describe that quoted point as "denial", is precisely the sort of "vacuousness" you are busy accusing others of. In fact, of all the individuals both in and about this discussion, Risch is by far and away the most accomplished geneticist (and scientist for that matter) and undoubtedly his opinion is based on years of theoretical modelling, analysis and simulation.