Thread by @wil_da_beast630

This tweet is a place-setter.

Like it if you want to definitely get notifications from my 57-TWEET thread on IQ, etc "culturalism," dropping - for real - tomorrow. All will appear under this. #five_wonks_will_like

(1) "Tarzan" of legend - or anyone illiterate - would score a "0" on a standard written IQ test. This implies something both profound and obvious: training and opportunity affect IQ as they do ~any other trait.

In this (lengthy) thread, I defend the position of IQ culturalism.

(2) The thesis of culturalism is that (1) non-genetic variables (2) other than "racism" dramatically affect IQ, and have often shifted scores by 15-20+ points from a starting position (X). Multiple jumps of this kind have been larger than ~any IQ GAP that exists in the 2021 USA.

(3) This might strike most people as obvious. However, it needs to be reiterated, in the context of a debate between "Jensenites" who attribute up to 80% of group gaps to genetic differences (Rushton/Jensen 2005) and "Kendi-ites" who attribute all of them to racism (Kendi 2020).

(4) In reality, just a short list of the variables documented to influence IQ/aptitude for large groups -per Sowell (1993, 2005, 2020), Nisbett (1995), etc- would include study culture, education and ed for women, birth order, diet, isolation, family structure, and poverty.

(5) this thread breaks down the empirical effects of most of these.

Technical request: you can respond to any post if you just feel passionate about it, but please locate most comments under the "Thoughts and Critiques" posts, so I don't get notifications from 60 tweets.

(6) So, here goes. The most basic point in favor of culturalism is that IQ across the test-taking world has shifted upward by 15-18 points during just the past century or so. This is known as the Flynn Effect, and is not seriously disputed by anyone: goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedi….

(7) IQ gains this large or larger have been common among groups in the USA, specifically. Thomas Sowell points out that Italians, Slovaks, Greeks, Poles, Portuguese Americans, and Lithuanians all once tested in the (low) 80s on civilian/military IQ tests, and test normally today.

(8) Sowell - no slouch he - in fact tracked the IQ scores of two groups, Italians and Poles/Polish Jews, over six decades...and recorded an 11pt gain (BEFORE any "Flynn norming") in the 1st case and an 18pt gain in the second. Here are those figures:

(9) IQ gains among the Irish, in USA and back home, seem to have been especially impressive. While the Irish IQ was recorded as 92 as late as 2006 (brainstats.com/average-iq-by-…) - this itself implying a gain of 10+ points over time - PISA scores now place Ireland among world leaders.

Importantly, Black people are no exception to the rule that changes in culture, diet, region, and so forth impact IQ. Sowell ALSO points out that Black U.S. Northerners have generally scored 10 IQ pts above Black Southerners...and also often scored above WHITE Southerners.

(11) Dickens & Flynn (2006) get more current and specific, pointing out – in a methodologically impressive paper (journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.111…) – that the overall U.S. Black IQ increased by as many as 7pts between 1972-2002...again BEFORE any adjustment for more difficult tests.

(12) This is also the view, interestingly, among rightists who debate IQ. A. Epigone used the NAEP scores that produce state IQ estimates to place BIQ at ~91 in 2006 (unz.com/anepigone/blac…).

The far more mainstream Charles Murray gives it as 91, not 85, in "Facing Reality."

(13) In America's tense racial climate, it's worth noting how normal ALL these IQ scores are. Whites remain a bit ahead, but a Black score of 91 or 92 is on par with the recent-past figure for Ireland. We're ~exactly tied with states like Romania today, at least in PISA terms.

(14) FTM, white American IQs are all over the map, with some state estimates falling below the top few Black scores linked above. Per a right-wing site unlikely to minimize these, white scores range from 93-112 (unz.com/anepigone/aver…) - for what are likely not genetic reasons.

(15) Returning to the theme, there exists massive evidence that MOST gaps like these are not due primarily to genetics. We have known since Eyferth (1959) that the children of Black and white military men, born/raised overseas, often have ~identical IQs: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyferth_s….

(16) This result has been replicated several times, including by Kirkegard (2019) - although frankly with reservations on his end - and does not seem to be due to the absence of PARENTAL race/IQ gaps in the military.

Per NAEP, the average IQ for Black "military brats" is 96.1.

(17) Another study, reported in the @nytimes, found that bi-racial children raised by their white mother have IQs 11pts higher than those of biracial kids raised by their Black mother. While easy to misunderstand, this is a purely culturalist result. archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.co…

(18) Adoption studies come to similar conclusions. While - as an honest broker - white adoptees into middle-class homes generally finish a few points ahead of Black ones, the adoption effect on BIQ is 12-18pts. The most recent IQ estimate I have seen for Black adoptees is 106.

(19) @voxdotcom, of all places, recently provided an excellent summary of this data - from the dead-serious academic researchers Turkheimer, Hardin, & Nisbett.
Both figures just given appear in this article: the header basically sez it all...vox.com/the-big-idea/2…

(20) Thoughts and critiques so far?

(21) Perhaps the strongest argument for the primarily cultural nature of IQ gaps comes from the success of Black migrants. Chisala points out - again, debating in a HARD-right forum - that many W. African IQ scores in the West are ~= to those for whites...unz.com/article/the-iq…

(22) Nigerians - from a country with an "official tested IQ" of 84, per Brainstats - are currently the best educated single group in the USA. And, while we can discuss a selection effect for migrants, we hardly have a ruthlessly selective migration policy..chron.com/news/article/D…

(23) "So, what is the CULTURALIST explanation for immigrant success, Reilly?!!"

Culture. Regardless of whether small genetic gaps btwn groups could exist, basic factors like family structure and hours of study predict success for immigrants AND Americans (i.e. adoptees, etc).

(24) Outside the narrow "Jensenite/Sharptonite" debate in US social science, this^ is often taken as a truism. A group of Asian quants emphatically attributes the "Asian academic advantage over whites" almost entirely to "exerting greater effort." pnas.org/content/111/23…

(25) This is an empirical relationship which - while sometimes awkward to analyze as a Black man - is easy to measure on an annual or semi-annual basis. These (below) are rates of study for HS students across race and income, and we've had roughly this data since Ogbu (1978).

(26) "What happens when Black/POC students change culture/study more?"

They...do better. There can still be tiny WITHIN-environment racial gaps, but the 90+% Black/Latino charter school population generally outperforms the majority-white public population (Sowell 2020, etc).

(27) This jump in performance can be - often is - staggering. The average SAT for Success Academy's most recent senior class was a 1268...successacademies.org/press-releases…. That's an outlier, but it's worth remembering this and ~all other top charters are LOTTERY (non-selective) schools.

(28) A recitation of pro-culturalist data like this could go on for days. F/e, Black geniuses are 70+% concentrated among WOMEN, who dominate Black elite college attendance: jbhe.com/news_views/51_…. This is......unlikely to be due to large genetic IQ gaps between BM and BW.

(29) This is one place early, but: thoughts and critiques so far?