Does IQ explain the opportunity gap between races?

in life •  7 years ago  (edited)

In my previous post on Social Wealth a blogger responded claiming the opportunity gap between races is explained by IQ. Below is a quote from that blogger:

@lucylin (57) · 19 minutes ago
A interesting perspective.

The elephant in the room you didn't mention - IQ (East Asian, White).

This explains the differences far more precisely than 'social wealth', imo.

IQ/genetic differences illustrate the why the differences that are real, and manifest as they do.

Yet the statistics reveal these facts:

An article on IQ and income from 2007 contains this quote:

The work reveals that while exceptionally smart individuals typically earn more, they are also more likely to spend to their credit card limit, compared with people of average intelligence.

A more recent article from 2016 which directly asks the question of whether millionaires are smarter contains this quote:

On the surface, Zagorsky’s analysis confirms the findings of previous studies linking higher intelligence with higher income. “Each point increase in IQ test scores is associated with $202 to $616 more income per year,” he says. For example, a person with a score of 130 (in the top 2%, in terms of IQ) might earn about $12,000 more per year than someone with an average IQ score of about 100.

On the surface, people with higher intelligence scores also had greater wealth. The median net worth for people with an IQ of 120 was almost $128,000 compared with $58,000 for those with an IQ of 100.

But when Zagorsky controlled for other factors – such as divorce, years spent in school, type of work and inheritance – he found no link between IQ and net worth. In fact, people with a slightly above-average IQ of 105 , had an average net worth higher than those who were just a bit smarter, with a score of 110.

So is there a link between IQ and net worth? I have my doubts. Many people who become millionaires do it on athleticism, or being entertaining, or being a wise investor, none of these activities require an IQ test. The IQ test could not predict Warren Buffet. The other thing to note is that high IQ isn't distributed by race. This would mean there should be a certain percentage of white, black, asian, hispanic, any group, which has geniuses of a very high IQ. If we look at the amount of billionaires we see also very few women, so does this mean white women have a lower IQ than white men and or asian men?

I'm not convinced that IQ explains the opportunity gap. This is because I see no evidence that scoring high on an IQ test opens a person to receive increased opportunity. It is true you can score high and join Mensa, or get a better position in the military, but nothing that I can see which guarantees millionaire or multimillionaire status or which even automatically would lead to such status. To be fair I welcome debate and if anyone has statistics to show that IQ is behind the opportunity gap they may be able to change my mind.

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I believe that yes, and there are more reasons like personality differences and more.
At times racism, nationalism, etc do make a difference, but even racism is more based on collective and personal experiences which make it merely a special case of statistical inference.
Think of how geese are xenophobic even against their own specie, and racist against dogs.
They even do not attack chicken, unless disturbed at eating while attacking roosters on sight.
They are sexist too.

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IQ without having the balls to put in the action is worth nothing.

As Clint Eastwood would say: "You are an overeducated pussy".

What is all the knowledge in the world worth if you do not apply it? Not very much.

IQ + Courage = $$$

I did explain this in our previous discussion, but seems to be ignored because I linked it to male traits and why males with high IQ are more successful.

Not courage but a propensity to risk taking.. a male trait.

I don't discuss these things on a platform where every idiot can take money out of your payouts for whatever reason.

Write me on Discord instead.

https://discord.gg/VRSaB9y

...every idiot can take money out of your payouts because they are mad.

....low IQ in action!
😂😂

I understand and respect your pragmatism. I'm not that intelligent, I'm afraid.

My principles of speaking the truth has been my undoing all my life....

( I lived in LA for a few years, and walked away from around $5 million dollars - on principle.
.....God, my own IQ must be in minus numbers!)

😂

My principles of speaking the truth has been my undoing all my life....

I have the same problem. I dodge many circles because they cannot handle my real talk. I also hate being fake. That is why I have a Discord server with a select few people that is invite only (not the link that I shared before).

People prefer to live in Disneyland.

..People prefer to live in Disneyland.

ain't that the truth!

followed...
I'm not not on discord at the moment, soz.
(it takes too much of my time, when I get talking there)

To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:

It is decidedly so

Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.

No I don't see anything to debate here I completely agree I don't think IQ is a driving factor behind success, I think success depends on a persons drive, energy, foresight, and maybe what is called luck, which might really be being at the right place at the right moment with the correct attitude. Of course talent is another factor, like an athlete or a musician, singer or actor.

Isn't IQ a talent?

Well, I guess that would be subjective, to me an IQ is just a person's capacity for logical thinking, and we all think, maybe some better than others, so I don't think it would be a talent, of course I might be wrong.

When all run, but some run faster than others. We all sing, but some sing better than others. We all train, but some are stronger than others. Whats the difference?

So someone thinks better than others? That would be subjective, because I have seen people who aren't considered too bright come up with solutions that the smart guys couldn't come up with.

From what i read the only thing IQ measures is "how much effort someone needs to put into something to achieve it", a person can have a high IQ but still if no hard work is being done by that person he won't achieve this... maybe someone that scored lower on the IQ test but actually puts some effort in can achieve greater things than the person with higher IQ
And regardless of that, what makes a person have a higher IQ? is it genetics? is it the way they are brought up? is it their education system?

Nice

IQ tests are such bullshit. The question this blog poses is very racist.

I don't believe in "racist speech". A person either is racist in which case they believe in the ideology of race and enforce it in their actions (enforcing stereotypes) or they are not racist. To claim a question itself is racist is to use the threat of racism to suppress debate, speech, and science.

The question isn't racist. If race isn't scientific and doesn't exist (is a social construct) then by asking this question it provides the opportunity for people to prove logically that point. To avoid the question removes discussion and decreases opportunity to educate people.

IQ tests which I myself am skeptical of, are not entirely bullshit. They do measure the logical thinking capability. The reason I'm skeptical of IQ tests is that I don't think the logical thinking capability really is the source of all intelligence. A computer or AI is perfectly logical compared to people but then it's not as intelligent. An AI might beat everyone at IQ tests and still not be able to figure out how to walk up stairs.

I've been having dialogues with my friend about heavy topics like this for the last few days. Glad I ran across your post. I think the Big Five test, especially the aspect of "Conscientiousness", which measures orderliness and industriousness, consistently shows high correlation with financial and professional success. There is something to be said about that, as cultures have varying levels of measurable Conscientiousness as a whole.

I doubt very much too.
First of all, IQ tests are very subjective, they don't show all real opportunities of brains, just a part of them. But if we take their results as objective truth, it doesn't change the sense.
Races have nothing to do with IQ and success. Genetics plays its role but genetics is a much wider than just IQ tests.
Success depends on many factors, but IQ isn't the main.

and of course the topic has nothing common with a racist question!