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1/ A Daily Thread of Rough Draft Excerpts From an Article I'm Writing on Race and IQ.
DAY #17
Here's the link to a page containing supporting sources for tweets in this thread:
https://raceandiq.home.blog/blog-feed/
DAY #17
Here's the link to a page containing supporting sources for tweets in this thread:
https://raceandiq.home.blog/blog-feed/
2/ DAY #17 SUMMARY
Tweets 3-12: Cultural Fairness of IQ Tests
Tweets 13-23: Stereotype Threat
Tweets 3-12: Cultural Fairness of IQ Tests
Tweets 13-23: Stereotype Threat
3/ Some people have argued that the “cultural specificity” of intelligence makes IQ tests biased towards the environments in which they were designed, and therefore a particular test developed in a “white” culture may not accurately measure IQ in a non-white one.
4/ This argument isn't really heard all that much anymore in intelligence science because it hasn't held up in studies.
5/ A survey of intelligence experts conducted in 2008 found that only 13% of them believed that IQ tests are racially or culturally biased.
The evidence against bias has continued to grow since then; that percentage is very likely even less now now.
The evidence against bias has continued to grow since then; that percentage is very likely even less now now.
6/ A recent study found that general intelligence (“g”) is a "universal phenomenon" found in all 31 non-Western nations investigated. Therefore, “it is theoretically possible to conduct [culturally appropriate] cross-cultural research on intelligence.”
7/ The most common cognitive testing construct (i.e., the theoretical framework that underlies IQ tests) was found to have no apparent cultural bias.
8/ It's also difficult to imagine IQ tests developed in the West as culturally biased when NE Asians score higher on them than whites. East Asians average higher IQ scores than whites both in the US and in Asia, and even on tests specifically designed for “whites”.
9/ Finally, there is an simple and reliable way to gauge general intelligence that is almost indisputably culture-free -- i.e., reaction time -- and this type of testing shows the same differences between races that standard IQ tests show.
10/ This is because “reaction time measures the neurophysiological efficiency of the brain’s capacity to process information accurately -- the same ability measured by intelligence tests.”
11/ A combination of reaction time measures produces a multiple correlation of .67, about the same magnitude as the correlation between reasoning ability and vocabulary -- so it's a good indicator of IQ.
12/ Unsurprisingly then, various types of reaction time testing in multiple studies produced consistent results in the familiar descending order: NE Asians fastest (both in US and Asia), whites intermediate, and blacks slowest.
13/ This leaves the last remaining argument used against hereditarianism: Stereotype threat.
This theory posits that blacks aren't less smart, they just perform at a lower level on IQ tests because they're conforming to existing stereotypes about them.
This theory posits that blacks aren't less smart, they just perform at a lower level on IQ tests because they're conforming to existing stereotypes about them.
14/ Side Note: Group stereotypes –- lower black and higher NE Asian intelligence being among the better known -– are actually typically ACCURATE. “Stereotype accuracy” is one of the most powerful and replicable effects in all of social psychology.
15/ The problem with “stereotype threat” is that “the effects either disappear or reverse altogether in the highly powered large scale studies.” And it flunks meta-analyses.
16/ “Overall, results indicate that the size of the stereotype threat effect that can be experienced on tests of cognitive ability in operational scenarios such as college admissions tests and employment testing may range from negligible to small.”
17/ “At best, stereotype threat is mildly interesting laboratory effect. In real-world testing situations, its effect is probably subtle -- possibly zero.”
18/ If stereotype threat was a valid explanation for black performance on IQ tests, we might expect blacks to lack confidence in their intellectual abilities. In fact, the opposite is true: Blacks score higher than whites on measures of academic self-esteem...
19/ ... and are more likely to assess themselves as being smarter than average or “among the very brightest.”
20/ Stereotype threat effects among African-Americans have been mostly obtained in very select and unrepresentative samples, and don't hold up in larger more rigorous studies.
So why is it still taught?
So why is it still taught?
21/ Heterodox Academy answers the question: "Stereotype threat, of course, is a great [egalitarian] tool... it is professionally risky to challenge ideas that serve egalitarian rhetoric.”
22/ Stereotype threat comprises much of what's left in the blank slatist's toolbox in arguing racial IQ gaps –- so if a scientist tries to expose the emptiness of the concept, every effort will be made to discourage and undermine him or her. It can be dangerous to pursue it.
23/ That completes my threads on the challenges made to the hereditarian explanation of the race and IQ gaps.
Tomorrow, I'll start talking about the reasons environmentalists give for the existence of these gaps.
Tomorrow, I'll start talking about the reasons environmentalists give for the existence of these gaps.
24/ Here's the link to a page containing supporting sources for tweets in this thread: https://raceandiq.home.blog/blog-feed/
