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Confirmation Bias Guilty Pleasure New Hampshire IQ

Started by ninetales1234, November 27, 2011, 10:12 PM NHFT

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ninetales1234

Obviously this is unscientific and means nothing at all, but today I googled "IQ by US State".
Is it just me or is New Hampshire pretty darn orange?
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/iq-by-state-us-2

Feel free to ramble on about the implications of such trivia! ;D

Alex Libman

#1
You cannot judge a society by just one indicator without taking others into account.

For example, it is much easier for a region with very low fertility rates to have high IQ's: parents are older, children get more individual attention from their parents and other adults (and thus spend less time dumbing each-other down), parents can afford to spend more money on tutors / more tax funds per pupil, parents are more psychologically motivated ("all eggs in one basket" syndrome), etc.  It's better to have 5 kids with IQ's averaging 100 than 1 kid with IQ of 110...

Also, a cold woodland climate has some strange benefits for community cohesiveness and intelligence.  There's something civilizing about snow - makes a person subconsciously realize that man survives by his intelligence rather than muscle...  A European country that is most similar to Northern New England, which would be Finland, has the highest student test scores in the world!

Lloyd Danforth

I just watched the documentary about education in Finland. It was pretty amazing. A lot of it is due to homogeneity.

Alex Libman

Not homogeneity by itself, but a combination of a more effective culture and homogeneity.

Finland is indeed the most homogeneous of the continental Scandinavian countries, having a bizarre non-Indo-European language, a colder climate, and more historical susceptibility to Russian aggression, all of which scared away immigration.  This, however, only explains how their good qualities were concentrated, not how they emerged in the first place.

Scandinavian countries traditionally had a different approach to farming and feudalism, with more people owning their own resources and thinking for themselves, which over centuries created a superior work ethic.  Those countries were also among the first to industrialize (after the Netherlands, Britain, and Switzerland), never had a successful socialist revolution, and they were among the most capitalist countries in the world up to the addition of the welfare state in mid-20th century.  Because they were already the wealthiest and very patriotic, a major flight of brains and capital didn't occur - at least not yet.  They've done remarkable things to reduce the economic lethality of the welfare state by keeping corporate taxes low and other aspects of economic freedom high.

MaineShark

Quote from: Alex Libman on November 28, 2011, 06:00 AM NHFTFor example, it is much easier for a region with very low fertility rates to have high IQ's: parents are older, children get more individual attention from their parents and other adults (and thus spend less time dumbing each-other down), parents can afford to spend more money on tutors / more tax funds per pupil, parents are more psychologically motivated ("all eggs in one basket" syndrome), etc.  It's better to have 5 kids with IQ's averaging 100 than 1 kid with IQ of 110...

IQ is overwhelmingly genetic.  Number of children doesn't significantly impact it, any more than it would impact height.

Those with higher IQ's tend to have fewer children, because they are usually more career-focused.  Since they have genes for higher IQ's, their (fewer) children also tend to have higher IQ's.

IQ is just the ratio of performance age to actual age.  A one-year-old who can reason at the level of a two-year-old has an IQ, by definition, of 200 (ie, is performing equivalent to an age 200% of his/her calendar age).  Whether or not that one-year-old knows the same things that a two-year-old knows (the sort of thing that a tutor could teach) has no bearing on IQ - IQ is all about reasoning skills, not raw knowledge.  Someone who has memorized the Encyclopedia Britannica but cannot explain any of it, does not have a high IQ.  Someone who has no knowledge of a subject, but can, upon being presented with the basics, immediately begin to internalize the information and work out its logical implications, does have a high IQ.

I once saw a very intelligent individual asked a question about some engineering subject.  He asked for some details, then thought for a minute, and began explaining why the assembly was not behaving as-expected.  When asked how long he'd been studying that kind of assembly, in order to know so much about how they worked, he replied that he'd never seen or heard of one, until just then.  He didn't have a lot of knowledge on that subject, but he did have a high IQ.  If no one had been around to explain the details, though, he'd have been stuck, as his lack of knowledge would have have tripped him up.

To function effectively, you need a reasonable level of each.  Too much knowledge, and you get known for being that guy who can spout off trivia, but doesn't understand any of it.  Too high an IQ, and you have trouble relating to others, which also impedes success.  The most financially-successful individuals out there tend to be in the range of two to three standard deviations above the mean (ie, 130-145 in most IQ tests).  Once you get above four or five standard deviations above the mean, IQ tends to become an impediment to financial success, unless you are in a situation where becoming a mad scientist is workable.

Alex Libman

I'm not going to analyze what you've said about IQ and genetics, because that's not really what this thread is about.  The first post and the article it linked to only used "IQ" in a colloquial sense, to mean actual present-day intelligence.  The linked "scholastic testing aptitude correlations" data came from NAEP.  This measure of intelligence is very highly influenced by the non-genetic factors that I've mentioned, which give regions with low fertility rates an advantage.

Tom Sawyer

I can safely say I'm at least an IQ of 200... heck I can perform better than a 104 year old!

KBCraig

Quote from: Tom Sawyer on November 28, 2011, 06:30 PM NHFT
I can safely say I'm at least an IQ of 200... heck I can perform better than a 104 year old!

Lloyd accepts your challenge.  ;D

Pat K


ninetales1234

Quote from: Tom Sawyer on November 28, 2011, 06:30 PM NHFT
I can safely say I'm at least an IQ of 200... heck I can perform better than a 104 year old!

Lloyd Danforth

All I've gotten out of this is that I should be more successful, financially. :'(

Jim Johnson

Quote from: MaineShark on November 28, 2011, 04:49 PM NHFT
Once you get above four or five standard deviations above the mean, IQ tends to become an impediment to financial success, unless you are in a situation where becoming a mad scientist is workable.

There's the problem with Freestaters right there.

MaineShark

Quote from: Jim Johnson on November 30, 2011, 11:49 AM NHFT
Quote from: MaineShark on November 28, 2011, 04:49 PM NHFTOnce you get above four or five standard deviations above the mean, IQ tends to become an impediment to financial success, unless you are in a situation where becoming a mad scientist is workable.
There's the problem with Freestaters right there.

You're generous.  I would have said, "one of the several problems..." ;-)

KBCraig

Quote from: MaineShark on November 30, 2011, 03:55 PM NHFT
Quote from: Jim Johnson on November 30, 2011, 11:49 AM NHFT
Quote from: MaineShark on November 28, 2011, 04:49 PM NHFTOnce you get above four or five standard deviations above the mean, IQ tends to become an impediment to financial success, unless you are in a situation where becoming a mad scientist is workable.
There's the problem with Freestaters right there.

You're generous.  I would have said, "one of the several problems..." ;-)

"Big Bang Theory" is more like a documentary about high-IQ people, than a sitcom.

It also reminds me of what happens when two or more libertarians are in the same room.  ;D

ninetales1234