Are Asians smart or do we just study harder?

[Yeung Gor]

A scientist who will be appearing on a tv show in the UK was making claims that Intelligence has a correlation with race. His finding is base on the average IQ of different racial groups around the world. Here is a map of factual IQ distribution around the world:

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Are Asians the smartest group on average or do we just study harder? Some people who disagree with this finding argue Asian parents force their kids to excel academically more so than other races which is why Asians do so well in school. So what do you think?

For me, I don't recall studying all that much in school but still do relatively well.

[remember_Cedric]

And I wished the Asians are smarter than the Jews. But in reality, it isn't happening.

[forgot password]

From personal experience I do believe IQ varies from race to race and Asians/Chinese people are smart (many students who competed for the Math/physics Olympiad teams of the US and Australia are ethnic Chineses), however when it comes to intelligence the Jews and Ethnic Germans pwn the world. Will ever in Asian talent pool emerge someone of Kepler or Lev Landau's calibre? I doubt that, needless to say freaks of nature like Hilbert, Gauss or Einstein.

[Banh Mi]

Again, this brings into question what intelligence exactly is, and if IQ is a direct measure of it.

The people with the biggest names in history, are strong academics, but they are most remembered for their creativity and inovation.

[Candide]

Damn, I live on the dumbest continent...

[GuGu]

i know a very dumb chinese dude.

[Sparky]

Hahaha wow, Australia is such a dud country. And good ole Botswana, what a maverick.

Even if you put aside all debates on what intelligence is and whether it can be measured, it comes down to correlation vs causation. Unless one day there is some gene identified that links race to intelligence, I think any cultural or socioeconomic differences would much better account for the differences. Also, the data is vastly inaccurate. Many of these nations have frighteningly low literary rates, so to administer any such test would already result in a self-selective sampling pool.

[remember_Cedric]

Damn, I live on the dumbest continent...

Don't worry, be glad that you weren't influenced by the dumbos....so you're safe!

[Guo Xiang]

This is a really sweeping assessment. I would like to know out of 6.7 billion people in this world, how many have been assessed.

[jiang bao]

Studying hard helps you get good grades in school, but I am not sure that would help a cognitive test.

I guess dumb asians and uncool black dudes are like the black sheeps of their respective races. I do know some ditzy asians though

[Banh Mi]

Early study habits will help with arithmatics and recognising patterns and relationships, as opposed to sitting there watching cartoons and kicking a ball around all day.

I don't know about you, but I see plenty of stupid asian kids around. The ones with their long dyed hair and gangster wannabe attitudes.
Sure some might be pretty bright, but mindless conformity doesn't ride well with me.

[xJadedx]

This just looks like the typical case of media oversensationalizing any form of scientific research. It's just a correlational thing, and there are likely to be many confounds and limitations.

[Ren Wo Xing]

At a glance, this study must be horseshit. According to the color-code, the entire continent of Australia is, on average, midly mentally retarded with an average IQ of 60.

[Banh Mi]

At a glance, this study must be horseshit. According to the color-code, the entire continent of Australia is, on average, midly mentally retarded with an average IQ of 60.

Haha, I can vouch for that though.

[Candide]

At a glance, this study must be horseshit. According to the color-code, the entire continent of Australia is, on average, midly mentally retarded with an average IQ of 60.

They probably conducted the study of Australia on a Friday or Saturday night out, or on a train / bus full of school kids. 60 seems about right.

[forgot password]

60 might not be too farfetched, considering Terence Tao, the guy with the highest iq of the country, moved to the US. lol

[Banh Mi]

Yeah, the whole Australian population is autistic, haha.

[remember_Cedric]

By judging from the colourblend that denotes the (supposedly) intelligence.... it appear more like some prokaryote dumbo from Rainbow school having fun with Crayonla.

[Guo Xiang]

Yeah, the whole Australian population is autistic, haha.

Autistic people are actually intelligent and talented individuals.

[HuangYushi]

Are Asians the smartest group on average or do we just study harder? Some people who disagree with this finding argue Asian parents force their kids to excel academically more so than other races which is why Asians do so well in school. So what do you think?

If the said study took a bunch of Asians living in Western countries (or countries where Asians are generally a minority) and used their output (test results, etc) to extrapolate the intelligence of the entire word (hence producing the colour-coded map), then the study is not quite right.

As an educator in an Asian country with a population that is 99.99% Asian, I can certainly say that Asians are as "normal" as any other race/group. There are those who can and those who can't, be it on the academic, social or economic fronts.

btw, many Asians from my country go to Western countries for tertiary education on academic scholarships. Therefore, these individuals will also come across as "smarter" thus skewing results even further.