Jewish Intelligence

[El Ingenioso Hidalgo]

A research led by the scientist Gregory Cochran, from the University of Utah, in the United States, developed a curious theory: the intelligence of the Jews – remember that in the twentieth century, 20 percent of the Nobel prizes were given to them – is due to the natural selection of the species. According to a study that will soon appear in the “Journal of Biosocial Science”, the Tay Sachs syndrome exists between the world Jew Community (that’s about 0,5 percent of the population), but, curiously, the community only inherits one gene of the disease, which does not turn them invalids but helps in the multiplication of brain cells, developing this people’s intellectual capacity.

Your opinion...

[bocian]

I think it's bullshit.

I've met tens, if not over a hundred Jews in my life, and I can assure you, they are no more intelligent than the rest of us. However, they are usually better educated, and much better in business. Of course there are a thousand arguments as to why they would be better in business, or even better educated, but I am talking strictly intelligence, and I don't think either one has anything to do with it.

As for Nobel prizes and IQ tests, well, this goes hand in hand with their level of education--which is held in the highest regard in Jewish homes. It's simply a rarity to meet a Jew who hasn't completed some sort of higher level of schooling. Not only that, but their elementary schools are at a much higher level and the kids attending spend many long hours there... longer than our kids, that's for sure.

One thing I have noticed is that many of them are very messy, even the richest ones.

Another thing I noticed is that although they are very stingy (cheap) they almost always pay up on time, and on the agreed upon sum.

Just my personal observations...in no way scientific.

[Carnyx]

I don't think so.

[Awar]

Ah, promoting that Jews are ubermensch via backdoor pop-science.

[Theobald]

Haven't the Ashkenazi Jews the highest average IQ of any ethnic group ?

According to many studies, Ashkenazi Jews have among the highest average intelligence of any ethnic group as measured by IQ, leading East Asians, who also perform highly in IQ. This result is often used to explain some of the intellectual achievements of Ashkenazi Jews. For example, while Ashkenazi Jews represent 3% of the population of the United States, they have won 27% of the US Nobel Prizes in science, 25% of the ACM Turing Awards, and have accounted for more than half of world chess champions. Whether this difference in IQ and achievement is due entirely to a culture of study and vocational training (environment), or partially to a difference in genetic variables, is unknown and controversial.

A controversial 2005 study by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah, to be published in Cambridge's Journal of Biosocial Science, hypothesises that European Jews' history of persecution created social selection for high intelligence, leaving a positive effect on their genetic IQ.
European Jews were forbidden to work in the common jobs of the middle-ages, such as agriculture, and subsequently worked in high proportion in meritocratic, IQ-intensive jobs, such as finance and trade, some of which were forbidden to gentiles by the church. Cochran et. al point out that those who performed better raised more children to adulthood, thus passing on their (higher-IQ) genes in greater proportion than those who performed poorer. The Jews rarely married outside of their faith, which created a reproductively isolated population, allowing, according to Cochran et. al, a change in gene frequency to occur relatively rapidly.
Cochran et. al hypothesize that in this environment the social selection for intelligence was strong enough that mutations that created higher intelligence but created disease when inherited from both parents would still be selected for, which may be responsible for the unusual pattern of genetic diseases, such as Tay-sachs, that is found in the Ashkenazi population. Some of these unique diseases, for example, cause neurons to make too many connections with neighboring neurons.
Alternative explanations along these lines include, for example, that for Jews to be socially successful in their peer group, expertise at Torah study has traditionally been an advantage. Since the Enlightenment, those Jews lacking the intellectual skills for this endeavour may have been more prone to assimilate into general culture and leave the reproductively-isolated Jewish population.

Articles about this study :

The Economist

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

And more interesting, the study itself :

http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Pub...jbiosocsci.pdf

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

I don't think we should be using any sort of awards as a measurement of intelligence. Jews in Hollywood, for instance, regularily give each other endless awards. Literature is the same way. The Protocols talk about patronizing the arts and Jews certainly do this for a number of reasons. Consequently, the ones giving the award tend to be Jews and the ones receiving the awards tend to be Jews. It is all meaningless and somewhat of a joke--you know, long arms patting each other on the shoulders.

[Carnyx]

In case if we would wonder why is there so many of them in good places, we would have an answer : they're more intelligents. So they are worthy to be where they are, even if they don't have the minimum requirements for the job.

[Agrippa]

I think there were more than one moment in the history of the Jewish population in which there was strong selection for intelligence, especially social intelligence. First of all the Southern Armenids are an urban type anyway, secondly, those who went to Europe were a selected group, just think about the Chinese in Europe and the USA, they are not necessarily representative for the whole population back in the homeland.
They were most of the time working in certian areas, in a certain social position, had high pressure and mainly those Jews had good chances to survive and to get many children which were rather intelligent. Sure, its not the whole population, but I would tend to say that especially the Eastern European Jews which went to the USA are a selection of people with a higher average intelligence and instinctive knowledge of the human nature. Its a better social intelligence, ability to use the language on average which makes them something special, though the average general intelligence is rather higher too of course.
For a European farmer intelligence was just not such a major factor all the time and even if we are speaking about a relatively short time, evolution went on and was even speed up under certain circumstances in the last 2000 years. A less intelligent Jew could get much more problems for various reasons than a European individual, so I think its not that far fetched to assume a selective trend in Jews.
They represent to some degree something on average which is in many other populations just a smaller element, especially the American Jews from Eastern European extraction.

Because of the one sided selection and endogamy, certain traits and diseases are more common Jews, thats obvious, but most not be linked to the higher intelligence directly, though its interesting to think about such correlations, since its at least thinkable.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Originally Posted by El Ingenioso Hidalgo

A research led by the scientist Gregory Cochran, from the University of Utah, in the United States, developed a curious theory: the intelligence of the Jews – remember that in the twentieth century, 20 percent of the Nobel prizes were given to them – is due to the natural selection of the species. According to a study that will soon appear in the “Journal of Biosocial Science”, the Tay Sachs syndrome exists between the world Jew Community (that’s about 0,5 percent of the population), but, curiously, the community only inherits one gene of the disease, which does not turn them invalids but helps in the multiplication of brain cells, developing this people’s intellectual capacity.

Does this mean that the genetic basis for Tay Sachs has a selective advantage in the hetrozygote? If so and in the homozygote it causes death then this is what is called a genetic load.

[El Ingenioso Hidalgo]

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002812.html - an interesting site with an anthropological theory and comments...

I agree with

I've met tens, if not over a hundred Jews in my life, and I can assure you, they are no more intelligent than the rest of us. However, they are usually better educated, and much better in business. Of course there are a thousand arguments as to why they would be better in business, or even better educated, but I am talking strictly intelligence, and I don't think either one has anything to do with it.

As for Nobel prizes and IQ tests, well, this goes hand in hand with their level of education--which is held in the highest regard in Jewish homes. It's simply a rarity to meet a Jew who hasn't completed some sort of higher level of schooling. Not only that, but their elementary schools are at a much higher level and the kids attending spend many long hours there... longer than our kids, that's for sure.

One thing I have noticed is that many of them are very messy, even the richest ones.

Another thing I noticed is that although they are very stingy (cheap) they almost always pay up on time, and on the agreed upon sum.

But there are lots of circumstances: there is, as the evidence shows, biological components. But education might "wake up" Jewish abiliy!

Another thing: to have more competence in a capitalist world doesn't mean to be "better". Japanese are known for their technologies and capacity of creating new gadgets; Subsarian Africans run more ( ); I guess that there are, as we can see in psycology, lots of "intelligences" - we just have to search the most common amongst europeans. The question is: does miscigenation improves or diminuishes the intelligence of the people? The article I put in the beginning of the thread shows that yes, but nothing is definitive !