Dutch, German are brightest, research finds

[Nerthus]

Dutch, German are brightest - claim


27 March 2006
AMSTERDAM — New research suggests German and Dutch people have more in common than cold weather and a Germanic language - the northern neighbours are also the most intelligent people in Europe.
Both countries score 107 in the league table of European IQs drawn up by Professor Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, the Times reported on Monday.

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Continued

[Menydh]

There is some controversy on the way Lynn and co-author Tatu Vanhanen handle the data:

http://www.suz.unizh.ch/volken/Thoma...althNation.pdf

They are, by the way, the same who claim that women IQs are on average lower than men's, the gap being wider on higher IQs. Also, in their study there is a significant gap between Austria and Germany, where Austria lags behind.

[Wilkolak]

http://members.shaw.ca/delajara/NationalIQs.html

http://www1.ukie.gov.pl/WWW/en.nsf/0...2004F9098?Open

Hmmmmm, so which one are we supposed to believe out of these? I go for the second one, hehehehehe. Either way, Poles score third and first respectively, and this makes me a happy man!

In all honesty, there is no way to compare "intelligence" between nations which differ in culture. Germans/Dutch have a different type of intelligence as oposed to Poles/Russians for example. Germans/Dutch hve a logical, step-by-step way of solving problems, while Poles/Russians have a way of simplifying the most complex problems to almost bone-basic form. I can't think of a better way to explain it, but one can see it in the average person of those respective countries in everyday situations, problem-solving and logical analysis.

[Siegmund]

The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in southeast Europe it is 1,312cc, the Times reported.

"The early human beings in northerly areas had to survive during cold winters when there were no plant foods and they were forced to hunt big game," Lynn said. "The main environmental influence on IQ is diet, and people in southeast Europe would have had less of the proteins, minerals and vitamins provided by meat which are essential for brain development."

I found this to be an odd finding. First, the presumably malnourished Italians are only 5 points behind the Germans and Dutch, 4 behind the Poles, and 2 behind the Swedes. I doubt very much that a narrow margin is statistically significant, or can form an adequate scientific foundation for a hypothesis (theory, actually, since there's no practical way to test it empirically) based on diet.

Second, I wonder how Professor Lynn would reconcile the results of this study with his earlier findings:

Lynn and Vanhanen prove that the widespread though rarely stated assumption of economists and political scientists—that all peoples and nations have the same average IQ—is wildly wrong. Their evidence documents substantial national differences in average intelligence. The highest average IQs are found among the Oriental countries of North East Asia (average IQ = 104), followed by the European nations (average IQ = 98), and the mainly White populations of North America and Australasia (average IQ = 98). Further behind are the countries of South and Southwest Asia, from the Middle East through Turkey to India and Malaysia (average IQ = 87), as are the countries of South East Asia and the Pacific Islands (average IQ = 86), and Latin America and the Caribbean (IQ = 85). Lowest are the countries of Africa (average IQ = 70).

Do North East Asians have an especially high percentage of protein in their diets? Sure, the wealthier ones do, but as a whole? Something doesn't seem to make sense here.

[Carnyx]

Hmm... Romania, Bulgaria, France : 94. Greece : 95. Suure... I will certainly believe that... There's no mention of race or ethnicity over here but only citizenship, so it depends who they consider as French. I doubt our IQ is 94 on average, only 4 points before Turkey...

In another research, the average French IQ was 98, ditto for Danemark and such countries. In another one, it'll be another result...

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Siegmund

I found this to be an odd finding. First, the presumably malnourished Italians are only 5 points behind the Germans and Dutch, 4 behind the Poles, and 2 behind the Swedes. I doubt very much that a narrow margin is statistically significant, or can form an adequate scientific foundation for a hypothesis (theory, actually, since there's no practical way to test it empirically) based on diet.

I do think that diet counts, though not in the way stated by Lynn and Vanwhatever.

Some months ago I read a study on the Spanish population. Both IQ and height had increased considerably in the last 6 decades. It was not the levels that mattered here, by the unusual high rates of growth in such small period of time.

The study concluded that it was due to an improved diet in the post-war generations. The Spanish Civil War, the support to the Germans, and the international blockades to Spain after the defeat and surrender of the Germans, left Spain in an extremely harsh and precarious situation.

It is, no wonder, still remembered as the "hambre de la post-guerra" (post-war famine) years, by the elder people.

[snowwolfriv]

i would not call everybody in my country smart, but i think we are a country between two big countries ( Germany and England ) and not so far France also where we have a lot of economic business with. So starting from school it is normal down here we allready learn English German and French language, the educational demands to have a higher school diploma are also too much i think here. But to get back to the point, there are smart individuals everywhere, so i don't know how they can get these statistics.

[Zrinski]

Lynn's "research" is based on outdated data for some countries and for others polluted by his political views. His "research" is crap.

[Gil]

Tampering with data, namely percentages, is easy. Heh, even Arthur Kemp does that!

[Strengthandhonour]

I noticed that according to the study the IQ can change. For example, a while back I saw one and it said the smartest Europeans was a tie between Germany,Austria and Italy all at 104

[snowwolfriv]

Originally Posted by Zrinski

Lynn's "research" is based on outdated data for some countries and for others polluted by his political views. His "research" is crap.

Yes i also believe so, because how the $#^& could he know this ?

[marius]

Originally Posted by Duchemin

Hmm... Romania, Bulgaria, France : 94. ...

Duchemin, I am not sure how much is really Science from this Lynn-Vanhanen theory and how much is "Let's adapt science to our personal beliefs". I would tend to say their publications are based mostly on the second part of my first phrase and of course, they are consumed, like hamburgers in a MacDo, by nationals of countries who believe that just blond hair must be superior to everything else. [Edit by Mynydd: stay away from senseless blonde/brunette pseudo-debates.. this is not stormfront or skadi in its nordicist days.. nor the opposite or anything related]