Thursday, February 7, 2019

FT - Some are born great? No, with the right start in life we all have the same chance to succeed

Professor Hans Eysenck, who wrote the book, The Inequality of Man, said his research showed that the upper classes were more intelligent than the lower classes and this was the reason for their success. The ruling class loved him and he was esteemed as a world leading psychologist and scientist, but it turns out he was rather stupid, for he refused to believe that environment played any role whatsoever in the development of inteligence.  He just made an assumption that his I.Q tests measured inherited intiligence. But now scientists have isolated the genes for intelligence and found that there is no difference, on average, in I.Q. between the classes.

Also, Prof. Reuven Feuerstein's research showed that Hans Eysenck was completely wrong after he developed toys for children with low I.Q. which got them thinking as they played with them, which developed their brains. Some were even imbeciles who couldn't feed or clothe themselves, but they grew up into normal healthy adults. Sadly, the scientific community at the time ignored the work of Reuven Feuerstein, but praised Hans Eysenck instead. 

Hans Eysenck also argued that the differences in I.Q. between the races was due only to genes, not the environment, but now new research shows he was wrong on this too.

When studying healthy babies from around the world - who were getting nutritious food and good mothering - scientists found no difference, on average, in their emotional and intellectual development (I.Q).


Yet there is something remarkable about Isaac. His early progress through life has helped to set the standard for other children across the world. Isaac is one of more than 1,300 children in five countries – Brazil, India, Italy, Kenya and the UK – whose growth and neurodevelopment has been tracked and compared from the earliest days in the womb until the age of two.

Led by a team at the University of Oxford, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project is set to have a profound impact on the way we view, feed and educate our children. It has shown for the first time that children are born physically and intellectually equal, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Given good living conditions, good food and education, babies thrive, wherever they live and whatever the colour of their skin.


There’s still a substantial body of opinion out there in both the scientific and lay communities who genuinely believe that intelligence is predominantly determined by genes and the environment that you’re living in and that your parents and grandparents were living in and their nutritional and health status are not relevant,” says Prof Kennedy. “Well, that’s clearly not the case.”

FT - Some are born great? No, with the right start in life we all have the same chance to succeed


Prof. Reuven Feuerstein:  The man who can work wonders

It’s better to be born rich than gifted 

The least-gifted children of high-income parents graduate from college at higher rates than the most gifted children of low-income parents.


If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.

The most successful people are not the most talented, just the luckiest, a new computer model of wealth creation confirms. Taking that into account can maximize return on many kinds of investment.


A new study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, found no link between genetics and the occurrence of depressive symptoms. Although previous researchers had theorized that genetics may interact with stressful life events to cause depression, the current data suggested otherwise.

The authors suggest that research funding would be better served focusing on the known, strong causes of depression, such as life stressors and trauma, than on trying to find a genotype with an effect so small as to be undetectable in 38,000 people.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/04/researchers-disprove-link-genetics-depression/

The observer (life) creates the universe, but the universe creates the observer (life); the mind appears to be just as mysterious. 

11 comments:

Andrew Anderson said...

Then note Bible is non-racist and nor does it harp very much on homosexuality as opposed to adultery, incest, and fornication in general.

Otoh, it forbids usury from fellow countrymen and excessive property rights.

So what's not to like? That God get's angry over the mistreatment of widows, orphans and aliens? And child sacrifice?

Wouldn't you?

Joe said...

"attainment of neurodevelopmental milestones and associated behaviours “are likely innate and universal”"
Sure, but that's an extremely low bar.
So no, we're not all born equal. Sure, everyone might have the potential to reach a "normal" level, but there'll still be wide variations. The highest heights of achievement almost certainly are not attainable by everyone. Not everyone has the potential to be Einstein. Just like not everyone has the potential to perform at the same level as a Lebron James, or a Mozart. Some people just have freakish talent, apparently from nowhere, like child prodigies.

Could Einstein or Gauss's abilities be purely environmental? I suppose anything is possible, but it's really a silly argument imo. With over 500 genes implicated in intelligence, it'd really be an extraordinarily remarkable thing if everyone's particular mixture of genes resulted in the same exact potential with no variation.
The genetic lottery is real. As is the environmental lottery.

Kaivey said...

No, were are not born equal, but on average, the lower classes are as bright as the higher classes, and on average, no race is brighter than another trace. Within populations, of course there are differences, but not, on average, between the classes or races. I'm going to have some fun with this on the white supremacist sites.

Kaivey said...

You see, in my article, I said 'on average' but you jumped to wrong conclusion, and geniuses are well outside the averages, hardy making any difference to the average.

Kaivey said...

Actually, i might have read the the FT article incorrectly, as I assumed they meant averages, and that they were only looking at was the average difference between the classes, after all, they have isolated the genes for intelligence and they can measure who had the most of them, and this is how they found out that the lower classes were just as bright, on average, as the higher classes.

The world is a mysterious place. where life, the observer, creates the universe, but it is the universe which creates life, the observer. The human mind is obviously just as mysterious.

S400 said...

Mozart was pushed hard by his father from very early age.

S400 said...

And one can of course make the assumption that child prodigies just happens to stumble on a subject or skill they are fond of and intrested in and fit for while others don’t..

S400 said...

Not uncommon that child prodigies in music drop off their music carrear as they get older as others who have not been considered child prodigies are catching up with them. The pedestal they’ve been sitting on as a child and gotten worshiped by adults tend to get smaller as the get older and many cannot handlet that they’ve become average as an adult where the worshippers has disappeared.

Joe said...

I'm not interested in differences between races. I'm thinking even just differences between people growing up in the same household who are closely genetically related, we see different abilities.

"..and one can of course make the assumption that child prodigies just happens to stumble on a subject or skill they or skill they are fond of and intrested in and fit for while others don’t.. "
Exactly, but *why* are they fond, interested, or just a particularly good fit for something? That's the mystery. I'm saying they got a particular confluence of various random factors, genetic and environmental, that happen to produce interesting talents.

All of human behavior has an ultimate genetic basis. Not that music or math itself has a genetic basis directly, but clearly the sense of hearing and cognitive ability do. But genes trump environment. As soon as the environment isn't compatible with the genes, the organism dies. Or if the proper genetic basis isn't there, the environment isn't relevant, like how chimps and dogs don't talk. Or how I can't be a professional athlete, no matter the training.

We need to stop putting value judgements on this stuff. Just because you have a high iq or some other extraordinary ability doesn't make you more valuable as a human. It's not like you get to take credit for having a high iq, it's nothing you personally did to get it. Being proud to have a high iq is a bit like being proud of being white. It's rolls of the dice.

And it doesn't make you a good person, I'm positive Dick Cheney has an above average iq, and he's a mass murderer.

Kaivey said...

The new science is really in epigenetics, known as gene expression. The environment programs our genes. It's pretty powerful. All ants in a colony come from the same queen ant and are genetically very similar, yet there are soldiers, common labourers, and queens, so what makes them so different - environmental factors?

Kaivey said...

I doubt if the researchers are saying we are born a black slate, but rather, that the differences between us are much narrower when we all get a good start in life.