Re: IQ AND RACE. The taboo subject.
Ethan Vishniac (ethan@grendel.as.utexas.edu)
23 Feb 1995 15:33:35 GMT
>In article <D4Duw0.xD@eskimo.com>, lajoie@eskimo.com (Stephen Lajoie) writes:
>
>>Accept the obvious. Less intelligent people make less money than smart
>>people.
I think this discussion is biologically naive.
First, having `people skills' (which is how this started) is linked
(IMHO) to being smarter than average. However, it's obviously
not the same thing. It takes some brains, plus a number of
other attributes, to develop and use the ability to get along with
other people and ensure yourself a comfortable place in society.
If evolution selects for `people skills' then it will also select
for intelligence. Taking the long view, it's perfectly possible
for human intelligence to be the consequence of a continued
selection for `people skills' (or australopithecine skills). This
is not in contradiction with the difficulty some exceptionally
smart people have in getting on in human society.
Second, natural selection doesn't care how much money you
make. It only cares how many children you have (well, successful
children, children who go on to have other children).
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