Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence

Last updated

Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence, often colloquially referred to as "Jewish genius", [1] [2] is the stereotype [3] that Ashkenazi Jews tend to have a higher intelligence than other ethnic groups.

Contents

Background

Measures of intelligence often exhibit cultural bias. [4]

In response to controversy sparked by the publication of The Bell Curve in 1994, a 1995 task force by the American Psychological Association found that racial and ethnic groups often have just as much or more variability of intelligence test performance within groups than between groups. [5]

Over the course of subsequent decades, a consensus has emerged in the scientific community that ethnic or racial differences in average intelligence test performance are not due to genetic differences between these groups. [6] [7] [8] Growing evidence indicates that sociocultural factors explain such differences. [9] [10]

Analysis

Jewish success in many intellectual fields often prompts the stereotype. Many who argue for Jewish intelligence have pointed out the List of Jewish Nobel laureates amassing 22% of Nobel Prizes across all scientific categories while Jewish people comprise only 0.2% of global population at roughly 14 million people. [11] [12] Even a small increase in average IQ would represent significant representation of outliers. [11] One psychologist, commenting on the state of research, says "it is fair to say that most, though not all, studies give Ashkenazi descendants a higher IQ than non-Jewish whites", but argues that the effect size remains contentious and unknown. [11] Many studies in the literature are often done by disreputable researchers, which may make assessing the size of difference difficult. [11]

Sander Gilman argues that implicit assumptions of Jewish intelligence may help fuel fear and common stereotypes of Jews controlling higher professions such as law. [3]

Selected studies

A 2004 paper by self-professed "scientific racist" Richard Lynn found that American Jews obtained significantly higher verbal IQ scores than the average white gentile, and even higher scores compared to black peoples. [13] [a]

Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence

A controversial paper was published in 2006 called "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" proposed that Ashkenazi Jews had a biological basis for intelligence. [15] The paper was authored by three authors who have been linked to theories described as "scientific racism", [16] The paper claimed that Ashkenazi Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence the basis of inherited diseases, selective pressure from the peculiar economic situation of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages, and supposed lack of intermarriage with outside groups. This paper suggested that the average IQ score of Ashkenazi Jews fall in a range of 108–115 under some studies, which would be significantly higher than that of any other ethnic group in the world. [15] [17] [18] The paper received widespread coverage in media. [19] [20] [21]

The paper attracted significant criticism and controversy. Steven Pinker described the paper's central theory as "tentative", stating that it "could turn out to be mistaken" and cautioning that "any characterization of Jews in biological terms smacks of Nazi pseudoscience". [22] David Reich has argued that contrary to selective pressure theory, some of the inherited diseases that Ashkenazi Jews suffer may be more likely due to genetic drift. Adam Rutherford argues that some of these diseases may have been commonplace during the Middle Ages, and that genetic studies may indicate the bottleneck that caused the accumulation of disease occurred before the Medieval period. [23] [24] Sander Gilman has argued it is problematic to paint Jews with tropes of being physically enfeebled geniuses, with the idea of hereditary illnesses in Ashkenazi Jews being due to consanguinity, having been previously suggested by 19th century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. [25]

Bret Stephens cited the study in a The New York Times op-ed, suggesting that Jewish genius is innate to culture instead of biology, which led to an editor's note apologizing for even using the study. [26] [11] [27] Adam Shapiro has argued that while praising Jewish genius may seem to combat antisemitism, Stephens was actually attempting to co-opt White supremacy ideals by using race science. [28] Shapiro and other commentators also argue that using intelligence tests to divide and describe specific ethnic groups, even when to prove superiority of one group, is still linked to eugenics. [28] [29]

Polygenic scores

A controversial paper published in 2019 claimed that a Jewish sample had higher polygenic scores for educational attainment and cognitive ability than other religious groups. [30] [31]

According to Evan Charney, this and similar studies fall prey to the same methodological fallacies as earlier candidate gene studies, which were "studying pure noise". [31]

This study was further rebutted by researchers who showed that the Jewish genotypic advantage is far greater than predicted by the phenotypic advantage. [32] The relatively invariant nature of polygenic scores cannot account for changes in Jewish intellectual achievement over time. [33]

Sociological explanations

Bret Stephens has opined in The New York Times that the intellectual rigor of religious studies, especially in the context of constant upheaval, has allowed intellectual flexibility. [26] Malcolm Gladwell similarly argues in Outliers that the rigorous Talmud schools may foster intellectualism and perseverance in Jewish students. [34]

Criticism

Some have argued that the elevation of Jewish intelligence based on both biology or sociology may feed into model minority myths that harm both Jewish and black peoples. [11] Sander Gilman has argued that racializing intelligence is particularly problematic for Jews as it may feed into multiple antisemitic tropes and other categorization of a vast group of people. [25] Gilman also argued that pointing out identity when attributing success is only helpful for tribalism, and does nothing to point out social situations that allow such success to occur. [25] Matt Yglesias has written that the idea is used to legitimise scientific racism, including that the idea that Black people in particular are genetically inferior. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Jensen</span> Professor of educational psychology (1923–2012)

Arthur Robert Jensen was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, the study of how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intelligence quotient</span> Score from a test designed to assess intelligence

An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. Originally, IQ was a score obtained by dividing a person's mental age score, obtained by administering an intelligence test, by the person's chronological age, both expressed in terms of years and months. The resulting fraction (quotient) was multiplied by 100 to obtain the IQ score. For modern IQ tests, the raw score is transformed to a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. This results in approximately two-thirds of the population scoring between IQ 85 and IQ 115 and about 2 percent each above 130 and below 70.

Discussions of race and intelligence – specifically regarding claims of differences in intelligence along racial lines – have appeared in both popular science and academic research since the modern concept of race was first introduced. With the inception of IQ testing in the early 20th century, differences in average test performance between racial groups have been observed, though these differences have fluctuated and in many cases steadily decreased over time. Complicating the issue, modern science has concluded that race is a socially constructed phenomenon rather than a biological reality, and there exist various conflicting definitions of intelligence. In particular, the validity of IQ testing as a metric for human intelligence is disputed. Today, the scientific consensus is that genetics does not explain differences in IQ test performance between groups, and that observed differences are environmental in origin.

<i>The Bell Curve</i> 1994 book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life is a 1994 book by the psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and the political scientist Charles Murray in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influenced by both inherited and environmental factors and that it is a better predictor of many personal outcomes, including financial income, job performance, birth out of wedlock, and involvement in crime than are an individual's parental socioeconomic status. They also argue that those with high intelligence, the "cognitive elite", are becoming separated from those of average and below-average intelligence, and that this separation is a source of social division within the United States.

<i>The Mismeasure of Man</i> 1981 book by Stephen Jay Gould

The Mismeasure of Man is a 1981 book by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The book is both a history and critique of the statistical methods and cultural motivations underlying biological determinism, the belief that "the social and economic differences between human groups—primarily races, classes, and sexes—arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology".

Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that the human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "races", and that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racial discrimination, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Before the mid-20th century, scientific racism was accepted throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically separate groups, along with the assignment of particular physical and mental characteristics to these groups through constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, is referred to as racialism, race realism, or race science by those who support these ideas. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Lynn</span> British psychologist noted for his views on race and intelligence (1930–2023)

Richard Lynn was a controversial English psychologist and self-described "scientific racist" who advocated for a genetic relationship between race and intelligence. He was the editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly, a white supremacist journal. He was lecturer in psychology at the University of Exeter and professor of psychology at the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, and at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. Lynn was a professor emeritus of psychology at Ulster University, but had the title withdrawn by the university in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Murray (political scientist)</span> American political scientist (born 1943)

Charles Alan Murray is an American political scientist. He is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

Spearman's hypothesis has two formulations. The original formulation was that the magnitudes of the black-white differences on tests of cognitive ability positively correlate with the tests' g-loading. The subsequent formulation was that the magnitude of the black-white difference on tests of cognitive ability is entirely or mainly a function of the extent to which a test measures general mental ability, or g.

<i>The Culture of Critique series</i> Trilogy of books by Kevin MacDonald

The Culture of Critique series is a trilogy of books by Kevin B. MacDonald that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. MacDonald, a white supremacist and retired professor of evolutionary psychology, claims that evolutionary psychology provides the motivations behind Jewish group behavior and culture. Through the series, MacDonald asserts that Jews as a group have biologically evolved to be highly ethnocentric and hostile to the interests of white people. He asserts Jewish behavior and culture are central causes of antisemitism, and promotes conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish control and influence in government policy and political movements.

Gregory M. Cochran is an American anthropologist and author who argues that cultural innovation resulted in new and constantly shifting selection pressures for genetic change, thereby accelerating human evolution and divergence between human races. From 2004 to 2015, he was a research associate at the anthropology department at the University of Utah. He is co-author of the book The 10,000 Year Explosion.

Hereditarianism is the research program according to which heredity plays a central role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality. Hereditarians believe in the power of genetic influences to explain human behavior and [[eugenics|solve human social-political problems.]] They stress the value of evolutionary explanations in all areas of the human sciences.

Research on the heritability of IQ inquires into the degree of variation in IQ within a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population. There has been significant controversy in the academic community about the heritability of IQ since research on the issue began in the late nineteenth century. Intelligence in the normal range is a polygenic trait, meaning that it is influenced by more than one gene, and in the case of intelligence at least 500 genes. Further, explaining the similarity in IQ of closely related persons requires careful study because environmental factors may be correlated with genetic factors.

Henry Cosad Harpending was an American anthropologist, population geneticist, and writer. He was a distinguished professor at the University of Utah, and formerly taught at Penn State and the University of New Mexico. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is known for the book The 10,000 Year Explosion, which he co-authored with Gregory Cochran.

The medical genetics of Jews have been studied to identify and prevent some rare genetic diseases that, while still rare, are more common than average among people of Jewish descent. There are several autosomal recessive genetic disorders that are more common than average in ethnically Jewish populations, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, because of relatively recent population bottlenecks and because of consanguineous marriage. These two phenomena reduce genetic diversity and raise the chance that two parents will carry a mutation in the same gene and pass on both mutations to a child.

Genetic studies of Jews are part of the population genetics discipline and are used to analyze the ancestry of Jewish populations, complementing research in other fields such as history, linguistics, archaeology, and paleontology. These studies investigate the origins of various Jewish ethnic divisions. In particular, they examine whether there is a common genetic heritage among them. The medical genetics of Jews are studied for population-specific diseases.

The history of the race and intelligence controversy concerns the historical development of a debate about possible explanations of group differences encountered in the study of race and intelligence. Since the beginning of IQ testing around the time of World War I, there have been observed differences between the average scores of different population groups, and there have been debates over whether this is mainly due to environmental and cultural factors, or mainly due to some as yet undiscovered genetic factor, or whether such a dichotomy between environmental and genetic factors is the appropriate framing of the debate. Today, the scientific consensus is that genetics does not explain differences in IQ test performance between racial groups.

Advances in knowledge about Tay–Sachs disease have stimulated debate about the proper scope of genetic testing, and the accuracy of characterizing diseases as specific to one ethnicity. Jewish communities have been in the forefront of genetic screening and counseling for this disease.

Jensenism is a term coined by New York Times writer Lee Edson. Named after educational psychologist Arthur Jensen, it was originally defined as "the theory that IQ is largely determined by the genes". The term was coined after Jensen published the article "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" in the Harvard Educational Review in 1969. It has since been included in several dictionaries.

In the late 19th century, amid attempts to apply science to notions of race, some advocates of Zionism sought to reformulate conceptions of Jewishness in terms of racial identity and the "race science" of the time. They believed that this concept would allow them to build a new framework for collective Jewish identity, and thought that biology might provide "proof" for the "ethnonational myth of common descent" from the biblical land of Israel. Countering antisemitic claims that Jews were both aliens and a racially inferior people who needed to be segregated or expelled, these Zionists drew on and appropriated elements from various race theories, to argue that only a Jewish national home could enable the physical regeneration of the Jewish people and a renaissance of pride in their ancient cultural traditions.

References

  1. ↑ Murray, Charles (2007-04-01). "Jewish Genius". Commentary. Archived from the original on 2018-10-27. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  2. ↑ Valk, Jonathan (2015-06-14). "Is there really such a thing as Jewish genius?". haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  3. 1 2 Smith, Dinitia (1998-11-21). "How Even 'Good' Stereotypes Can Be Bad; Myriad Subjects With a Common Thread: The Images We Build to Define Ourselves". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  4. ↑ Weiner, Irving, ed. (2012-09-26). "Bias in Psychological Assessment". Handbook of Psychology, Second Edition (1 ed.). Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781118133880.hop210004. ISBN   978-0-470-61904-9.
  5. ↑ Neisser, Ulric; Boodoo, Gwyneth; Bouchard, Thomas J.; Boykin, A. Wade; Brody, Nathan; Ceci, Stephen J.; Halpern, Diane F.; Loehlin, John C.; Perloff, Robert; Sternberg, Robert J.; Urbina, Susana (February 1996). "Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns". American Psychologist. 51 (2): 77–101. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.77. ISSN   1935-990X.
  6. ↑ Bird, Kevin; Jackson, John P.; Winston, Andrew S. (2024). "Confronting Scientific Racism in Psychology: Lessons from Evolutionary Biology and Genetics". American Psychologist. 79 (4): 497–508. doi:10.1037/amp0001228. PMID   39037836. Recent articles claim that the folk categories of race are genetically meaningful divisions, and that evolved genetic differences among races and nations are important for explaining immutable differences in cognitive ability, educational attainment, crime, sexual behavior, and wealth; all claims that are opposed by a strong scientific consensus to the contrary. ... Despite the veneer of modern science, RHR [racial hereditarian research] psychologists' recent efforts merely repeat discredited racist ideas of a century ago. The issue is truly one of scientific standards; if psychology embraced the scientific practices of evolutionary biology and genetics, current forms of RHR would not be publishable in reputable scholarly journals.
  7. ↑ Birney, Ewan; Raff, Jennifer; Rutherford, Adam; Scally, Aylwyn (24 October 2019). "Race, genetics and pseudoscience: an explainer". 'Human biodiversity' proponents sometimes assert that alleged differences in the mean value of IQ when measured in different populations – such as the claim that IQ in some sub-Saharan African countries is measurably lower than in European countries – are caused by genetic variation, and thus are inherent. The purported genetic differences involved are usually attributed to recent natural selection and adaptation to different environments or conditions. Often there are associated stories about the causes of this selection, for example that early humans outside Africa faced a more challenging struggle for survival, or that via historical persecution and restriction of professional endeavours, Ashkenazi Jews harbour genes selected for intellectual and financial success. Such tales, and the claims about the genetic basis for population differences, are not scientifically supported.
  8. ↑ Ceci, Stephen; Williams, Wendy M. (2009). "Should scientists study race and IQ? YES: The scientific truth must be pursued". Nature. 457 (7231): 788–789. doi:10.1038/457788a. PMID   19212385. here is an emerging consensus about racial and gender equality in genetic determinants of intelligence; most researchers, including ourselves, agree that genes do not explain between-group differences.
  9. ↑ Nisbett, Richard E.; Aronson, Joshua; Blair, Clancy; Dickens, William; Flynn, James; Halpern, Diane F.; Turkheimer, Eric (2012). "Group differences in IQ are best understood as environmental in origin". American Psychologist. 67 (6): 503–504. doi:10.1037/a0029772. ISSN   0003-066X. PMID   22963427.
  10. ↑ Kaplan, Jonathan Michael (January 2015). "Race, IQ, and the search for statistical signals associated with so-called "X"-factors: environments, racism, and the "hereditarian hypothesis"". Biology & Philosophy. 30 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1007/s10539-014-9428-0. ISSN   0169-3867. S2CID   85351431.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Yglesias, Matthew (2019-12-30). "The controversy over Bret Stephens's Jewish genius column, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
  12. ↑ Efron, Noah (21 October 2013). "The Real Reason Why Jews Win So Many Nobel Prizes". Haaretz.
  13. ↑ Lynn, Richard (2004-01-01). "The intelligence of American Jews". Personality and Individual Differences. 36 (1): 201–206. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00079-5. ISSN   0191-8869.
  14. ↑ McFarling, Usha Lee (2024-06-20). "Coalition wages campaign for retractions of Richard Lynn's racist journal articles". STAT. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  15. 1 2 Cochran, Gregory; Hardy, Jason; Harpending, Henry (September 2006). "Natural History of Ashkenazi intelligence". Journal of Biosocial Science. 38 (5): 659–693. doi:10.1017/S0021932005027069. ISSN   1469-7599. PMID   16867211. Archived from the original on 2018-08-21.
  16. ↑ "Henry Harpending". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  17. ↑ Lynn, Richard; Longley, David (2006-11-01). "On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain". Intelligence. 34 (6): 541–547. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.03.011. ISSN   0160-2896. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10.
  18. ↑ "Study: Ashkenazi Jews Smartest on Earth, Partly Due to Diseases". Israel National News. Archived from the original on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  19. ↑ Senior, Jennifer (2005-10-14). "Are Jews Smarter? What Genetic Science Tells Us". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  20. ↑ "Natural genius?". The Economist. ISSN   0013-0613 . Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  21. ↑ Wade, Nicholas (2005-06-03). "Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  22. ↑ "Groups and Genes". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  23. ↑ Slatkin, Montgomery (August 2004). "A Population-Genetic Test of Founder Effects and Implications for Ashkenazi Jewish Diseases". American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (2): 282–293. doi:10.1086/423146. ISSN   0002-9297. PMC   1216062 . PMID   15208782.
  24. ↑ Whittle, Patrick (2022-12-13). "Part II: Jewish skeletal remains in a Norwich well — Do they undermine the controversial theory of 'Jewish IQ'?". Genetic Literacy Project. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  25. 1 2 3 Gilman, Sander L. (2008). "Are Jews Smarter Than Everyone Else?". Mens Sana Monographs. 6 (1): 41–47. doi: 10.4103/0973-1229.34526 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISSN   0973-1229. PMC   3190562 . PMID   22013349.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
  26. 1 2 Stephens, Bret (2019-12-28). "Opinion | The Secrets of Jewish Genius". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-07-14.
  27. ↑ "Outcry after NYT writer appears to argue Ashkenazi Jews are genetically smarter". The Times of Israel . 29 December 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  28. 1 2 "The Dangerous Resurgence in Race Science". American Scientist. 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
  29. ↑ Helmore, Edward (2019-12-28). "New York Times columnist accused of eugenics over piece on Jewish intelligence". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-08-04.
  30. ↑ Dunkel, Curtis; Woodley of Menie, Michael Anthony; Pallesen, Jonatan; Kirkegaard, Emil O. W. (2019-01-01). "Polygenic Scores Mediate the Jewish Phenotypic Advantage in Educational Attainment and Cognitive Ability Compared With Catholics and Lutherans". Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences . 13 (4): 366–375. doi: 10.1037/ebs0000158 .
  31. 1 2 Charney, Evan (2022). "The "Golden Age" of Behavior Genetics?" (PDF). Perspectives on Psychological Science. 17 (4): 1188–1210. doi:10.1177/17456916211041602. PMID   35180032. As in the CGA study era, current predictive claims, if correct, have profound social implications. (...) According to Dunkel et al. (2019), Jews have higher PRSs for general intelligence than Catholics and Lutherans. (...) In a blunt assessment of CGA studies, Keller commented, 'This should be a real cautionary tale. How on Earth could we have spent 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars studying pure noise?' (citation elided). The rise of the new golden age from the ashes of CGA studies has occurred at a precipitous rate. Have the lessons of the 'cautionary tale' been taken to heart? To a large extent, they have not. Some of the same problems that beset CGA studies have reappeared in new forms, together with a host of new difficulties related to new methods, new sources of data, and a unique focal point (sizable segments of the human genome, as opposed to individual genes). (...) There is little evidence that current approaches have either advanced our knowledge of how genes contribute to complex behaviors or given us new tools to predict them.
  32. ↑ Panofsky, Aaron; Dasgupta, Kushan; Iturriaga, Nicole (2020-09-28). "How White nationalists mobilize genetics From genetic ancestry and human biodiversity to counterscience and metapolitics". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 175 (2): 387–398. doi:10.1002/ajpa.24150. PMC   9909835 . PMID   32986847. This was rebutted by a group of sociogenomics researchers who showed that given the polygenic score of the Jewish group their IQ should actually be four standard deviations above non-Jews, not slightly above average as it is
  33. ↑ Jordan, A. Chad; Brym, Robert (2020-09-28). "Jewish Intellectual Exceptionalism? Ethnic Representation at the University of Toronto Medical School". Contemporary Jewry. 40 (3): 389–390. doi:10.1007/s12397-020-09344-0. We contend that the main problem with both the genetic and the cultural theories is their inability to explain variation in Jewish intellectual attainment over time. Instead of speculating about the proximate causal effects of nearly invariant traits like nebulous polygenic scores and ancient cultural practices on variation in the intellectual performance of Jews, we identify proximate sociological circumstances that are plausibly associated with intellectual attainment.
  34. ↑ Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers: the story of success (1st ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN   978-0-316-01792-3.

Further reading

Notes

  1. ↑ Richard Lynn's work has been called to retraction citing “distortions and misrepresentations of the data” that “constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with the scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity", for years. [14]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.