Further to “Tom Bethell on the ‘Troublesome Inheritance’ controversy: Evolution and race”:
Move over, obesity gene, violence gene, and big spender gene:
The six-point IQ gap is an extrapolation, since the cognitive tests did not measure general intelligence directly. But if it is correct, variation in the KL gene could account for as much as 3% of the variation of IQ in the general population (or, rather, in the population from which the researchers’ samples were drawn, namely white Americans). In comparison, the previous record-holders, HMGA2 and NPTN, each account for only half a percent of that variation.
None of which is statistically significant.
The neo-Darwinian concept of a “gene” that these people who want to “revive the conversation about race” adhere to is obsolete anyway. It would be like “reviving” the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. Maybe the real intelligence test should be: Do you realize that it makes no sense to be doing this?
Intelligence means the ability to process information, and an information theory explanation is far more likely to be useful, especially in medicine. Doctors must treat developmental delay, brain damage, or dementia, and increasing the person’s ability to process information is the logical treatment.
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