3 ms·

It would be surprising (to me, anyway) if the case is that the low cognitive function of war-affected Syrian youths is the cause of their own poverty.

dcolkitt 7y ago
Intelligence is highly hereditable[1]. Intelligence is also highly correlated with earning potential, in middle-income Western Asian nations[2]. (It's correlated everywhere, but I cite that specifically because the study in the link was carried out in Jordan.) Therefore it's highly likely that high IQ refugee children, have high IQ refugee parents, who are earning a higher household income after they resettle into their new country. For example a doctor from Syria could likely retrain as a doctor in Jordan. Statistically speaking his kids are probably more intelligent than someone who was a janitor in Syria. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#cite_note-6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#cite_note-6 [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289615000446 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01602...
- claudiawerner 7y ago
  Interesting. A possibly relevant point from the Wikipedia article: >A common error is to assume that a heritability figure is necessarily unchangeable. The value of heritability can change if the impact of environment (or of genes) in the population is substantially altered.[15] If the environmental variation encountered by different individuals increases, then the heritability figure would decrease. On the other hand, if everyone had the same environment, then heritability would be 100%. The population in developing nations often has more diverse environments than in developed nations.[citation needed] This would mean that heritability figures would be lower in developing nations. Another example is phenylketonuria which previously caused mental retardation for everyone who had this genetic disorder and thus had a heritability of 100%. Today, this can be prevented by following a modified diet, resulting in a lowered heritability.
- throwlaplace 7y ago
  Let's talk about treatment effect (or just plain old Occam's razor): what is the most likely cause statistically significant cognitive function decline in this treatment group.
BurningFrog 7y ago
I admit I didn't read the article, and the war angle does change a lot. Still, unless you have zero influence on your circumstances, I would always expect the clever to end up in better situations than the less gifted.

dcolkitt 7y ago

Intelligence is highly hereditable[1]. Intelligence is also highly correlated with earning potential, in middle-income Western Asian nations[2]. (It's correlated everywhere, but I cite that specifically because the study in the link was carried out in Jordan.) Therefore it's highly likely that high IQ refugee children, have high IQ refugee parents, who are earning a higher household income after they resettle into their new country. For example a doctor from Syria could likely retrain as a doctor in Jordan. Statistically speaking his kids are probably more intelligent than someone who was a janitor in Syria. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#cite_note-6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ#cite_note-6 [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289615000446 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01602...

claudiawerner 7y ago
Interesting. A possibly relevant point from the Wikipedia article: >A common error is to assume that a heritability figure is necessarily unchangeable. The value of heritability can change if the impact of environment (or of genes) in the population is substantially altered.[15] If the environmental variation encountered by different individuals increases, then the heritability figure would decrease. On the other hand, if everyone had the same environment, then heritability would be 100%. The population in developing nations often has more diverse environments than in developed nations.[citation needed] This would mean that heritability figures would be lower in developing nations. Another example is phenylketonuria which previously caused mental retardation for everyone who had this genetic disorder and thus had a heritability of 100%. Today, this can be prevented by following a modified diet, resulting in a lowered heritability.
throwlaplace 7y ago
Let's talk about treatment effect (or just plain old Occam's razor): what is the most likely cause statistically significant cognitive function decline in this treatment group.

BurningFrog 7y ago

I admit I didn't read the article, and the war angle does change a lot. Still, unless you have zero influence on your circumstances, I would always expect the clever to end up in better situations than the less gifted.