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Dumb question but can someone explain why we think that (1) education improves intelligence, rather than the alternative conclusion that (2) the intelligent are
by zephyr-wind 5y ago
Dumb question but can someone explain why we think that (1) education improves intelligence, rather than the alternative conclusion that (2) the intelligent are more inclined to stay in education institutions longer?
- olifante 5y agoRead the article, that’s one of the first possible issues they address.
- pitched 5y agoThey did point that out in the abstract. The data sources being school policy changes and school-age cutoffs does probably help a lot to prove the direction though.
- ploum 5y agoWhile the question is not dumb, the answer is in the very first sentence of the link. So aking the question here is, yes, dumb. I know nobody read the links anymore and react only to the title but, seriously, that’s worrying to not even try when you have a question. Writing the question to ask probably took 10 times more than clicking on the link and reading the first sentence.
- zephyr-wind 5y ago"Read the paper" isn't exactly the answer I'm looking for, but thanks for trying. Only upon reading the paper do you discover that a "school-age cutoff", much like the famous hockey player study cited by Gladwell in Outliers, is one of the ways for controlling the selection effect I mention.
- skybrian 5y agoThere's no reason it can't be both at the same time: IQ helps for education and education helps raise IQ. Since they are controlling for the other effects, that means this analysis doesn't measure them. (Assuming, that is, the controls worked.)