I remember hearing about a study showing some insight into the stereotype about Asian countries being good at math compared to western ones. The study was just

I remember hearing about a study showing some insight into the stereotype about Asian countries being good at math compared to western ones. The study was just your usual aptitude test for kids with math questions among other things. At the end there was also a survey. Sure enough, western kids tended to have lower math scores than Asian kids. Apparently the survey was very long and not every kid finished it. Here's the kicker: high math scores were very highly correlated with completing the survey. It's hard to draw any concrete conclusions from that, but it seems that the "Asians are good at math" trope might really just be "Asians can sit down and focus". So it definitely seems that it's possible to have a culture either nurture or hinder its inhabitants ability to focus for long periods of time. (this is where I heard about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcMKLwVlpJk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcMKLwVlpJk very interesting talk)