3 ms·

There certainly is a genetic basis for intelligence. It's not even something that's up for debate academically, there's a mountain of evidence for it. We even h

There certainly is a genetic basis for intelligence. It's not even something that's up for debate academically, there's a mountain of evidence for it. We even have identified specific genes that play roles in intelligence. Almost every human trait is partially heritable, and it would be very surprising if intelligence were an exception (considering there's considerable variation in intelligence and it's very important for fitness.) More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ

GTP 4y ago
From the Wikipedia page that you linked: "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" "explaining the similarity in IQ of closely related persons requires careful study because environmental factors may be correlated with genetic factors." "The heritability of IQ increases with the child's age and reaches a plateau at 18–20 years old, continuing at that level well into adulthood. However, poor prenatal environment, malnutrition and disease are known to have lifelong deleterious effects" "Although IQ differences between individuals have been shown to have a large hereditary component, it does not follow that disparities in IQ between groups have a genetic basis.[10][11][12][13] The scientific consensus is that genetics does not explain average differences in IQ test performance between racial groups" And it continues in a similar way, so there is some genetic basis, but at the same time epigenetic factors seem to matter a lot.
- ChadNauseam 4y ago
  No one denies that there are also environmental factors, lead is one very well-studied example.
  - tptacek 4y ago
    The issue is the misuse of the term "heritable" to mean "genetically determined". Toe count is genetically determined; virtually all people are coded for 10 toes. But they have very low heritability: variance in toes is environmental. Conversely: dress-wearing isn't at all genetically determined; anyone can put a dress on. But dress-wearing is highly heritable: the variance is (almost) entirely due to genetic differences.
tptacek 4y ago
Heritability is much more complicated than message board debates make it out to be. Here's a pretty famous Ned Block essay about it: https://bostonreview.net/articles/ned-block-race-genes-and-iq/ https://bostonreview.net/articles/ned-block-race-genes-and-i...
- ChadNauseam 4y ago
  Thanks for linking the article, it's good reading

GTP 4y ago

From the Wikipedia page that you linked: "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" "explaining the similarity in IQ of closely related persons requires careful study because environmental factors may be correlated with genetic factors." "The heritability of IQ increases with the child's age and reaches a plateau at 18–20 years old, continuing at that level well into adulthood. However, poor prenatal environment, malnutrition and disease are known to have lifelong deleterious effects" "Although IQ differences between individuals have been shown to have a large hereditary component, it does not follow that disparities in IQ between groups have a genetic basis.[10][11][12][13] The scientific consensus is that genetics does not explain average differences in IQ test performance between racial groups" And it continues in a similar way, so there is some genetic basis, but at the same time epigenetic factors seem to matter a lot.

ChadNauseam 4y ago
No one denies that there are also environmental factors, lead is one very well-studied example.
- tptacek 4y ago
  The issue is the misuse of the term "heritable" to mean "genetically determined". Toe count is genetically determined; virtually all people are coded for 10 toes. But they have very low heritability: variance in toes is environmental. Conversely: dress-wearing isn't at all genetically determined; anyone can put a dress on. But dress-wearing is highly heritable: the variance is (almost) entirely due to genetic differences.

tptacek 4y ago

Heritability is much more complicated than message board debates make it out to be. Here's a pretty famous Ned Block essay about it: https://bostonreview.net/articles/ned-block-race-genes-and-iq/ https://bostonreview.net/articles/ned-block-race-genes-and-i...

ChadNauseam 4y ago
Thanks for linking the article, it's good reading