12 ms·

IQ tests correlate with many real world outcomes, including: * income * marriage stability * going to prison or not * job performance to name a few The co

IQ tests correlate with many real world outcomes, including: * income * marriage stability * going to prison or not * job performance to name a few The correlation for these things is of course is not 1.0, but its not negligible either. However that isn't really the use, the use is for identifying social/environmental/genetic things that are effecting a populations intelligence. Exactly the sort of thing this article is looking at.

soared 4y ago
I don’t know whether it’s true but I’d bet money that parents net worth, avg income, or zip code are even better predictor of those outcomes.
- mrandish 4y ago
  The problem is that IQ has a large hereditary component so all of the measures will tend to move together.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > I don’t know whether it’s true but I’d bet money that parents net worth, avg income, or zip code are even better predictor of those outcomes. IQ correlates with them after controlling for those factors (and parental wealth, at least, does too, controlling for the others and IQ). Not sure if the others explain anything not explained by parental wealth and IQ, but probably a little bit. (But, e.g., zip code will overlap a lot with both wealth and the non-wealth variation in IQ, the latter since geography will predict some environmental issues known to adversely impact IQ.)
  - drewcoo 4y ago
    After controlling for what are probably the most important factors, there's a correlation in something. Is that even meaningful?
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > After controlling for what are probably the most important factors, there's a correlation in something. Is that even meaningful? To the extent understanding the dynamics of the effect is “even meaningful”, yes, understanding the contributing factors other than the most important is likewise meaningful.

12 ms·

IQ tests correlate with many real world outcomes, including: * income * marriage stability * going to prison or not * job performance to name a few The co

by jackmott42 4y ago

soared 4y ago
I don’t know whether it’s true but I’d bet money that parents net worth, avg income, or zip code are even better predictor of those outcomes.
- mrandish 4y ago
  The problem is that IQ has a large hereditary component so all of the measures will tend to move together.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > I don’t know whether it’s true but I’d bet money that parents net worth, avg income, or zip code are even better predictor of those outcomes. IQ correlates with them after controlling for those factors (and parental wealth, at least, does too, controlling for the others and IQ). Not sure if the others explain anything not explained by parental wealth and IQ, but probably a little bit. (But, e.g., zip code will overlap a lot with both wealth and the non-wealth variation in IQ, the latter since geography will predict some environmental issues known to adversely impact IQ.)
  - drewcoo 4y ago
    After controlling for what are probably the most important factors, there's a correlation in something. Is that even meaningful?
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > After controlling for what are probably the most important factors, there's a correlation in something. Is that even meaningful? To the extent understanding the dynamics of the effect is “even meaningful”, yes, understanding the contributing factors other than the most important is likewise meaningful.