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Did someone actually do this experiment? Maybe there’s some data from the London Blitz?
by frutiger 2y ago
Did someone actually do this experiment? Maybe there’s some data from the London Blitz?
- 0_____0 2y agoShould be something in the form of natural experiments from adoptions, twin studies, etc.
- Auracle 2y agoThere absolutely have been twin studies that showed IQ (and therefore income) is largely heritable.
- felurx 2y agoWith all else being equal, I'm willing to believe that more intelligence would lead to greater income. But if you're claiming that IQ is the sole/main predictor for income that'd be a hard [citation needed] in my opinion.
- cycomanic 2y agoIn fact I recall a study (I saw on HN I believe) that showed that IQ is only correlated up to a certain value (not very high, I.e. Lower upper middle class IIRC) but then becomes quite uncorrelated. This certainly matches my anecdotal evidence that most of the rich kids during school were not very smart. The smart ones were typically the kids from academic middle class households.
- cycomanic 2y agoHere is a different study (I am certain I read a different one) with similar results https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/442975-do-you-make-much-more-money-than-others-because-you-re-smarter https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/442975-do-you-make-much-...
- hiAndrewQuinn 2y agoIndeed, twin studies form the strongest leg of Bryan Caplan's argument in support of the signalling hypothesis in his book The Case Against Education, which I highly recommend anyone trying to refute it read and try to debunk. If you want an itemized list of citations this is where I'd start.
- tremon 2y agoThe very title of the book makes it sound like a propaganda piece, it self-selects for readers who already want to believe it. I'll take a pass.
- falcor84 2y agoI for one like books which are willing to explicitly make a controversial point; it makes for much more interesting reading, even if I remain in disagreement throughout.
- konschubert 2y agoI would prefer books to make correct points, such as “education is really important, but some education is not really useful except for signalling”
- hiAndrewQuinn 2y agoHey, it's a free country. :) When I imagine other hypothetical books titled things like The Case Against Capitalism, The Case Against Monogamy, or The Case Against Atheism, though, I note that I don't get an "insider propaganda" vibe from any of them, even though I would probably strongly dislike what they have to say.
- konschubert 2y agoThe thing is that education is important. Some of it is signalling, but not all of it is useless. There was a time when most people couldn’t read or do basic algebra and you don’t want to go back to this. Even a dumb kid can understand compound interest and absolutely has to in order to thrive in our society.