IQ_critique.pdf

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Submitted: May 18, 2022| Last edited : June 1, 2022

Authors

Abstract

In 2002, Lynn and Vanhanen produced a dataset which claimed to provide average ‘national IQs’ for nation-states worldwide. Despite extensive critique, this dataset, and subsequent updated versions, have been used in a large number of empirical publications. Here I evaluate the latest version, produced in 2019 by Lynn and Becker, and show that this dataset is not fit for purpose. The primary data sources are inadequate for estimating ‘national IQs’. The majority of data included originates from samples which are wholly unrepresentative of their national populations. Many are convenience samples with small sample sizes, often including only children and often including individuals chosen because they had particular characteristics (i.e., samples which were deliberately chosen to be unrepresentative). Data were collected using a range of different cognitive tests and from such diverse populations that it is impossible to generate comparable measure of cognitive ability. There is also evidence that further bias may have been introduced during manipulations of primary data into ‘IQ’ scores. The extent of these biases differs by world region, meaning that the dataset is not only inaccurate but systematically biased. This ‘national IQ’ dataset therefore does not provide comparable, accurate and unbiased measures of cognitive ability worldwide, and should not be used be draw inferences about global variation in intelligence.

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preprint DOI

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/26vfb
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Original Publication Date

May 17, 2022

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Subjects

Cultural PsychologyEvolutionCognitive PsychologySocial and Behavioral Sciences

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