What if your race is the dumbest of them all?

[Ryika]

Let's have some random fun and pretend scientists have developed a method to test people's inherent intellectual potential, have managed to throw all the outside factors such as culture and education, and found out that yes, sadly, there are substantial, inherent differences between the groups that we can loosely categorize as the main human "races".

Even worse, it turns out the people you share a race with are the stupidest people around. You are part of the group that has by far the lowest inherent intellectual potential, some would even as far as to say that your people are just plain stupid on average, and suddenly everybody knows it.

You are of course the exception to the rule, a highly intelligent individual born with all the potential in the world, but people on the street don't know that.

How do you feel?
Does it mean anything for you personally?
Do you consider yourself part of that group?
Do you think people will treat members of your race differently because of it?
Do you think it will have consequences for you as an individual?
And was it irresponsible to make that information available?

 

[Tahuti]

The human race is indeed the dumbest of them all.

 

[Zkribbler]

It doesn't matter. The various races all have wide variation in intelligence, from genius to idiot. What the average of my race is not important.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Even worse, it turns out the people you share a race with are the stupidest people around. You are part of the group that has by far the lowest inherent intellectual potential, some would even as far as to say that your people are just plain stupid on average, and suddenly everybody knows it.

Wouldn't surprise me when I look at some of my relatives and the politics of my race.
The question is, what is my race ? Generally white, or a bit more specific ?

You are of course the exception to the rule, a highly intelligent individual born with all the potential in the world, but people on the street don't know that.

Yeah, I'm a bit too old and ground down to believe that...

How do you feel?
Does it mean anything for you personally?
Do you consider yourself part of that group?
Do you think people will treat members of your race differently because of it?
Do you think it will have consequences for you as an individual?

Doesn't really matter. I'm already treated differently, and sometimes I don't even feel much like part of humanity in general. Already too many fools of the same species.

And was it irresponsible to make that information available?

Probably.
With averages and exceptions there will definitely be some people of the dumb race that will be smarter than dumber specimen of the smartest race, but they'll be underestimated and discriminated against, not considered for promotions and high level jobs, and will have to put up with idiot bosses.
Actually, all of this is already happening to many ethnic minorities all over the world, but with a scientific justification it would become much worse and more blatant.

 

[Ryika]

It doesn't matter. The various races all have wide variation in intelligence, from genius to idiot. What the average of my race is not important.

But do you think other people will think that, too, or will they start treating you differently?

 

[El_Machinae]

The odds that the genetics of intelligence coincide with the genetics of race are so tiny as to not be entertained. This 'game' is destructive, since it plays into the colloquial fantasies of racists.

Until the majority of people can easily articulate why the premise is stupid, it's not a game worth playing.

 

[luiz]

Don't know about my "race", nor about "intelligence", but I do know Brazilians in average score quite low on IQ. It doesn't affect me at all because I understand that averages don't say anything about individuals

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

If your race is more intelligent the chances are it lacks the physical/health capabilities of the less mentaly evolved type. The intelligence comes at a price.
Another thing seems to apply that there is a latent intelligence in the less evolved types and once exposed to the most advanced civilization and technology it takes a short time for the intelligence faculties to come to the fore and adapt.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

If your race is more intelligent the chances are it lacks the physical/health capabilities of the less mentaly evolved type. The intelligence comes at a price.
Another thing seems to apply that there is a latent intelligence in the less evolved types and once exposed to the most advanced civilization and technology it takes a short time for the intelligence faculties to come to the fore and adapt.

Life is not an RPG where everybody has the same amount of atrribute points. Mike Tyson and Stephen Hawking prove nothing.
I've know smart people who also have high strength, constitution and charisma, and I've seen people with low stats across the board.

 

[warpus]

How do you feel?

"Wow, we're stupid and somehow managed to rule the world. Maybe this study is flawed."

Does it mean anything for you personally?

Not really. Maybe if I had kids I would tell them to make sure they study and try harder then all the inherently smarter black and asian kids, in order to level the playing field.

Do you consider yourself part of that group?

Yeah I guess I'm white.

Do you think people will treat members of your race differently because of it?

Aside from a couple "White people so dumb" articles on Salon or whatever stupid sites I don't even visit, probably not.

Do you think it will have consequences for you as an individual?

I don't see how, unless the government implements an affirmative action program to help dumb white people get jobs.

And was it irresponsible to make that information available?

Ohhhhh that's where you're going with this...

 

[EgonSpengler]

How do you feel?

I suppose I'd be a little bummed out that the eugenicists and pseudo-science people had something to hang their hats on, but oh well. If this information came from a reputable source, the methods were sound, and the results were replicated, I guess I'd have to accept it.

Does it mean anything for you personally?

If my own level of intelligence hasn't changed, then no.

Do you consider yourself part of that group?

I don't really feel any loyalty to the groups I already belong to as an accident of birth (any White Supremacist who assumes that I'll have his back just because we both get sunburns is in for a shock). I don't see why that would change.

Do you think people will treat members of your race differently because of it?

I already belong to a subgroup that has its warts, and I only rarely get held to account for them. For example, I've had unambiguous racism directed at me only once, that I can remember. So I wouldn't expect this particular group-attribute would be held against me, but people surprise me from time to time.

Do you think it will have consequences for you as an individual?

Same as above, I wouldn't expect so, but I have to leave some room to be surprised.

And was it irresponsible to make that information available?

No, I don't think so. Generally speaking, I think more information is better than less information. In this particular case, my subgroup being exposed as innately intellectually inferior might make us a little more humble, because we've been strutting around the place these last 500 years like we're God's gift. Although, if you're really dim, maybe arrogance naturally follows. A bit of a catch-22, eh?

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Life is not an RPG where everybody has the same amount of atrribute points. Mike Tyson and Stephen Hawking prove nothing.
I've know smart people who also have high strength, constitution and charisma, and I've seen people with low stats across the board.

I am not talking individual cases but the general population and it seems to me that the more primitive types of societies have overall better physical health and strenght: they dont have to go to gym or take a bunch of pills.

 

[Arent11]

Let's have some random fun and pretend scientists have developed a method to test people's inherent intellectual potential, have managed to throw all the outside factors such as culture and education, and found out that yes, sadly, there are substantial, inherent differences between the groups that we can loosely categorize as the main human "races".

Even worse, it turns out the people you share a race with are the stupidest people around. You are part of the group that has by far the lowest inherent intellectual potential, some would even as far as to say that your people are just plain stupid on average, and suddenly everybody knows it.

You are of course the exception to the rule, a highly intelligent individual born with all the potential in the world, but people on the street don't know that.

How do you feel?
Does it mean anything for you personally?
Do you consider yourself part of that group?
Do you think people will treat members of your race differently because of it?
Do you think it will have consequences for you as an individual?
And was it irresponsible to make that information available?

Intelligence is distributed according to a normal distribution. That means even if black/white/asians are on average dumber/more clever there will always be some that are more intelligent than the average in another race.

The actual "dumb" point here is ideologues who do not understand that the difference between the races is *biological diversity*, for example skin color is an adaptation to strong/weak sunlight incidence. And segregation exists quite likely precisely to raise that biological diversity.

 

[Ryika]

"Wow, we're stupid and somehow managed to rule the world. Maybe this study is flawed."

Would "Locational advantages can overcome IQ discrepancies. Europe is a rather tame place and allowed people to prosper regardless." as a response make you reconsider?

Ohhhhh that's where you're going with this...

Not really, that question isn't any more important than the other ones. Was just thinking about the topic in general since I had read on a certain Subreddit a few days ago a thread where a person made the argument that it would be a good thing to pump some money into "proper research" about iq differences to settle that issue. The person argued that it would be good to "know" that , as he assumed, black people have a lower base iq, and that it would have no societal consequences, and that it would be good for everybody to know where they stand (he didn't really differentiate between the individual and the collective).

I heavily disagree with that, and think that it would cause a lot of negative stigma for the people who are within the groups that have lower-than-average IQs, and I'm a bit surprised that people so far tend to disagree.

 

[El_Machinae]

Finding out that some races have lower IQ is not really going to be a surprise. A great deal of IQ comes from environmental factors. And surprise, we treat people differently based on race.

People who forget that the cultural aspects of 'race' are vastly stronger than the biological are just asking to completely miscomprehend the entire topic of IQ.

 

[warpus]

IQ is very flawed as a way to measure intelligence anyway, so even if it was determined that certain races have a higher IQ than others, it wouldn't really mean anything. And besides, there are billions of people in each of the "races", so there's no telling how you are personally affected by these hypothetical discoveries. Even if you come from a race of cretins, you could be a genius. There's no sense in sticking to your race's average. You're an individual and you could easily be one of the many outliers in the data set. You won't know what you're good at until you try for yourself.

For instance white people are not supposed to be very good at jumping. I am pretty good at it. I jumped over a guy once

 

[Akka]

I am not talking individual cases but the general population and it seems to me that the more primitive types of societies have overall better physical health and strenght: they dont have to go to gym or take a bunch of pills.

That's because they need to do physical labour to survive and they die if they are in bad health, not because of some trade-off in "stat points"
In fact, modern-day humans are considerably taller and stronger than medieval ones (because of better diet and less inbreeding).

 

[Ryika]

IQ is very flawed as a way to measure intelligence anyway, so even if it was determined that certain races have a higher IQ than others, it wouldn't really mean anything. And besides, there are billions of people in each of the "races", so there's no telling how you are personally affected by these hypothetical discoveries. Even if you come from a race of cretins, you could be a genius. There's no sense in sticking to your race's average. You're an individual and you could easily be one of the many outliers in the data set. You won't know what you're good at until you try for yourself.

Yeah, but racism exists. Just because I know I am intelligent does not mean other people know I'm intelligent, just as a black person knows they are a decent guy does not mean a prejudiced shop owner knows that, too.

It's mostly about the stance other people would now take towards you.

 

[warpus]

That already happens. People assume Asians are good at math, white people can't jump, and black people are good at running marathons. Or whatever stereotypes you want to go with.

So sure, I can answer this question with a stereotype about white people that already exists. White people can't dance. Who cares, I dance anyway. I got rhythm.

 

[Ryika]

But your ability to dance, or at least not very frequently, have a negative impact when it comes to applying for a job for example, and it is not a factor by which people we don't know are frequently judged. Intelligence is.