In response to some comments on my earlier post, I should make it clear that I don’t deny that there are IQ differences between nations, and I don’t deny that they could be important (see the last para of my post). It is also quite possible (and on a priori grounds quite likely) that there are some genetic differences in IQ between populations that have evolved in partial isolation from each other and under different selective conditions. There are genetic differences in everything else, so why not IQ?
All I say is that:
(a) it is technically difficult to compare IQ in different countries, so the figures may not be robust, and
(b) even on a strongly hereditarian view of IQ, such as Jensen’s, the level of environmental differences between developed and 3rd-world countries would be expected to produce a substantial IQ deficit. I don’t think anyone has yet challenged my argument on this point.
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