Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence

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Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence, often referred to as "Jewish genius",[1][2][3][4] is a subject that explores the perception that Ashkenazi Jews tend to have a higher intelligence than all other ethnic groups and excel disproportionately in many fields and has been an occasional subject of scientific controversy.

The average IQ score of Ashkenazi Jews has been calculated to be from a range of 108–115 under some studies, which would be significantly higher than that of any other ethnic group in the world.[5][6][7]

Evidence for a group difference in intelligence[edit]

A 2005 paper by three authors who have been linked to theories described as "scientific racism,"[8] "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence"[9] proposed that Ashkenazi Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence with somewhat lower spikes in spatial intelligence than other ethnic groups, on the basis of inherited diseases and the peculiar economic situation of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages.

Ashkenazi Jews have had success in a variety of academic fields disproportionate to their small population size, including science, technology, politics, and law. For instance, Ashkenazi Jews have won more than one quarter of Fields Medals, Turing Awards, and Regeneron Science Talent Search awards. People of Ashkenazi Jewish descent are also disproportionately represented among world chess champions (54 percent), National Medal of Science recipients (37 percent), U.S. Nobel Prize winners (29 percent),[9] and Nobel laureates in medicine or physiology (42 percent). Furthermore, Jews comprise up to one third of the student populace at Ivy League schools and 30 percent of U.S. Supreme Court law clerks.

Proposed genetic explanations[edit]

Assuming that there is a statistical difference in intelligence between Ashkenazi Jews and other ethnic groups, there still remains the question of how much of the difference is caused by genetic factors.[10]

"Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence"[edit]

"Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence", a 2005 paper by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending, put forth the conjecture that the unique conditions under which Ashkenazi Jews lived in medieval Europe selected for high verbal and mathematical intelligence but not spatial intelligence. Their paper has four main premises:

  1. Today's Ashkenazi Jews have a higher average mathematical and verbal IQ and an unusual cognitive profile compared to other ethnic groups.
  2. From roughly 800 to 1650 CE, Ashkenazi Jews in Europe were a mostly isolated genetic group. When Ashkenazi Jews married non-Jews, they usually left the Jewish community; few non-Jews married into the Jewish community.
  3. During the same period, laws barred Ashkenazi Jews from most jobs, including farming and crafts, and forced them into finance, management, and international trade. Wealthy Jews had several more children per family than poor Jews. So, genes for cognitive traits such as verbal and mathematical talent, which make a person successful in the few fields where Jews could work, were favored; genes for irrelevant traits, such as spatio-visual abilities, were supported by less selective pressure than in the general population. Over 1000 years, about 40 generations, even a small heritability, increasing IQ by 1/3 of a point in each generation, could produce a large effect.[11]
  4. Today's Ashkenazi Jews suffer from a number of congenital diseases and mutations at higher rates than most other ethnic groups; these include Tay–Sachs disease,[12] Gaucher's disease, Bloom's syndrome, and Fanconi anemia, and mutations at BRCA1 and BRCA2. These mutations' effects cluster in only a few metabolic pathways, suggesting that they arise from selective pressure rather than genetic drift. One cluster of these diseases affects sphingolipid storage, a secondary effect of which is increased growth of axons and dendrites. At least one of the diseases in this cluster, torsion dystonia, has been found to correlate with high IQ. Another cluster disrupts DNA repair, an extremely dangerous sort of mutation which is lethal in homozygotes. The authors speculate that these mutations give a cognitive benefit to heterozygotes by reducing inhibitions to neural growth, a benefit that would not outweigh its high costs except in an environment where it was strongly rewarded. Other scientists gave the paper a mixed reception, ranging from outright dismissal to acknowledgement that the hypothesis might be true and merits further research.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Murray, Charles (2007-04-01). "Jewish Genius". Commentary. Archived from the original on 2018-10-27. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  2. ^ Valk, Jonathan (2015-06-14). "Is there really such a thing as Jewish genius?". haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  3. ^ "What Is Genius? - The Genesis of Jewish Genius". 2017-09-30. Archived from the original on 2017-09-30. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  4. ^ "Jewish Genius". My Jewish Learning. 2007-04-12. Archived from the original on 2018-11-06. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  5. ^ Lynn, Richard; Longley, David (2006-11-01). "On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain". Intelligence. 34 (6): 541–547. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.03.011. ISSN 0160-2896. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10.
  6. ^ "Study: Ashkenazi Jews Smartest on Earth, Partly Due to Diseases". Israel National News. Archived from the original on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  7. ^ "Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high?". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  8. ^ "Henry Harpending". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  9. ^ a b Cochran, Gregory; Hardy, Jason; Harpending, Henry (September 2006). "Natural History of Ashkenazi intelligence". Journal of Biosocial Science. 38 (5): 659–693. doi:10.1017/S0021932005027069. ISSN 1469-7599. PMID 16867211. Archived from the original on 2018-08-21.
  10. ^ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). web.archive.org. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  11. ^ "Hjernevask - Brainwashing (Eng Sub) Part 6 - Race". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2016-03-27. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  12. ^ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). web.archive.org. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
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