June 14, 2005

Best estimate yet of Hispanic-American IQ

Everyone across the political spectrum admits that the white-black test score gap is a major social problem, but nobody is thinking about the white-Hispanic test score gap, even though we have much more influence through immigration policy over whether Hispanics will be a large or huge proportion of the American population in the future. Fortunately, the facts are available, but they take a lot of digging to uncover.

Here's the best estimate I've yet seen: A 2001 meta-analysis of 39 studies covering a total 5,696,519 individuals in America (aged 14 and above) came up with an overall difference of 0.72 standard deviations in g (the "general factor" in cognitive ability) between "Anglo" whites and Hispanics. The 95% confidence range of the studies ran from .60 to .88 standard deviations, so there's not a huge amount of disagreement among the studies.

One standard deviation equals 15 IQ points, so that's a gap of 10.8 IQ points, or an IQ of 89 on the Lynn-Vanhanen scale where white Americans equal 100. That would imply the average Hispanic would fall at the 24th percentile of the white IQ distribution. This inequality gets worse at higher IQs Assuming a normal distribution, 4.8% of whites would fall above 125 IQ versus only 0.9% of Hispanics, which explains why Hispanics are given ethnic preferences in prestige college admissions.

In contrast, 105 studies of 6,246,729 individuals found an overall white-black gap of 1.10 standard deviations, or 16.5 points. (I typically round this down to 1.0 standard deviation and 15 points). So, the white-Hispanic gap appears to be about 65% as large as the notoriously depressing white-black gap. (Warning: this 65% number does not come from a perfect apples to apples comparison because more studies are used in calculating the white-black difference than the white-Hispanic difference.)

Source: Roth, P. L., Bevier, C. A., Bobko, P., Switzer III, F. S. & Tyler, P. (2001) " Ethnic group differences in cognitive ability in employment and educational settings: a meta-analysis." Personnel Psychology 54, 297–330.

This fits well with lots of other data. For example, Hispanics generally do almost as badly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress school achievement tests as blacks, but that average is dragged down by immigrant kids who have problems adjusting to English. The last time the NAEP asked about where the child was born was 1992, and Dr. Stefan Thernstrom of Harvard kindly provided me with the data from that examination. For foreign-born Hispanics, the typical gap versus non-Hispanic whites was 1.14 times as large as the black-white gap. But for American-born Hispanics, the gap between non-Hispanic whites and American-born Hispanics was 0.67 times as large as the gap between non-Hispanic whites and blacks, very similar to the 0.65 difference seen in the meta-analysis of IQs.


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

My area (DC metro) is being flooded by illegal Latino immigrants. We've had numerous conversations on how their lower IQ will affect the future of America.

Anonymous said...

IQ IS RACIST!

LULZ

Anonymous said...

IQ for Real.
Just because we do not like something do not make it False.
True-false
Real-fake
IQ is the real thing.

Anonymous said...

1. what is Real truth from evidence.

2. what we Wish the truth to be.

If the all people had IQ 100, that would be great.

That the same wish I win the lottery last week or next week.

Nature.
Nature.
Nature.

Nature has never, never and will never create Equality.

Watch any pro football, baseball and basketball games.

Human equality does Not exist. No and never will.

IQ is Real
IQ is True
IQ is Not bias against race or culture.
IQ gap among races has and will continue to exist.
IQ is made by Nature.
IQ, made by Nature, will never, never be Eqaul.
Never have and never will

zen said...

The IQ of a group of people simply depends on the opportunities available to that group. Ofcourse white children will score higher than blacks or hispanics, born in this country or not. Its simple more blacks and hispanics are born with disadvantages then most whites. Better parents, because the parents of white children are more than likely vary educated themselves and at a young age push their childre to do, to be competetive.

Rick Feinstein said...

Hi -

This is a interesting / hard / emotional BUT nevetherless important and some honest opinion from Steven.

Firstly I just wanted to correct "Anonymous" regarding the creation of the internet / atom bomb & computer - Being a part-Jew myself.

(1) The Internet was developed by a Team of Scientist via DARPA (not exclusively Jewish).
(2) The Aton Bomb was actually first devloped and thought-off by the British, due to WW2 research/testing moved to the USA.
(3) Computing - True the "Micro-computer was developed by Isaac Asimov (a Jew) - But the work EARLIER to that was originally via Charles Babbage & then the mainframe/Minicomputer was developed by 2 Christians -
J. Presper Eckertb & John Mauchly.

IQ has ALWAYS been a factor, in human civilization! Higher IQ answeres the question of why European & Asian civilizations are more advance in comparison to African and Mestizo (Hispanic) civilization (past & present + Most certainly the reasonably far future)!

This answer the question why no African or MEstizo has won a Nobel Prize in the Science/Technology!

As for the reasonaing many Liberal Whites and Hispanics/Africans state when dealing with this topic - Talking about IQ is racist! Then nature itself is racist. Nature hasNEVER created this equally, weather in man or the wider enviroment. Nature can be great, yet cna be cruel.

The logic one poster mentioned was that Hispanic/Blacks are from poorer / less privaledge backgrounds - BUT they even score lower than their POOR / Underpriv White Counterparts!

Once we except IQ as a Fact (deep down we know its there)! We can work on ways to alleviate the worlds problems!

Finally just look at Latin America - The Southern Cone Countries, are near-Developed world countries, you compare this with Heavily Mestizo/Indiano Mexico & Central America you can see the difference, in what IQ Does to the nations! IQ is the wealth and unlimately the sucess of that nation.

I sure hope to God the US & Europe stop Mass Low IQ Immigration! Else we can all celebrate a Giant Brazil of the North & Across the Pond!

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Thomas Edison was poor and only had 3 or 4 years of formal education. His mother
home schooled him and he self educated himself. He had 1093 inventions and
started the company that is now
General Electric. George Westinghouse
droped out of school when he was 14.
He invented the air brake for trains
and was president of Westinghouse
air brake at age 22.
Nikolia Tesla only had a high school
education but he invented the A.C. motor, generator, and electric utility
system that used alternating current.
George Westinghouse bought Tesla patents
and built the first A.C utility system
which is the basis of electric utility
systems all over the world today.
Westinghouse had over 300 patents and
started 60 companies.
Tesla had over 100 patents.
These people where not all rich,
priveledged and well educated.
That seems to be the bogus argument
why some people have higher IQ's
than others.

Anonymous said...

My IQ was between 112-115 when I was 13. I was professionally tested, okay. I'm also a Hispanic girl. Did I break any stereotypes? Do I get a cookie?

Anonymous said...

IQ is completely meaningless because... YOU CAN STUDY FOR IT AND IMPROVE YOUR SCORE SUBSTANTIALLY.

The idea that an IQ test is supposed to measure inherent raw intelligence through evaluating performance on things like pattern-recognition and geospatial reasoning is baseless. All of the components that comprise an IQ test can be broken down into an improvement-driven educational platform (i.e. a structured studying plan).

If a young teen who consistently gets ~85 on IQ tests undertakes a disciplined study regimen, focused on improvement in IQ test-related questions and skills, and ultimately improves his score, with the same consistency, to ~100... has he gotten smarter? His IQ score went up 15 points, so what "raw intelligence" was gained through the course of that transformation? Nothing. IQ test taking abilities - that's it.

Anonymous said...

Further Evidence that IQ is Mostly Genetic:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21705-best-evidence-yet-that-a-single-gene-can-affect-iq.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090317142841.htm

Add to that the very few Blacks and (Non-White) Hispanics in the STEM Fields and there is definitely an issue with Hispanic/Black IQ.

As for the Hispanic Lady that boasted about her 115 IQ well good for you... However you are in the upper percentiles of bell curve for Hispanics... Unfortunately the Hispanic IQ is 85-90 and its the AVERAGE that makes up a society/group... not the few at the top!

Thanks


Anonymous said...

I am another Hispanic girl with a 113 IQ. I guess its not as uncommon as you may think or I am rare :-) Either way I don't care because growing up I was teased for being smart, for trying to be "white" (since I spoke properly) and for looking white (I am very light skinned & born here) so screw most Hispanics & Blacks cause most poor Hispanics where I come from in the "hood" are stupid & blacks are even worst. My parents had higher standards for me then most in the area that is why I am smarter. Honestly I believe the IQ tests are right. I am just stating my opinion & experience, I am not disrespecting anyone!

Vz said...

Well Im a hispanic with a 143 IQ.

I feel we as a people need to practice Eugenics in order to allow us to become smarter.

Anonymous said...

Not smart enough to use spell check apparently

Anonymous said...

The reason you are smarter than other hispanics is because you have white Hispanic or white latin genes more than native, so being a Hispanic or white Hispanic has a genetic advantage.I am a white Hispanic my self of Spanish ancestry and have an IQ of 130. So learn your facts little girl L.O.L

Unknown said...

typical angry south american, you really think your more clever than the first world white man.

Luli said...

Well my mom has mainly native american (Aymara) DNA mixed with some european but not a lot and she has an IQ of 160...

Ameridians in south America had huge civilisations, cities that impressed the spanish colons themselves (Tenochtitlan), so they can't have a low IQ... Actually there are studies that show that when tested by a native american examinator(with an official IQ test of course) they score exactly like white europeans on average so...

Anonymous said...

Hispanic is not a race, is an ethnicity. So a hispanic could be black, white, or native latin American indian and a mixture of those races listed above.

Anonymous said...

I am also a latino or Hispanic but we have to remember that latino or hispanic is not a race is an ethnicity and a latino could be of any race.

Anonymous said...

You seem to forget that a Hispanic could be of any race, Hispanic is an ethnicity not a race, and that latino or hispanic woman could be white like people from Cuba, Argentina, Colombia or Uruguay, and that'll explain why she has a higher IQ than the typical mestizo woman.

Anonymous said...

You are not smart enough to get it??? Shut the hell up please.

Anonymous said...

You're fucking retarded is what you are. You really think we could get billions of people to not reproduce easily and without resistance?Kill yourself.The best way to solve our I.Q problem would be to study the genes that cause above average I.Qs to occur. Lets keep in mind that they appear in all races, although at different rates, so genetic diversity wouldn't be an issue. Once we've located the genes we will hopefully be able to use them to their full extent, and inject them into the gene pool in a way that the next generation will be substantially smarter than the previous. It would also be a lot easier to convince the people to cooperate,and it would open lots of fields of science while the research is being conducted.Now I know that this would probably take longer,but the advantages would be so much better.Being honest with you both methods would require a lot of work,but do we really want to be remembered as the species who used strength rather than brains?

Anonymous said...

How can it be real if it the system was invented by someone knowledgeble? + given to ignorants you know they'll fail.

Anonymous said...

For my understanding the first time you take an IQ exam is the valid one, not the second time or third time that's cheating.

Anonymous said...

The Hispanics you hang around are brown or bronze Hispanics also known as mestizos, and those are the hispanics with lower IQ's. White Hispanics in the other hand score higher in IQ exam tests, black Hispanics score real low.

Anonymous said...

I'm a latono or Hispanic and disagree with you. Playing chess or any board game helps improve your intelligence especially if you practice your moves on chess etc.
There's more to IQ than board games although it helps. I got an IQ of 130 and a concider my self a white hispanic primarily of Spanish ancestry.

Anonymous said...

Like in Brazil, Puerto rico, Haiti, some parts of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and the United states. It makes a lot of sense dude.

Anonymous said...

You sound like an ignorant sir.
A south American, a south African and North American can be white or of any race, what's your point.

Anonymous said...

Is not racist, is very real face it.

Anonymous said...

Hispanic IQ is not 85-90, it is 95 on average I just looked up.
Black IQ is 70-85.

Anonymous said...

Puberty is part of the problem, but genetics is also a reality.

Joe M. said...

Measuring "Hispanic" IQ is meaningless because it's not a racially homogeneous population. Many are white, many are (Amer)indindian, many are black, and there are all degrees of varied admixture.

It's like talking about a "New York" IQ and not bothering to differentiate between the scores of black New Yorkers and white New Yorkers and Asian New Yorkers etc.

The politically incorrect truth - well known in Latin America - is that intelligence tends to correlate with white ancestry. The whiter one is the more intelligent they tend to be, the blacker one is the dumber, with indigenous Indians being somewhere in between.

All Latinos know this themselves but few will admit it around gringos.

Joe M. said...

Central Americans are overwhingly Mestizo (a White/Indian mix). Blacks and mulattoes are a small percentage of the population. Whites account for about a quarter to a third of the population.

Anonymous said...

Ah so you it's a planned invasion by migration, by your country.

Anonymous said...

Hollow words from a spiteful child. You are nothing without white man's charity. Cut the cord and see how you fare without the blood of my people.

A White Man