The subcontinent, as some people refer to India, is the 7th country by land mass in the world. It also has considerable variety in terms of its people. An indication of this can be gained by comparing how the various states shine in terms of national examinations. The answer seems to be: heterogeneous. States in India vary considerably.
What is interesting about this paper is that many of the usual explanations for group differences in intelligence don’t work in the case of India. Colder states are not brighter than warmer states, which is the usual pattern. Cities are not brighter than the country, which is the usual pattern. There is no relation with skin colour, ditto. To cap it all, states with good access to the sea, encouraging trade in goods and ideas are not brighter than the land-locked inland states.
India is mysterious in this regard.
For the quick summary, here is a Powerpoint presentation from the Graz conference which gives the key facts.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3c4TxciNeJZcGJFejJTS0Y2Z0E/view?usp=sharing
For more detail, here is the paper, which is also short, and discusses the findings, though without coming to any conclusion at this stage.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3c4TxciNeJZQlIxM3EwSXg4REk/view?usp=sharing
One probably needs to take into account the presence of clans, though categorising the exam results in this way might be very difficult:
https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/caste/
In geopolitical terms the results strongly suggest that economic performance in India will show considerable variation from one part of the country to another. China may be more homogenous. Consult your own financial advisor before drawing any investment conclusions.
See further analysis here: http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/?p=4765
ReplyDeleteI wish you hadn't turned comments of at your link; that is some very interesting work!
DeleteDealing with spam takes too long. Discussion of the papers can easily be done better at http://openpsych.net/forum/ :)
DeleteBeen very interested in this topic for a long time. India and its people are so fascinating. Will read as soon as I get home from work.
ReplyDeleteBefore I start reading, I'd admit I'm not so surprised by the lack of correlation between skin color/latitudinal origin and IQ in India. I am surprised that cities are not smarter than the countryside. Isn't that the whole reason cities form in the first place? So smart people can get together (economies of agglomeration)? And also how about Bangalore??
DeleteThe correct way to sort for IQ in India is to test by caste - The Indian govt recognises 3 IQ levels - the bottom tier is called SC-ST ( Scheduled caste / untouchable / dalit ) and Scheduled Tribe ( primitive forest dwellers ) - these groups get quota proportional to their total population ( 22% ) ;
ReplyDeletethe next tier is called OBC ( Other backward caste ) , mostly Shudra level castes , these castes get 27% quota, roughly half their proportion in the population ; the top tier is Upper castes, who dont get quota ; In South India, the Upper castes are further divided into non-brahmin upper castes ( who get a small quota ) and brahmins who get no quota ;
On racial theories and so called Aryan-caucasoid IQ, Jammu-Kashmir is heavily caucasoid, and scores the lowest ; Pakistan which has mostly the same genetic pool as Jammu Kashmir also scores very poorly - In International Math Olympiad, for the last 10 years, average rank from top - India is 30, Pakistan is 85 ;
In case of Jammu Kashmir and Pakistan, the common factor is islam and its IQ reducing aspects like cousin marriage and discouraging education of women
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