Ixtab
05-23-2006, 05:59 AM
German brains
Germans are the most intelligent people in Europe, well ahead of the British (in eighth place) and the French (15th), according to a new study by Northern Ireland’s University of Ulster, The Times reported yesterday.
With an average intelligence quotient (IQ) of 107, the Germans ranked a scintilla of brainpower above the Dutch who also scored 107, the Polish (106), the Swedish (104) and the Italians (102).
They all came out better in the intelligence stakes than the British who rated an even 100 IQ according to the study, ahead of the Spanish (98) and the French (94) who could only comfort themselves by checking the study results for Bulgarians, Romanians, the Turkish and Serbians who languished at the bottom of the table on 89.
Professor Richard Lynn, who headed the study, caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average.
He also aroused controversy when the 1994 book The Bell Curve, which alleged that whites had a higher natural IQ than blacks, cited his work.
Flynn explained the higher IQs in northern European countries by saying that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south.
The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in southeast Europe it is 1,312cc, according to his studies. He ascribes the differences between British and French intelligence levels to the results of military conflict.
He described it as "a hitherto unrecognised law of history" that "the side with the higher IQ normally wins, unless they are hugely outnumbered, as Germany was after 1942", The Times reported.
He also noted that there were marked IQ differences within countries, with those living in the capital cities, normally the more affluent areas, having a higher IQ than their country cousins.
He added that differences in intelligence across Britain could be attributed to bright people moving to London over hundreds of years. Adults in England and Wales have an IQ of 100.5, higher than Ireland and Scotland, both with 97.
People living in London and the South East average 102. “Once in the capital they have settled and reared children, and these children have inherited their high intelligence and transmitted it to further generations.”
The pattern is repeated in other countries, Professor Lynn claimed. In France, IQ scores in Paris were much higher than those in rural areas. Professor Lynn has spent three decades analysing thousands of test results to scrutinise the role of evolution in IQ.
He has published his findings in a new book. Britons excel in another area of Professor Lynn’s research. He found that university students had, at 109, the second-highest undergraduate IQs in the world, beaten only by their US counterparts on 110.
A “normal” IQ ranges from 85 to 115 but exceptionally gifted people have scores starting at 145.-----------------
Germans are the most intelligent people in Europe, well ahead of the British (in eighth place) and the French (15th), according to a new study by Northern Ireland’s University of Ulster, The Times reported yesterday.
With an average intelligence quotient (IQ) of 107, the Germans ranked a scintilla of brainpower above the Dutch who also scored 107, the Polish (106), the Swedish (104) and the Italians (102).
They all came out better in the intelligence stakes than the British who rated an even 100 IQ according to the study, ahead of the Spanish (98) and the French (94) who could only comfort themselves by checking the study results for Bulgarians, Romanians, the Turkish and Serbians who languished at the bottom of the table on 89.
Professor Richard Lynn, who headed the study, caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average.
He also aroused controversy when the 1994 book The Bell Curve, which alleged that whites had a higher natural IQ than blacks, cited his work.
Flynn explained the higher IQs in northern European countries by saying that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south.
The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in southeast Europe it is 1,312cc, according to his studies. He ascribes the differences between British and French intelligence levels to the results of military conflict.
He described it as "a hitherto unrecognised law of history" that "the side with the higher IQ normally wins, unless they are hugely outnumbered, as Germany was after 1942", The Times reported.
He also noted that there were marked IQ differences within countries, with those living in the capital cities, normally the more affluent areas, having a higher IQ than their country cousins.
He added that differences in intelligence across Britain could be attributed to bright people moving to London over hundreds of years. Adults in England and Wales have an IQ of 100.5, higher than Ireland and Scotland, both with 97.
People living in London and the South East average 102. “Once in the capital they have settled and reared children, and these children have inherited their high intelligence and transmitted it to further generations.”
The pattern is repeated in other countries, Professor Lynn claimed. In France, IQ scores in Paris were much higher than those in rural areas. Professor Lynn has spent three decades analysing thousands of test results to scrutinise the role of evolution in IQ.
He has published his findings in a new book. Britons excel in another area of Professor Lynn’s research. He found that university students had, at 109, the second-highest undergraduate IQs in the world, beaten only by their US counterparts on 110.
A “normal” IQ ranges from 85 to 115 but exceptionally gifted people have scores starting at 145.-----------------