Do Jews have a higher average intelligence than other nations? Sound racist? Gregory Cochran claims that there is
The idea that certain ethnic groups, on average, have higher intelligence than others is one of those ideas that if said in public would be labeled "racist". But Gregory Cochrane, a scientist known as a rebel against conventions, is ready to be heard in public with these ideas. He is a rare bird, a scientist who works independently, without connection to scientific institutions. He is behind discoveries regarding the infectious etiology of diseases which until recently were not considered infectious. In addition, he claims that homosexuality is the result of infection.
But even Cochrane might feel knee-jerk from his own following theory. Together with Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending, from the University of Utah, he will publish an article in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Biosocial Science in which he explains how ethnic groups emerged that are smarter than others. The group in question is Ashkenazi Jews and the process is natural selection.
History before science
Ashkenazi Jews are more successful than average in IQ tests, with 15-12 points above a 100-point level. They also disproportionately contributed to the intellectual and cultural life of the Western world, as illustrated by the careers of Freud, Einstein and Mahler. At the same time, they also suffer more from the general population from genetic diseases such as Tai-Sachs and breast cancer. These facts have not been linked until recently. Their success in the intellectual field was seen as due to social influences such as giving great importance to education. Genetic diseases stem from genetic isolation, as even today Ashkenazi tend to marry among themselves. In the past, they have done so almost without exception.
Dr. Cochran, on the other hand, thinks that intelligence and genetic diseases are related. He claims that the unique history of the Ashkenazim exerted unique evolutionary pressures on them which created the aforementioned paradoxical situation.
Ashkenazi history begins with the Jews' revolt against the Roman Empire in the first century CE. When this revolt was suppressed, Jewish refugees were deported to the Diaspora. The descendants of the expatriates to Europe were given the name Ashkenazi.
In the Middle Ages, European Jews suffered from legal discrimination, which pushed them into professions related to finances, such as banking or taxation, which were assigned or forbidden to the Christian public. This is Dr. Cochran's starting point.
Cochran argues that all the professions in which the Ashkenazi were concerned were those of great importance to intelligence. Of course, it is difficult to prove that the degree of intelligence determined the degree of success in the Middle Ages, but it is easier to prove the connection between the two in the parallel professions in modern times. Some studies have found that intelligence, measured by IQ tests, is directly related to salary size in professions such as banking.
What can be gleaned from historical records is the fact that Ashkenazi who succeeded in their work in the Middle Ages raised more children to maturity than those who did not succeed. Of course, this is also true of the other ethnic groups. But in the Middle Ages, success in Christian society characterized the violent aristocracy (lands and wars) and not the peaceful meritocracy (banking and commerce).
Combine the two things - compatibility between success and intelligence and compatibility between success and fertility - and you will find the right circumstances for the preference of high intelligence genes. The questions that arise here are, do such genes actually exist, and what exactly do they do? Dr. Cochran thinks they exist and are exactly the same genes that cause inherited diseases in the Ashkenazi population.
The relationship between sickle cell anemia and intelligence
The fact that small and isolated groups have a strong tendency to genetic diseases is well known. Marriages between relatives, however distant, reduce genetic diversity and increase the chance of the occurrence of certain genetic diseases. But the random manner in which the genetic processes occur should prevent a preference for certain diseases and certain genes. In the case of Ashkenazim, claims Dr. Cochran, the situation is different. Most of the genetic diseases common in Ashkenazim are divided into two groups: either storage diseases of special fats, called sphingolipids, in nerve cells, or diseases of damage to DNA repair processes. The first group includes genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs, Gaucher or Niemann-Pick. Cancer belongs to the second group.
It doesn't seem accidental. What is even less coincidental is the fact that in several different diseases the problem is in the same gene, but the disease differs in a different type of mutation. This lack of coincidence indicates a process of natural selection and the conservation of the gene. Admittedly, this situation does not explain how evolution can favor diseases, but there is other evidence for the preference of the defective.
Blacks who live in West Africa, and blacks from the descendants of this region, have a relatively high chance of contracting a disease called sickle cell anemia, a disease that does not exist anywhere else. The anemia develops in red blood cells that contain a certain type of hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen. But the disease exists only in those who carry two copies of the same gene (one copy from the mother and one from the father). Those who carry one copy are symptomless, but at the same time, they are protected from malaria, which is prevalent in this part of the world. And therefore, the theory claims, the pressure to leave one copy of the gene in order to prevent malaria balances the genetic pressure to eliminate the gene which may cause anemia. In this way the garden remains without spreading or shrinking.
Dr. Cochran claims that a similar mechanism operates in Ashkenazi Jews. Genes that promote intelligence in a single copy create a disease when they appear in two copies. This thesis is not as strong as the thesis regarding sickle cell anemia and malaria because he did not prove that the genes that create the disease actually affect intelligence.
The sphingolipid storage diseases Tay-Sachs, Gaucher, and Niemann-Pick involve overgrowth of certain areas that connect nerve fibers. Excessive growth of these regions (as two copies of the gene are created) is completely pathological. But it is possible that a single copy of that gene, and partial growth of these regions may improve intelligence. Indeed, in the case of Gaucher's disease, in the single variant, where the patients reach the age of majority, higher than average intelligence was observed. An Israeli clinic that treats patients with Gaucher's disease reports a large number of engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers among its patients, a greater proportion than in the rest of the population.
The prediction test
What is the connection between damage to the DNA repair mechanism and intelligence? It is not clear, and this is also the weakest point in the thesis, although recent evidence indicates the possibility that the gene in question is related to the initial development of the brain. But the thesis also has a strong point: it claims that people with a single Tay-Sachs, Gaucher, or Niemann-Pick gene should be smarter than average. Dr. Cochran and his associates claim that those with the single gene will receive a score that is on average 5 IQ points higher than the average. If this prediction is confirmed in tests, it will strengthen the idea that an experiment created by circumstances and nature in genetics made the Ashkenazim smarter, but at a heavy price.
Economist
23 תגובות
A mass grave of Ashkenazi Jews from the year 1349 was found, and you can see there that they are very similar to the Ashkenazim of today, many Eastern European Jews came there from Western Europe following the massacre of 1349 (following the Black Plague), but most researchers believe that despite the differences, there are Western and Eastern European Jews, they are the same XNUMX of the same ethnic origin, a large part if not most of the Torah books of the last thousand years were written in Europe, Rashi, those who have the additions, all my recent books...
There is no such thing as an "Ashkenazi genius", most of the Jews who describe themselves as "Ashkenazi" today are not descendants of the group called "Ashkenazi Jews" until the late Middle Ages. There were about 150,000 Ashkenazi Jews in all of Germany and France together in 1500, the vast majority of them were deported to Poland and Lithuania where tens of thousands of non-Ashkenazi Jews were already living like the rest of the Jews in Europe before the deportation of Ashkenazi Jews, for example the million+ who were already living in the territories of the Russian Empire at that time. In a population survey carried out in 1650, 162/165,000 Jews were found in Poland and an amount close to one hundred thousand in Lithuania. There is no way that the same group that was expelled from "Ashkenaz" would be responsible for the birth of more than 3 million Jews of the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe that were recorded at that time. The wording of Ashkenazi Jews was adopted during the 17th century by many in Europe who previously were speakers of Jewish-Slavic languages such as "the language of Canaan" and/or Romanians in their identity. And so, I disproved the myth about the "Ashkenazi genius".
If that's the case, every grocer or shopkeeper in the market has the potential to be a Nobel laureate in physics, since dealing with money is no stranger to them, bullshit.
P.S. - I know some of the above origin for whom stupidity is a compliment...
I know a few of the above origin for whom stupidity is a compliment...
Hello to all racists and ego boosters, all of you are just trying to hold on to the foundations of the altar of history, which all the way to this day legally establishes and strengthens discrimination, racism, hatred, competition, and all
I am oriental
And yes, it is clear that Ashkenazim as a group have a higher IQ than Mizrahim, and probably significantly so.
Why is it hard for people to accept this? Why is it so painful for people? Why do you make such a fuss about it?
Just as there can be differences in average height between nations, so there can be (and there are!) differences in intelligence
For better or for worse, these simply work.
In the end, no one prevents Mizrahi from studying in universities if he scored high in entrance exams.
And no one prevents a Mizrachi or an Ethiopian from taking entrance exams, because it is clear that the average does not indicate the rule.
This is called equal opportunity.
And in the end, Mizrahim are not stupid, they are quite average compared to the rest of the world, simply as a group Ashkenazim are more intelligent.
I'm actually happy for the Ashkenazim, I'm not really jealous, I'm even a little disappointed that in Israel they were measured about half a standard deviation below their average compared to the Ashkenazim in the West.
In short, stop being a real Butthurt, people need to get over it.
I don't agree with this at all. to conduct a formal study.
I know a fairly significant number of Mizrahi Jews with a higher IQ than me and my fellow Ashkenazis.
How many Jews were tested in this study? What ethnicity is everyone from? How were the tests formulated?
It sounds like one big bullshit to me.
Scientific developments were not only read in Europe. Algebra was founded in Arab countries, and there are a significant number of mathematicians from these countries. This is how chemistry will also be founded in Arab countries. And full of branches of art and music as well. and geometry and how many that the basis of the language originated in Egypt. This approach is simply wrong. Let an official study come out, and let it be accepted by legitimate scientists and then you will settle things.
The Ramban, the Rambam (as well as the Radak, our rabbi in my life and others with feelings of inferiority) and the rest of the scumbags are not people to be proud of.
They wrote that the woman desires to be a slave to the man and should be a slave. It might be understandable, if the only women they knew were beasts (and they themselves are less than a rat race)
It has nothing to do with the Torah and Judaism. Most of the "holy" texts for Judaism were written in areas with Arab/Muslim culture and that's how they look - like one big bullshit.
Which means there is no connection between high intelligence and Jews.
Perhaps (if at all) high intelligence is associated with Europeans and especially relatively closed European groups.
By the way, it is interesting that they never publish the fact that the IQ of Mizrahim is at least 10 points lower, but on the other hand, when one study showed that women have a lower IQ by one point, they did publish it (and by the way, a recent study showed that women have a higher IQ, so the results are not consistent) .
All is well and good until you forget the golden age of Spanish Jewry.
The Rambam, who by all accounts is the greatest of the generations, is not an Ashkenazi, Rihel, Ramban, etc
They are not Ashkenazim, this somewhat disproves the theory, as well as the great intellectuals
of ancient Judaism were in Iraq in the Sura and Pombadita yeshiva.
Also, many of the Ashkenazi Jews are actually from Spain and Portugal.
It is not true that they marry among themselves.
The seculars in the West tend to assimilate, but when the choice is an Ashkenazi or someone with a very different mentality, as in Israel - then the significant preference is for an Ashkenazi.
Ashkenazim/s in the USA for example, are the group least inclined to weddings/children, which means a good life, but a bit of a shame about the sequel.
Well, look, there is a very weighty claim against the Jewish genius - it's called the State of Israel.
By the way, unrelated, but the word Genius comes from the spirit that guards humans among the Romans, a kind of pagan guardian angel, here is something I wrote about it
http://israblog.nana10.co.il/blogread.asp?blog=112189&blogcode=10708011
Moises and my father:
The article brought by Moises is fascinating and it also includes the hypotheses you quoted from Yuval Na'im as one of the explanatory mechanisms.
The end of the article is really irrelevant because what is written in it is something like:
"Although I do not know that the Jews were smarter in the very distant past and I have no evidence that this was the case, but if I want to substantiate this claim I will have to base it on everything that God chose the Jews"
In short - this is not even speculation but a recipe for justifying unfounded claims.
It's like saying something like this:
"Although I do not know that the world was created 6000 years ago and there is no evidence that indicates this, but if I want to claim this I will have to base it on the claim that God created the world with all the fossils inside."
But as mentioned - with the exception of this strange addition, the article is very exhaustive.
I have a certain disagreement with the writer in the definition of spatial and visual perception that everyone who understands mathematics knows that they are a very essential part of it and excellence in mathematics and physics would not be possible without them. The author probably means by this expression the expressions of ability in the field of plastic art, but here he forgets one important thing and that is that the Jews always followed the commandment "Thou shalt not make for thee a statue, nor any likeness"
I think the answer is more prosaic and I quote the late Yuval Na'eman who said that among the Jews the wise student always marries the most fertile woman, while in the Christian church they took such people and turned them into priests and monks. I do not believe that the reason is genetic, but that priests and monks usually do not raise the Their children (because formally they are not allowed to have children, although they were already father and son pope) therefore cannot educate and teach them and pass on their intelligence to the next generation.
Go to the following link, and read the end of the article!
http://www.kivunim.org.il/article.asp?id=232
For Ashkenazi Jewry
It's a shame that you broke up with the love of your heart who is also a Ty Sachs carrier. In such a case, the recommendation is to be tested upon entering pregnancy, and if a sick fetus is detected (which is only a XNUMX/XNUMX chance) - the pregnancy is terminated. You are smart enough to know that your breakup had other reasons as well...
Imagine what would have happened if some Ashkenazi academic in Israel had written this article.
But the article is partial. There are other reasons for the difference such as:-
When there is a scholar among the Jews, he is paired with the high hierarchy such as the rabbi's house - conclusion: - the gardens are preserved.
When there is a Christian scholar he is sent to the clergy - the gardens are gone.
The Jews could not accept the conventional jobs such as carpenters, upholsterers, etc. that were reserved for the various guilds. But with regard to the new works, no one had any power such as: - All the works that resulted from the scientific development were open to the Jews.
Because of anti-Semitism, the Jews had to get higher grades than the gentiles in order to be able to advance. Unlike Christians who could be admitted to universities with lower grades.
Also the ongoing disturbances of the Jews usually left the more able survivors.
An interesting statistic:- over 15% of the Nobel Prize recipients are the Jews, whose share in the world population is about two per thousand!
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Ashkenazi quarter
Tal:
Even if intelligence is defined by coloring everything you see in green then we are not very intelligent.
It all depends on how you define the word "intelligence" if the definition of intelligence is whether the people are smart enough to prevent other peoples from committing a holocaust to them then the Jews are not intelligent
This study is amazing…
I am a Ty Sachs carrier and my IQ is according to a home test (not necessarily accurate)
Is 142.
Now I understand that there is also an advantage in that I had to say goodbye to the love of my heart 4 years ago, Ty Sachs carried himself. At least I got confirmation that I'm smart...
If they maintained genetic isolation, then what can be said about Caucasians or Yemenis?
And since when do Ashkenazis marry among themselves?
The majority are mixed
In relation to the rest of the Jews, they assimilated.
One in 10 Ashkenazim have a Christian father or grandmother..and in general they migrated from place to place..it's hard to say that they didn't mix.
What's more, they maintained distant marriages, unlike the eastern ones.