This will no doubt not come as a surprise to my brilliant German blogger-colleagues, but a new study has determined that Germans are the most intelligent people in Europe:
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).
The study was performed by Professor Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster. But before my friend erphschwester gloats about her superior intellect, she should know that Professor Lynn also found that "men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average". Wasn’t Lawrence Summers recently thrown out of Harvard for making similar statements?
Evidently the higher intelligence has something to do with the colder climate.
“The early human beings in northerly areas had to survive during cold winters when there were no plant foods and they were forced to hunt big game,” he said. “The main environmental influence on IQ is diet, and people in southeast Europe would have had less of the proteins, minerals and vitamins provided by meat which are essential for brain development.”
So what are Germans going to do with these extra brain cells? I can only agree with Christy that they should get to work on solving global warming and discovering new sources of renewable energy.
Unfortunately Professor Lynn did not include Americans in his study, but I can imagine that statistics would show that those of us who live in the frozen north are smarter than our southern compatriots. We Mainers with our lobster-fed brains feel infinitely smarter that Texans, although I would hate to test Professor Lynn’s other thesis, namely, that in miltary warfare there exists “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”.
0 comment
Summers wasn’t the only smart Harvard guy making stupid sexist statements recently.
Harvey C. Mansfield, a neocon government professor from Harvard,
wrote a book about “Manliness.”
What the f*** is going on in Cambridge south of (north of?) the MIT?
If he would be a prof of gender studies or sociology, I would understand, but a prof government?
Yeah, you are absolutely right in your previous post about Neocons imploding. Now they blame Iraq on the women, it seems…
Well, I am glad they don’t blame it on Germany and France as some blog commentators do.
The Harvard Crimson wrote: Mansfield Clashes with Feminist Over ‘Manliness’:
““All of the greatest philosophers have been men,” he said.
“You’re so charming,” interjected Wolf, “but I’m profoundly offended.”
Mansfield also said the “manly man” is defined by his indifference to women and his refusal to pander to them.
“A woman [whom the manly man] loves, he will take guidance from, but women in general, he looks down upon,” Mansfield said.
Another key characteristic of Mansfield’s conception masculinity is authority.
“Women don’t have the same sense of authority,” he said.
When Wolf asked, “You need a penis to have authority?” Mansfield replied, “It helps.” ”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512240
More in the Wash Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502409.html
I think, Mansfield probably has an above average IQ, but most men with an average IQ would not make such stupid statements.
I am a Forrest Gump fan. “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Regarding the IQ of Germans: I never believed much in IQ tests. Besides, I am convinced that very smart people do very stupid things.
The more intelligent you are the more havoc you can create, if your intelligence is combined with arrogance.
The Neocons who got you in Iraq are extremely smart… A pretty small group of people convinced a big and great nation that has turned pretty skeptic of wars in the 90s and not willing to risk US soldiers’ lives, to start regime changes in the Middle East…
Ich habe herzhaft gelacht!
Wenn es nach den einschlaegigen Tests geht, ist mein IQ nur unwesentlich hoeher als der durchschnittliche. Wo bliebe dann der ganze PISA-Rest, der nicht einmal fehlerfrei schreiben kann, geschweige denn irgendwann freiwillig ein Buch in den Hand nehmen wuerde?
Ganz zu schweigen von der Tatsache, dass ich auf jeden Fall alles andere als Durchschnitt bin. 😉
Zu den Unterschieden zwischen Mann und Frau allerdings schweige ich mich vornehm aus. Allenfalls faellt mir dazu ein, dass die Menschheit ja vollkommen aussterben wuerde, muessten sich Maenner mit Frauen abfinden, zu denen sie aufzuschauen haben.
Und was die Chancen angeht, die einer solchen Feststellung fuer die Deutschen moeglicherweise innewohnen; ich bin nicht so schrecklich zuversichtlich. Ab einem bestimmten Grad von Macht, weicht der gesunde Menschenverstand vollkommen anderen Interessen.