Intelligence is Inherited

codeButcher writes: "Now you can blame it on your parents! NewScientist.com reports on a study done on twins, that determines that IQ [and lack thereof then too, I suppose] is inherited. Quote: The finding suggests that environment - their own personal experiences, what they learned in life, who they knew - played a negligible role in shaping it."

Intelligence vs. IQ

[Anonymous Coward]

The title of this article is misleading. Intelligence and IQ are two very, very different things. Having a high IQ may be a factor in making someone intelligent, but it's only that -- a factor. There are plenty of people with high IQs that aren't particularly bright, and I've met people with average IQs that are more intelligent than I can safely imagine.

In practice, IQs measure only one skill: how well you do on IQ tests.

(Incidentally, this isn't sour grapes -- I don't know what my IQ is exactly, but I'm told it's within a fraction of the top 1 percentile. And I don't consider myself particularly intelligent either.)

iq != intelligence

[sajiimori]

many of the traits that contribute to iq do seem to be heritable, but iq only seems to test things that we've evolved to solve problems that are specific to our ancestors' environment (visualizing 3d spaces, for instance), and very basic logic (that even the earliest computers had no problem with, but people often have a very difficult time with). neither of which is a good measurement of "generic intelligence", as if there is such a thing.

put simply, i just know too many people who test >150iq but don't know their ass from their elbow. :)

Human arrogance prevents us from accepting this

[Anonymous Coward]

It is politically incorrect to suggest that not all humans are born with with a clean slate and have the same potential. It's OK to say that people can inherit trivial things like hair or eye color, skin tone, and so on. But no one is willing to accept the fact that a brain is just another organ in the body - it can be affected by birth defects, it can be damaged by chemical abuse, and it can be affected by genetics.

The reasons people don't want to accept this are obvious, but they were similar to the reasons that kept the Ptolemic Solar System alive for centuries. Both sets of reasons are intellectually bankrupt.

Re:IQ Bunkum

[the eric conspiracy]

There is no good quantifiable measurement for intelligence.

You mean there is no generally accepted definition of intelligence.

Once you reach a conclusion as to what skills represent intelligence, it is quite clear that a test evaluating those skills is a very short step.

Re:Please tell this to teenagers...

[CentrX]

Despite that people use the word "stupid" to describe a broad range of characteristics, teenagers, rather than thinking their parents have a lack of raw intelligence, think, or know, their parents have a possible lack of understanding of their lives. This is not a judgement on parents' intelligence.

Re:This is perhaps about 5% away from being crap.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Furthermore, this whole IQ testing thing is pretty much bunk to begin with. "

Though many tests for IQ are biased or test things that are unrelated to "intelligence" (which I agree has a slippery definition), there are definitely mental abilities that can be objectively tested. The ability to hear a set of numbers and recite them back in reverse order, for example. Or the speed with which a person distinguishes between signals and gives the appropriate response. Different people do have different mental skills. The mind is a physiological thing, based solely on the brain--all matter and energy, nothing else there. Every other part of our bodies is governed by genetic makeup, and therefore heredity to some degree, so why not your brain, the source of your mind? People don't want to accept that there is a genetic source to intelligence (I suppose for well founded political reasons--it does supply racists with ammunition) and therefore try to claim that we cannot accurately define intelligence. I think this is bunk. Problem solving, attention span, creativity, all have a biological component because they are accomplished by the workings of a biological organ. And the structure and function of that organ depends, just like the rest of our bodies, in part on heredity.