In a sample of 59 countries, America is the 12th most racially tolerant

Sociology textbooks regularly state as if it were God's Truth that the United States is a fundamentally racist country. Let's try something different and instead of maligning a whole country, let's actually look at data.

Between 2010 and 2014, the World Values Survey asked 88,042 people from 59 countries if they would object to having neighbors of a different race.  Here are the percent who answered yes by country:

Percent objecting to a neighbor of a different race

Azerbaijan  58.1
Libya  55.1
Palestine  44.0
Thailand  39.7
Lebanon  36.3
Turkey  35.8
Ecuador  34.5
S. Korea  34.1
Yemen  34.0
Georgia  32.1
Armenia  31.8
Malaysia  31.3
Kuwait  28.1
Kyrgyzstan  28.1
Iraq  27.7
Jordan  27.2
India  25.6  
Estonia  25.4
Cyprus  24.8
Romania  23.5
Belarus  23.1
Japan  22.3
Philippines  21.6
Nigeria  20.9
Ghana  19.9
Algeria  19.8
S, Africa  19.2
Hong Kong  18.8

All Countries  18.6

Russia  17.2
Tunisia  16.9
Ukraine  16.9
Pakistan  15.7
Germany  14.8
Uzbekistan  14.0  
Morocco  13.8
Singapore  12.6
Kazakhstan  11.2
Slovenia  10.9
China  10.5
Mexico  10.2
Peru  9.3
Zimbabwe  8.9
Qatar  8.8
Taiwan  8.4
Netherlands  8.2
Haiti  6.3
Chile  5.6
USA  5.6
Poland  5.5
Australia  5.0
Spain  4.8
Rwanda  3.5
Colombia  3.2
New Zealand  2.9
Sweden  2.8
Brazil  1.9
Uruguay  1.6
Trinidad and Tobago 1.5
Argentina  1.0

So, in a sample of 59 countries, the United States is the 12th most tolerant. The percent of Americans not wanting a neighbor of another race is less than one-third the world average. Liberals should be ashamed of themselves for indicting our country. 

Whites in general are accused of being notoriously racist, but you can see that Western societies tend to be the most tolerant.  The most intolerant regions are Muslim and Asian.

Allelic variants found only in populations of African ancestry predict kidney disease and preeclampsia in blacks

Study Link

Black women in the United States and Africa are at an increased risk for preeclampsia. Allelic variants in the gene for apolipoprotein LI, APOL1, are found only in populations of African ancestry, and have been shown to contribute significant risk for kidney disease. Recent studies suggest these APOL1 variants also may contribute risk for preeclampsia.

Methods

The association of preeclampsia with carriage of APOL1 risk alleles was evaluated in a case-control study of deliveries from black women at a single center in Cleveland, Ohio that included gross and histopathologic evaluations of placental tissues (395 cases and 282 controls). Using logistic regression models, associations between fetal APOL1 genotype and preeclampsia were evaluated using several case definitions based on prematurity and severity of preeclampsia, with uncomplicated term pregnancies as controls. Associations between APOL1 genotype and pathological features were also examined.

Results

The infant APOL1 genotype was significantly associated with preeclampsia in a dominant inheritance pattern with odds ratio of 1.41 (P=0.029, 95% CI 1.037, 1.926). Stratifying preeclampsia cases by preterm birth, significant associations were detected for both recessive (O.R.=1.70, P=0.038) and additive (O.R.=1.33, P=0.028) inheritance patterns.

Genetic risk scores for obesity based on European populations work for Roma, too

Abstract from the journal Genes:

Investigations on the impact of genetic factors on the development of obesity have been limited regarding the Roma population—the largest and most vulnerable ethnic minority in Europe of Asian origin. Genetic variants identified from genetic association studies are primarily from European populations.

With that in mind, we investigated the applicability of data on selected obesity‐related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), obtained from the Hungarian general (HG) population of European origin, on the Hungarian Roma (HR) population.

Twenty preselected SNPs in susceptible alleles, known to be significantly associated with obesity‐related phenotypes, were used to estimate the effect of these SNPs on body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) in HG (N = 1783) and HR (N = 1225) populations. Single SNP associations were tested using linear and logistic regression models, adjusted for known covariates.

Out of 20 SNPs, four located in FTO (rs1121980, rs1558902, rs9939609, and rs9941349) showed strong association with BMI and WC as continuous variables in both samples. Computations based on Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII) and the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) European and Asian criteria showed rs9941349 in FTO to be associated only with WC among both populations, and two SNPs (rs2867125, rs6548238) in TMEM18 associated with WC only in HG population. A substantial difference (both in direction and effect size) was observed only in the case of rs1801282 in PPARγ on WC as a continuous outcome.

Findings suggest that genetic risk scores based on counting SNPs with relatively high effect sizes, defined based on populations with European ancestry, can sufficiently allow estimation of genetic susceptibility for Roma. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of SNP(s) with protective effect(s).

BMJ Editorial: Is ethnicity linked to incidence or outcomes of covid-19?

From BMJ:

Dear Editor

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) mortality disproportionately impacts BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) UK individuals, African Americans, Swedish Somalis,[1] and the institutionalised; particularly care-home residents. COVID-19 severity and mortality, appear related to vitamin D deficiency, [2 -12] helping explain higher COVID-19 mortality rates in BAME and the obese.[13]

Obesity is a strong COVID-19 risk factor, as are co-morbidities, including diabetes, cardio-vascular disease; and sedentary lifestyle; all are dependent on mitochondrial functionality (Gnaiger).[14] Fat cells accrete vitamin D.[15] The obese consistently have proportionately lower vitamin D status (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]).[16]

Vitamin D is a secosteroid hormone with various skeletal and non-skeletal effects including regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses. Vitamin D, by binding to the vitamin D response element in various gene-promoter-regions, decreases expression of pro-inflammatory-cytokines and increases production of antiviral and antibacterial[17] proteins, suggesting an important role in antiviral innate adaptive immunity.[18] Importantly, vitamin D is also involved in renin–angiotensin system regulation,[19] which is regulated by entry of the SARS-Cov-2 virus into cells via the ACE2 receptor, leading to cytokine storms, with subsequent fatal respiratory distress syndrome.[20]...

Currently, no effective COVID-19 treatment exists. Vaccines present enormous possibilities, but equally-large hurdles, and require time. Vitamin D biology, is a mature well-researched field, dating back 100 years. Doses, and risks, within clinical parameters, are established and well quantified. Governmental intake guidance exists. Vitamin D deficiency is a medically accepted condition, requiring treatment. Existing blood samples from COVID-19 hospitalized patients could be retrospectively tested for 25(OH)D and linked to outcomes.[25]

We and others (Grant, Lahore)[9, 34] hypothesize vitamin D may have clinical COVID-19 relevance. Vitamin D deficiency may biomark risk of sepsis in all populations; 25(OH)D was significantly lower in patients that died within 30 days.[35, 36] A French clinical RCT recently started, testing effects of a large single vitamin D dose, administered early in infection, compared to a standard dose, on the mortality of older COVID-19 infected adults deficient in vitamin D (Annweiler).[37]

Whilst clinical studies have potential, vitamin D deficiency is an existing, ubiquitous and pressing issue. Deficiency is variable, but widespread globally. BAME people in high latitudes are a group at high risk of deficiency, as observed by NICE[38] and others (Rhein).[39] Surprisingly, vitamin D may be a larger relative COVID-19 causative agent than socioeconomic-factors.[40] Importantly, vitamin D supplementation determinants should include basal level, genetic background, metabolic status and gender.

Albeit vitamin D deficiency most likely accounts for a greater COVID-19 impact on BAME, older, institutionalised and obese persons, COVID-19 severity would undoubtedly be exacerbated by, often socioeconomic related, general micro-nutrient inadequacies.[41, 42]...

Recognition (subject to proof by research), that vitamin D deficiency contributes to COVID-19 infection, progression, severity and mortality would demand policy rethinking on: the seasonality of COVID-19,[43] outdoor access, motivation for physical exercise, food fortification, supplementation, clinical treatment, and provision of free vitamin D supplements to institutions, front-line health and care workers. Sensible (according to latitude and weather) sun exposure is free, available to all and quickly improves vitamin D status, but is inhibited by lock-down...

New study: More African ancestry predicts reduced lung function in Puerto Ricans

Abstract

Introduction: In the U.S., asthma disproportionately affects urban minority populations, with Puerto Ricans showing the highest asthma prevalence 16.1%. However, what causes high asthma
prevalence among the Puerto Ricans is not very well understood. The varying proportions of African, European, and Native American genetic ancestry in Puerto Ricans can be leveraged to identify genetic determinants of clinically significant measures and outcomes such as lung function and asthma severity. We have previously demonstrated that genetic ancestry is associated with lung function.

Methods: In this current study, we sought to discover potential causal genes that may be associated with lung function in Puerto Rican islanders by applying admixture and fine mapping methods. A genome-wide admixture mapping study of lung function was conducted in 841 Puerto Rican children with and without asthma, who were recruited from Puerto Rico. After mapping admixture segments, we fine-mapped the genomic region using whole genome sequencing data. RNA-seq and eQTL mapping were used to elucidate underlying biologic links between genetic variants and lung function.

Results: The association test between local genetic ancestry and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) identified a strong admixture mapping peak on chromosome 1q32, indicating that each African ancestry allele was associated with a 0.13 liter decrease in the volume of exhaled air [95%CI: -0.08 to -0.18, p-value=4.90×10-8]. Three variants identified from the fine-mapping analysis were eQTL of TMEM9 gene in nasal epithelial cell. The minor allele of the variant associated with TMEM9 gene (rs10920079) tracked with African ancestry and was associated with significantly decreased lung function and TMEM9 gene expression. TMEM9 was inversely correlated with proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 and IL-1β gene expressions.

Conclusion: The results from admixture mapping discovered variants that were associated with decreased lung function. Functional annotation and validation with RNA-seq and eQTL mapping indicate that these SNPs may be involved with regulating cytokine production, which may influence the lung function of Puerto Ricans.

Study: More Amerindian ancestry confers significant protection against onset of Alzheimer's

Abstract
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide, and bears remarkable evidence for a differential prevalence among continental populations. In this scenario, estimating ancestry proportions in recently admixed populations is a strategy that can help increasing knowledge about the genetic structure of this complex trait.

Aim/Methods: Our purpose was to assess mean ancestry estimates for the three main parental contributors to the Brazilian contingent (European, African and Amerindian) using a panel of 12 ancestry informative markers. Outpatients with the late-onset form of AD (n = 120) were compared for ancestry levels with non-cognitively impaired subjects (n = 412) in the Midwest Brazil, controlling for classic clinical, social and anthropometric risk factors.

Results: Our findings show a 3-fold greater genetic Amerindian content among control subjects compared to AD patients (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the allelic architecture of Native Americans can confer protection against the onset of the disease.


See how anti-Native American racism destroys... oh, I guess it doesn't work this time.

Study: Prostate cancer associated with more African ancestry among Brazilians

From Genetics and Molecular Research:

"We genotyped 11 ancestry informative markers to estimate the contributions of African, European, and Amerindian ancestries in a case-control sample of 213 individuals from Bahia State, Northeast Brazil, including 104 prostate cancer patients. We compared this data with self-reported ancestry and the stratification of cases by prostate cancer aggressiveness according to Gleason score. A larger African genetic contribution (44%) was detected among cases, and a greater European
contribution (61%) among controls."

But don't forget: Race has nothing to do with genes.

Does gun possession signal that a white man is a criminal? How about a black man?

Many people who saw armed white citizens in the Michigan Statehouse recently assumed they were violent-prone, and that armed black men would not be given the freedom to act that way. (I remember seeing armed black men unmolested at conservative rallies.) 

The General Social Survey asked participants if they own a handgun and also if they have ever been arrested (male sample size = 5,194). The percent of male handgun owners with at least one arrest is as follows:

Percent of men with a handgun who have ever been arrested
Whites  18.4
Blacks  28.3
Other race  26.7

Let's keep things simple and call arrestees criminals.  The conclusion we can draw here is that if all we know about a man is that he has a gun, our best bet is that he is NOT a criminal. Second, a black man with a handgun is 1.5 times more likely to be a criminal than a white man, and the increased risk for a man of another race is 1.45. 

Research indicates that black males are more reluctant than white males to admit to ever having been arrested, so the actual racial gap might be even bigger. Studies of large cities like DC or Philadelphia have found that roughly 50% of black men have ever been arrested.

Study: Compared to whites, blacks are 1.75 times more likely to believe that there is no wrong way to make money

It is a common belief in sociology that the source of our greed is the market. Our economic system turns us into unprincipled money chasers.

If that were the case, then the people most integrated into the market would be the most unprincipled. Compared to whites, blacks are more often at the margins of the system, so they should be more likely to retain the natural, biological desire to earn an honest dollar.

General Social Survey respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "To make money, there are no right and wrong ways any more, only easy and hard ways."

Here are the percentages listed by race of those who agreed (sample size = 4,376):

Percent agreeing there is no wrong way to make money

Whites  22.8
Blacks  39.9
Other race  33.3

Blacks are 1.75 times more likely than whites to feel there is no wrong way to make money. This helps explain their greater involvement in illegal money-making.

The hypothesis that is consistent with this data is that integration into the market makes one more honest about how to make money, and the data here contradict the Rousseauian view that innocent human nature is corrupted by social institutions.

Study: More African ancestry predicts diabetes among blacks

You know a social problem becomes serious and legit when we discover--and only when we discover--that it is hitting blacks disproportionately. Brain cancer--not a major problem.  It hits whites worse.

Now that we see that WuFlu is bad in black communities, we get the same old lament about omnipresent anti-black racism. Heck, you'll see it on Fox about as much as anywhere. The American people can never hear enough that disease is colorblind... but we are not.

Let's see what actual scientific research has to say about one of the conditions putting you at risk of Covid-19, diabetes:

The risk of type 2 diabetes is twice as high for blacks as whites, even after adjusting for  socioeconomic status (SES). This suggests that genetic factors may help explain the racial gap.

The researchers in the linked study conducted an admixture analysis using 2,189 ancestry-informative markers in 7,021 African Americans. The group that was highest in African ancestry was 1.3 times more likely to have diabetes than the lowest ancestry group. This was true after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and SES.

Race is genetic, and it matters, people. But you'll never hear that on Fox.


(Hat tip to Greg Cochran on the article.)

Study: Does a strong ethnic identity make whites happier?

The General Social Survey asked respondents, "When you think about yourself, how important is your ethnic group membership to your sense of who you are? Answers ranged from very important (4) to not important at all (1).  They were also asked about how generally happy they are these days with answers ranging from very happy (3) to not too happy (1). Here are the means for happiness listed by level of ethnic identification (sample size = 1,087):

Mean happiness

How important is your ethnicity?
Very   2.28
Moderate   2.23

Slightly   2.17

Not at all   2.17

On average, whites who are more ethnocentric are happier. The effect is statistically significant but small (around a one-fifth of a standard deviation between the extreme categories). 

It seems to me that ethnic or racial pride is a form of self-esteem, and feeling good about oneself promotes happiness. 

What explains the tremendous cross-national variation in religious devotion? IQ? Race?

If you're like me, you could use a break from all the coronavirus, stuff, so let's focus for a moment on race, IQ, and religion. The 2010-2014 World Values Survey asked 88,042 around the world whether they were religious, not religious, or atheist. Here are the percentages listed by country who answered that they were religious:

Percent religious

Pakistan    99.7
Georgia   97.1
Ghana   97.0
Nigeria   95.9
Rwanda   95.9
Qatar   93.8
South Africa   90.7
Haiti  90.3 
India  88.8
Armenia  88.5
Yemen   86.3
Poland   86.2
Turkey   83.5
Colombia  82.5
Morocco   82.4
Peru   81.5
Romania  81.4
Philippines   80.7
South Africa  80.0
Brazil  79.7
Trinidad and Tobago  78.8
Cyprus   78.3
Iraq   76.8
Algeria   74.2
Mexico   74.2
Azerbaijan  73.2
Palestine  72.4
Ecuador   71.1
Libya   68.5
Ukraine   68.3
Argentina   67.8
USA   67.0

Total Sample  66.7

Tunisia   65.1
Slovenia   64.2
Lebanon   63.6
Belarus   62.2
Kazakhstan   61.7
Malaysia   53.7
Russia   53.1
Singapore   53.1
Uruguay   50.8
Chile   50.3
Germany   49.5
Uzbekistan   48.7
Netherlands    43.8
Taiwan   43.3
Netherlands   43.8
New Zealand   42.7
Spain   40.0
Thailand   32.0
Sweden   31.2
Estonia   30.9
Japan   20.9
Hong Kong  19.8
China  12.5

First, the world is quite religious: two-thirds of the total sample described themselves this way. On the other hand, there is tremendous variation. Almost all Pakistanis are religious, while few Chinese are.

On the issue of race, noticeable patterns emerge. South Asians and blacks tend to be very religious, and while the numbers here suggest Islam is associated with greater religiosity, countries like India, Ghana, and Rwanda show that South Asians and blacks do not need to be Muslim to be highly religious. The least religious country with lots of blacks is Trinidad and Tobago, but it is still well above average.

On the other end, East Asians are typically secular. China is at the bottom with 12.5% religious. Filipinos are the exception. This raises the importance of IQ in explaining religiosity. Depending on the estimate, mean IQ for the Philippines is between 74 and 86, and research clearly shows that lower IQ people tend to be more devout.

Europeans vary a lot with levels from 97.1% in Georgia down to 30.9% in Estonia.  Historical factors are important, but a virtue of focusing on IQ is that it helps simplify the world--a major goal of science. Estonians, for example, have a mean IQ of around 100, while it is in the low to mid-90s in Georgia.

Muslim-dominated societies vary quite a bit, too, from 99.7% religious (Pakistan) to 48.7% (Uzbekistan). IQ appears to be a little higher in Uzbekistan. Malaysia, another somewhat secular,  Muslim-dominated country (53.7% religious) has a mean IQ somewhere in the low-to-mid 90s. Overall, Muslim countries are religious.

Latin Americans countries are also fairly devout. On the high end, 82.5% of Colombians are religious, and on the low end, 50.3% of Chileans. Again, IQ might help explain the pattern: it's in the high 80s in Chile, but the low 80s in Colombia.

It looks like any association between race, ethnicity and religious devotion is, in large part, simply a reflection of differences in IQ.  The simple three-race categorization works very well: blacks (low IQ/high religiosity), whites (medium IQ/medium religiosity), and East Asians (not Filipinos) (high IQ/low religiosity). We could add South Asians as well (low IQ/high religiosity).

New Italian study: Men, on average, have higher levels of perceptual reasoning and working memory

A new Italian study led by a female researcher and published by the flagship journal Intelligence reports that men, on average, have higher levels of perceptual reasoning and working memory.

Perceptual reasoning refers to mental operations used to analyze novel problems, rules, and logical relationships, and to create and test solutions. By working memory, researchers mean storing, focusing attention on, and manipulating information for a relatively short period of time.

The researchers are concerned with sex differences in subtest scores that could be due to test bias or social ways that the sexes might differ, and not due to differences in general ability (that are presumably due to biological factors).

They reasoned that if subtest scores are due to broad abilities, the size of the sex difference for the subtest should correspond to the factor loading on the broad ability. For example, if the sex difference on the arithmetic is large, the sex difference on working memory (i.e., a higher-order ability) should also be large. If the latter is small but the former is larger, the authors contend that there is bias in the arithmetic test.

While authors find evidence of some bias in the WAIS-R test, they conclude that the WAIS-IV is "quite fair." If we focus on the results from the WAIS-IV data, we find that men have a small advantage in perceptual reasoning and a moderate advantage in working memory (3 IQ points).

By contrast, there are no significant sex differences in verbal reasoning or processing speed. (Some studies have found a female advantage in processing speed). When indices are combined to created a full-scale IQ score, men have a small advantage--perhaps 1 or 2 IQ points. And, according to the authors, these differences are due to broader abilities, not various forms of bias.

UPDATE: An interesting sidenote: When analyzing WAIS-IV, the researchers look at the sex differences for 15 subtests. You might expect that if there is unintentional test bias, men would come out ahead in some tests, while women might in others. But in zero of the 15 tests do women have a statistically significant advantage.

New research finds cortical differences between seriously antisocial individuals and controls

In this new study, structural MRI data were collected on 672 45-year-old participants in the Dunedin Study, a population-representative longitudinal cohort. Twelve percent were classified as having life-course persistent (LCP) antisocial behavior, while 23% were categorized as having adolescent-limited (AL) antisocial behavior. 

These are classifications developed by criminologist Terrie Moffitt back in the 90s who hypothesized that the LCP pattern is characterized by genetically-rooted, neurological deficits, while the AL pattern is explained more by social factors experienced during adolescence.

The authors found that the LCP group, compared to the low antisocial behavior group, had a significantly smaller mean global surface cortical area and lower mean cortical thickness. The effect sizes were of moderate size for the cortical area and of smaller magnitude for the cortical thickness.

The cortical measures for the AL group were not significantly different than those for the low antisocial group.

The authors concluded that the results for both the LCP and AL groups were consistent with Moffitt's theory of antisocial behavior.

Do intelligent Mormons and Muslims have more kids than their less intelligent counterparts?

Mormons and Muslims are two groups that tend to have a lot of children. Strongly religious groups often do. Is there any chance that, unlike most Americans, their fertility patterns are eugenic? For example, do smarter individuals have more children?

The General Social Survey (GSS) asks about how many children you have had, but there are a couple problems with using this question. The sample sizes for women or adults who would be finished with having children is small, and GSS's annoying practice of putting Mormons in the "other" category forces us to rely on the question about one's religion at age 16--a question not asked of many people in the sample.

An alternative is to use the question about one's number of siblings. Since the GSS is an adult sample, most respondents will not gain any future siblings. Because the samples are still small, I've divided people into a high (7-10 answers correct on WORDSUM) or low IQ group (0-6 answers correct).

Mean number of siblings

Mormons (n = 44)

High IQ   3.63
Low IQ    4.05

Muslims (n = 73)

High IQ   4.05
Low IQ    5.04

Both religions have large families, but the lower IQ groups average more siblings. So even for groups known for their fertility, the trend is dysgenic: compared to the unintelligent, the intelligent devote more of their energy to careers, money, etc., than to having kids. Over the very long term, these groups are getting genetically dumber. Just like everyone else.

If IQ were skin color, how visible would the racial gap be?

I often describe the differences between groups in terms of standard deviations or Cohen's d, but maybe we can get a clearer picture of what these mean with a black-and-white example; namely, skin tone.

Skin color is a very noticeable racial difference and tends to dominate discussions of race even though it is just one characteristic. People focus on it because it is obvious, and I suspect race deniers like it because they can treat it as something superficial, something only shallow people would focus on. People like Dinesh D'Souza who I often agree with will say idiotic things like race is nothing but a "coat of paint." Never mind that skin is our largest organ and carries out many important functions, and that skin color appears to have important functions as well. And anyone who claims that aesthetics aren't important doesn't know human nature.

Anyway, General Social Survey interviewers were asked to rate the skin tone of respondents with a number ranging from 1 (lightest) to 10 (darkest). The lightest ethnic group is Americans of Danish descent with a mean of 1.33. (I'm weird because I'm all NW European and 1/8th Danish but look like an Arab). We'll use Danes as the comparison group. What I show below is the gap between the Danish mean and the mean for the focal group in terms of standard deviations:

Degree to which group is darker than Danish Americans (in sd units)

Blacks  2.2
West Indians  2.2
Asian Indians  1.3
Mexicans  0.8
Filipinos  0.8
American Indians  0.8
Puerto Ricans  0.7
Chinese   0.6
Japanese   0.6

Total Sample  0.6

Spanish   0.5
Arabs   0.5
Jews  0.3
Portuguese  0.2
Italians  0.2
Greeks  0.2

A gap of 2.2 standard deviations between Danes and blacks is so huge, it's the reason why people decided long ago to define groups as the opposite of each other: black and white. If a study reports a 2 sd gap, be impressed.

Another way of describing the gap goes like this: not a single black in the sample is lighter-skinned than any Dane, and 97% of Danes are lighter than 94.5% of blacks.

If you want a visual that matches the size of the black/white IQ gap (1 sd), think of the color gap between Danes and a typical Mexican and typical Asian Indian blended together--a very large difference. Another way of saying this is that the black/white IQ gap is only half the size of the color gap.

Even a difference that is only 10% of the black/Dane gap is still visually easy to detect: the Italian and Greek means are 0.2 standard deviations darker than Danes--0.2 considered a very small difference--but southern Europeans are known for being darker than northern Europeans. The higher Spanish mean is probably due to darker Hispanics claiming Spain as their homeland.

Who has more general knowledge--men or women?

Richard Lynn and colleagues have done a series of studies (6) in multiple countries looking to see if there are sex differences in knowledge.  The thesis is that more intelligent people seek out and absorb more knowledge of all types.

The researchers focused on a wide variety of topics. Here are the sex differences in Cohen's d effect size statistics: over, say, 0.8 would be considered large. The black/white IQ gap is around 1.0, for example. A positive effect size indicates a male advantage; a negative Cohen's d means female advantage:

Sex difference--Cohen's d

General knowledge  .53
Games   .51
Jazz and blues  .46
Sports   .39
Finance  .35
Exploration   .33
General science   .32
Politics  .28
Geography  .27
History  .26
Medicine  -.24
Cookery   -.22
Classical music  -.19
Biology   -.11
Film   -.11
Art  -.08
Popular music  -.07
Fashion  -.05
Literature  .01

Men know more in 10 categories, while women take the lead in 8 areas. The female advantages tend to be small. When it is all summed up, men score one-half a deviation more than women. The samples are teenagers and young adults.  The male advantage would probably be bigger if the sample was older--knowledge accumulates with time.

The sex differences make sense. Men tend to know more about the more impersonal subjects: finance and science. Women tend to know a little more in softer "home topics" like medicine and cooking.

The results are consistent with the view that mean male intelligence is a few points higher than the female mean.

Who is more likely to be arrested--a white or black rapist?

Looking at the period 2005-2010, Steve Sailer shows that the black rate rape was 3.5 times higher than the white/Hispanic rate. His calculations are based on a very large national survey of Americans that asks about being a victim of crime and the characteristics of offenders.

If we do the same calculation based on FBI arrest data for the years 2008-2010 (2005-2007 are not available), the black rate is 3.1 times higher. What this tells us is that black rapists are less likely to get arrested than white/Hispanic rapists. The bias at the level of arrest is in favor of blacks and is in direct contradiction to the message that is drummed into us on a daily basis that the criminal justice system is deeply racist.

The Inductivist admits that culture matters

A pure naturist would claim that the culture of East Asians would not change after moving to America. Let's test this with one question from the General Social Survey that should differentiate Asians and whites: whether a not a child should learn to think for himself. Answers ranged from "most important for a child" (5) to least important (1).

Research has found that Westerners value independent-mindedness, while the East emphasizes fitting in. Here are the means for 1) American whites (n = 19,602), 2) Chinese (n = 102) and Japanese immigrants (n = 31), and 3) American-born Chinese ( n = 25) and Japanese (n = 26).

Mean score--valuing thinking for yourself

Native-born whites  4.00

American-born Japanese   4.00

American-born Chinese   3.72

Japanese immigrants   3.45

Chinese immigrants   3.18

Asians with individualist attitudes might choose to move to America, so the most relevant comparison is between immigrants and American-born Asians. The mean for Japanese immigrants is close to a half of a standard deviation less individualist than whites, but the American-borns do not differ from whites. 

Chinese immigrants are less individualist than Japanese immigrants, and while they do assimilate the same distance as the Japanese (roughly 1/2 sd), there remains a small difference between American-born Chinese and white Americans. 

So, the GSS data suggests that while genes might play a small role in the case of the Chinese, culture seems more important here. It might be the case that culture can influence attitudes quite a bit, but might have less impact on behavior (e.g., time studying) or abilities (e.g., IQ). 

UPDATE: I thought of a way that the Asian American embrace of independent-mindedness could be genetic: Asians might be predisposed to conform to whatever the mainstream culture is even if it's individualistic! 

By the logic of race deniers, sex is not real biologically either

A common argument made by race deniers is that since there is more variation within races than between them, race does not exist. Let's see how silly this seems if applied to something else.

Let's grab a random example of an obvious difference between men and women: height. The General Social Survey asked 2,632 people how tall they were in inches. The between-group variance is 8.04, while the within-group variance is 8.77. This means that women differ with each other in terms of height more than the sexes differ. Same for men. By the logic of the race deniers, sex is not a real thing.

Of course, these days many liberals believe that sex is not a biological reality, but they're daffier than Uncle Jaffey.