Thursday, March 26, 2009

Blacks think they are the smartest


The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health asked 310 teens to rate their intelligence. You can see in the graph that blacks are more likely than any other group to say they are moderately or extremely above average. By contrast, no Asians put themselves in the smartest category. Here are the means:

Mean self-perceived intelligence

White 3.74
Blacks 4.19
American Indian 3.52
Asians 3.79
Other 3.60

The black mean is four-tenths of a standard deviation higher than the Asian mean. As I showed with levels of national pride and national achievement, self-assessed IQ seems to be inversely related to actual IQ.

9 comments:

  1. " . . .self-assessed IQ seems to be inversely related to actual IQ."

    I've noticed this tendency on certain blogs where the commenters claim, nearly universally, to have IQs in the 140 range. Oddly, they never seem to dip below 139, and they aren't so bold as to claim 150+, but they all seem to fall into this miniscule sliver of the bell curve between 140 and 149.

    I'd never known before that so many geniuses and near-geniuses could be capable of such trite, obvious, and sometimes semi-literate observations. But I guess they're all really good at math.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that I've done this post, I'm going to say that mine is 75.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm clinically retarded . . . and lovin' it! Want to form a Mensa chapter?

    ReplyDelete
  4. What is the text of the question?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rate your intelligence--moderately below average, slightly below average, average, slightly above average, moderately above average, extremely above average.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And stereotype threat explanations for the Black-White IQ gap go whoosh!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6:56 PM

    In so far as self-assesments come from our interactions with others, it doesn't surprise me that blacks think they're smart.


    This is largely due to whites nodding their heads in agreement, or at least remaining silent, when stupid things are said by blacks.

    Watch shows like Bill Maher's or any other show with a live audience when they have a black guest. No matter what he says, no matter how banal or retarded, the crowd will burst into laughter (if it was meant ot be funny) or cheer wildly in agreement.

    I see this every day up close and personal. The normal feedback mechanism done broke.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Msupps12:13 AM

    IQ tests simply don't measure everything. Hell, I did score above 150 every time I was tested (I'll be the first to claim so going by Black Sea's remarks) K - 12 and I now have a decent job, but nothing spectacular. My younger brother scored just above 120, which is supposedly bright but not gifted, yet he's an MD, a specialist, with a fantastic career. So who's really smarter? I think I was just better at taking IQ tests, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous3:02 AM

    http://www.needlestick.com/forum/member.php?u=459117
    For the past 2 weeks Kaspersky has told me that I have 2 viruses..... but.... it does not give me the choice to remove them!! I really need help!! they are starting to cause my computer trouble!! ha does anyone know how to work kaspersky to get rid of viruses?? please help!! thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Are gun owners mentally ill?

  Some anti-gun people think owning a gun is a sign of some kind of mental abnormality. According to General Social Survey data, gun owners ...