“Faulty” Genes Make Jews Smarter, Said Scientists

By Alex in Politics, Science & Tech on Apr 21, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Gregory Cochran, physicist and professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, was puzzled at the unusually high prevalence of deadly genetic disorders in European Jews. Shouldn’t natural selection flush these dangerous genes from the gene pool or at least not make ‘em appear in such high frequency in that population?

Then one morning, Cochran came upon his solution – and with the help of population geneticist Henry Harpending, he immediately touched off a charged debate in the scientific community: some genes make Jews smarter.

Cochran, 55, and Harpending, 65, say there’s no question that as a whole, Ashkenazi Jews — those of European descent — have an abundance of brain power. (Neither man is Jewish.)

Psychologists and educational researchers have pegged their average IQ at 107.5 to 115. That’s only modestly higher than the overall European average of 100, but the gap is large enough to produce a huge difference in the proportion of geniuses. When a group’s average IQ is 100, the percentage of people above 140 is 0.4%; when the average is 110, the genius rate is 2.3%.

Though Jews make up less than 3% of the U.S. population, they have won more than 25% of the Nobel Prizes awarded to American scientists since 1950, account for 20% of this country’s chief executives and make up 22% of Ivy League students, the pair write.

"People are perfectly willing to admit that some people are taller or some people are shorter," Cochran said. "But no one wants to say ‘This group is smarter.’ "

That, said another scientist, is the rub:

"What are their theories about those on the opposite end of the spectrum?" asked Neil Risch, director of the Institute for Human Genetics at UC San Francisco, who finds the matter so offensive he can barely discuss it without raising his voice. "Do they have genetic theories about why Latinos and African Americans perform worse academically?"

Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times has the rest of the story: Link

Tags: Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending, Intelligence, Jew, Race

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oh man
Apr 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Science doesn’t care about hurt feelings…the facts are the facts.
striatic
Apr 21st, 2009 at 4:41 pm
i’m not going to dismiss a genetic argument for intelligence out of hand, but in reading this article no argument for genetics is really made.

“Though Jews make up less than 3% of the U.S. population, they have won more than 25% of the Nobel Prizes awarded to American scientists since 1950, account for 20% of this country’s chief executives and make up 22% of Ivy League students” is just correlation. the cause for this could be genetic or it could be cultural.

it is an argument for biology that is surprisingly light on biology. where’s the beef? where is the genetic evidence itself, beyond the statistical correlations presented?

i tried to read further to see if the scientists produced a biological basis for the claim, but only found out that the scientist proposing this claim isn’t a biologist, but a physicist.
Alice
Apr 21st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Feeling proud to be a genetic defect Ashkenazi Jew
shea
Apr 21st, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Maybe more so cultural? As a people who have been kicked out of every country they’ve tried to settle, human capital (brains) was the only thing portable enough to take from place to place in one piece.
cnidaria
Apr 21st, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I disagree with this theory. These scientists need to look at the cultural factors. Many Jewish parents, like Japanese and Chinese parents, put huge pressure on their kids to perform academically and succeed in intellectual pursuits. Being smart and successful is generally more valued than other things by Jewish parents. In Latino culture, family is generally more important than academics, so kids are encouraged to get good jobs and support their families. Neither way is better, nor do I think either is genetically motivated.

One possible reason for the prevalence of genetic disorders in Jewish people could also be cultural. People generally want to marry into their own racial/religious group, but since the Jewish gene pool is much smaller than it used to be, a bunch of bad recessive genes have cropped up.
Tempscire
Apr 21st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Continuing cnidaria’s comment about marrying within one’s own culture for the prevalence of genetic diseases, perhaps “self-taught” geneticists (per the article’s language) should take a genetics course or two. Recessive diseases haven’t been eliminated through natural selection because, well…they’re recessive.

I’ve heard that the average person carries about 5 genes for potentially lethal/crippling recessive disorders. You wouldn’t ever know unless you had your DNA sequenced or if you had the bad luck to reproduce with another carrier and create a diseased child.

So you get a historically fairly homogeneous group of people generally tending to marry others of the same ethnic backgrounds… yeah, you’re going to see more recessive diseases. Same reason incest is bad: the bad recessive genes start to pile up.

It would be interesting if there were an IQ/DNA link, but I don’t think these men are onto it.
ted
Apr 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Is that what scientists says? (title obviously not written by a smart jew)
Justin
Apr 21st, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I agree with the others who think there isn’t very good science here. As one of the critics said, if you are going to use the evidence they described then you would therefore have to conclude that African Americans, and Hispanics are, as a race, genetically inferior when it comes to intelligence.

Is that what you think, because I find that idea ridiculous.

In other news, white people are genetically predisposed to be better at NASCAR Racing!
DaveL
Apr 21st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
So now I can tell people who are good with money that they have “the jew gene” without being an antisemite? That sounds like win-win.
JoannaL
Apr 21st, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I’m more interested to know why people get angry — actually angry — at the “X is superior, therefore Y is inferior” argument in this case. If you did a study that showed African-Americans or Hispanics were better at something, would these same people get outraged on behalf of the inferior whites and Asians?
Alex
Apr 21st, 2009 at 7:58 pm
@ted – see the typo post above
Kalel
Apr 21st, 2009 at 8:46 pm
He’ll sell some books, he’ll get a few grants, some extremists may even quote him… but in end, he just didn’t do the science.
Dandy
Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
The worst part is that they have the unmitigated gaul to voice their THEORIES as if they were fact.

Idiots!
MightyCow
Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Correlation =/= Causation.
Art Vandelay
Apr 21st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Finally a reason to gloat about being Jewish, but I highly doubt it’s gonna start making girls flock to my presence. The study itself is interesting, but makes me Oy Vey at it’s implications.
Video Game Dork
Apr 21st, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Shmontses!
wugou
Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I would put my money on this having more to do with socio-economic status than genetics.

Also, isn’t this topic essentially the antithesis of Godwin’s Law? Discuss.
Edward
Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Why so serious?

We Are the Champions!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

Of the World.
Jett
Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Eugenics is fun!
Steve Smith
Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Sadly, the enhanced gene for intelligence in Jews takes up the spot that would normally be used for Athletic Prowess in other races of people.
Bart
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 1:56 am
Psychologists and educational researchers have pegged their average IQ at 107.5 to 115.

Smells like fake precision to me.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/fakeprec.html
lasagne
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 4:12 am
Yeah, sure.
K.C.
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 am
Maybe it’s because they have a culture that breeds for quality over quantity. Jews seem to have a few kids, and make sure they are educated and cared for, whereas others groups seem to breed like vermin, and ignore their kids. I doubt it’s genetic, because for over 1800 years their blood was mixed with every country in which they had been residing. I’m not Jewish, and my kid has an I.Q. of 141. I think the reason is, I paid a lot of attention to how Jews raise their kids. (Jah knows it wasn’t genetic)
GQ
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 5:12 am
“In other news, white people are genetically predisposed to be better at NASCAR Racing!”

I LOL’d at this.
John Purchase
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 7:00 am
Any science that’s based on IQ being a measure of intelligence is probably bad science. It is an empirical test – you decide who’s smart in advance and then select a set of questions that probably only they can answer. They’d likely score below average on the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Intelligence_Test_of_Cultural_Homo geneity) but this wouldn’t lead me to the conclusion that their faulty genes make them dumb.
John Giotta
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 8:02 am
Its being Jewish a religious commitment? Since when is being Jewish designate a new race? Yes, I’m aware of selective breeding, but can’t you perform the same research to other religions?
Gauldar
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 9:54 am
@john giotta

Being Jewish is as much a cultural thing as much as it is religious. You can be Jewish and non-religious. Is it possible to be Christian and non-religious?
Gauldar
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
@lasagne

I agree, this does sound like it’s full of non-science nonsense.
Gauldar
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
@GQ

I think white people have bred into themselves the ability to be adept at tailgating.
Byrd Brain
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 am
John Purchase! The B.I.T.C.H.!! Yes!!!! One of my psychology texts in college had a blurb about it. I was astounded by the mentality behind it. The definition for the word “Blood” is not “the liquid material running through your veins”, but a “brother of color”.
santamontana
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
“Psychologists and educational researchers have pegged their average IQ at 107.5 to 115″

So when asked for an average I can give a range? Let me go back to my elementary school workbooks.
Ben Eshbach
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
This kind of stuff was debunked by Stephen J. Gould and Richard Lewontin ages ago.
skidworth
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
the reason jews become academics is because they don’t work real jobs. they barter goods and exchange money.
phrawgg
Apr 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
You’re a racist, skidworth.

Ever wonder why Jews are often richer than the rest of us? We study our asses off and it pays off. Get off the internet and go back to school.

As for the genetics argument, I agree, its BS.
Edo
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 7:31 am
This is an old internet meme; here is a 2003 version:

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail264.html#sma rts

This formulation is much more developed and a lot more interesting. One version: Jews got their smarts by running a 5,000 year breeding experiment. Girls were encouraged to marry guys who excelled in mastering the intricacies of Jewish law – in essence, a life-long intelligence/reasoning test. People who weren’t smart enough were not encouraged to stay in.
Edo
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 am
I forgot to mention that it also noted that Tay-Sachs, a neurological genetic disorder for which Ashkenazi Jews are routinely tested before marriage, is theorized to be the bad side of brain overclocking achieved through selective breeding. It’s really a pretty cool idea.
oh man
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 7:50 am
The most minor traits, even such as how many friends you are likely to have, have been found to have a genetic basis. West Africans are genetically predisposed to have more fast-twich muscles. But when it comes to intelligence, no one wants to admit that one particular trait, out of alllll human traits, has any genetic basis at all. But it does. The reason we are smarter than other animals can be found in our genese, and the reason why some people tend to be smarter than others can also be found there. If this genetics/intelligence science were about comparing different groups of some species of parrot, nobody would bat an eye. But because its dealing with humans, the PC crowd wants to have a hissy fit and shut down research in this ares (Rose).
Wok
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
Science: ur doin it wrong
kev
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
This particular conclusion on Eastern European Jews may be weak, but the general premise that there is a variation among racial groups in terms of intelligence would seem almost certainly true. There are physical variations among racial groups in terms of height, etc. that are easily measured and uncontroversial. What are the odds that each racial group developed an identical gene pool for intellectual traits when there is measurable variation in some many other traits?

The problem with discussing variations in intelligence is (i) the difficulty of agreeing on what it is and how to measure it and (ii) the profound discomfort on the part of so many (even people who call themselves genetic “scientists”) in even discussing the concept. In terms of the development of scienticfic advances in this area, the latter seems to me the bigger problem.
Puzzled Monkey
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I am Jewish. In some fields, I’m considered brighter than 98% portion of the population. In others, I’m completely inept. My children (whose parents are both Ph.D.’s) and most of my cousins fall squarely within the norm of intelligence.

In school, the only difference I ever noticed between my abilities and those of the brighter set of my peers was that I have a slightly better memory. I’m not that much smarter, actually — it takes me many repetitions to understand things, but I’m stubborn and enjoy the repetition. That’s not intelligence, really. More RAM as opposed to a faster CPU. I know plenty of people with faster CPUs .

The main difference I’ve seen that leads to increased intelligence is (1) answering children’s questions in a way that keeps them curious, (2) providing an environment that enables that curiosity to grow, and (3) challenging assumptions (in a positive and nurturing way) so the child doesn’t settle into the rut of thinking he/she already knows everything. A child raised this way will derive great pleasure from learning, and strong emotion is one of the most reliable ways to retain facts in one’s memory.

So maybe I inherited some recessive gene that has a higher probability of occurring in my gene pool. Does that really make a difference? It is still insulting to be regarded as a freak or unfairly advantaged because of something I have no control over. Other than family environment, the pleasure of finding things out is accessible to anyone with sufficient motivation, and can take you just as far.

Paying attention to supposed genetic or cultural “advantages” feels a lot like the dumbing down that happens in grade school, where anyone who works hard to achieve things is resented and picked on for making things harder for everyone else.
Puzzled Monkey
Apr 23rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
PS: I’m not a carrier of any of the known Ashkenazi Jewish genetic disorders.
AWhitman
Apr 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Jews are inferior to whites.
Daniel J
May 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
John Giotta, being Jewish isn’t only a ethnicity or religion, it is a race, All Jews who haven’t “converted” have been Jews for thousands of years, they are all related and happen to have common genes, European, Asian, and African, they all happen to share these certain genes that show they are connected beyond the average human to human. Essentially we are all the same.
Gotyergenez Ritehere
Jul 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 am
“Ever wonder why Jews are often richer than the rest of us? They find talented performers and take 20% of their earnings, lend to ambitious business men and take 20% of their profits, issue credit cards to women and take 40% of their shopping addiction, and have Jewish politicians who give Jewish scientists grant money and Jewish CEOs corporate welfare, and it pays off. Get off the internet and go back to Hebrew School.”

FIFY
hotea1313
Jul 14th, 2009 at 7:20 am
im also a Jew of sheknazi decent and number 23 commentator said quality over quantity i don’t know where you live but where i grew up my family was considered small with only 5 kids i have friends who have 10 or 15 brothers and sister it could just be that i grew up in an orthodox community who knows?
THE WHITE MAN
Sep 7th, 2009 at 3:51 am
I am so sick of this BULLSHIT propaganda. Its nothing but lies meant to wax the kike ego. Lies distorting the truth to their own ends.

The fact of the matter is this, jews are not really that intelligent at all, in fact they are genetic throw backs from a more savage time. Nothing but a bunch of superstitious pseudo intellectual pathological liars with behavioral problems. Who steal the works of other men & claim them as their own successes.

They constantly spout this nonsense, pushing it into everything. Its basically like a retarded kid in the classroom screaming at the top of their lungs about how great they are while throwing shit at other students & making messes.

Seriously though, this mafia of backwards thugs has got to go. They infect every aspect of American society with their culture and are busily bringing us to our knees eroding away the work of our fathers in an attempt to garner our wealth to line their pockets, through thievery. Hell, they already have our gold locked away behind vaults in the shitty little country of israhell. They force themselves into other mens houses to rob & plunder. Then when they are caught red handed, their cronies simply let them slip through the hands of justice.

Its time to put these khazars & semites in their places.

The lies must stop!

WHITE MEN ARE NOT INFERIOR TO JEWS, IN FACT ITS JUST THE OPPOSITE, THE LOATHSOME JEW IS INFERIOR TO THE WHITE.

With the jewish serpents strangle hold forced upon American halls of learning, they took over in the 1930′s. They control the curriculum, they are responsible for forcing desegregation upon our children. Making them, I myself wade through their corrupt system, where white children are demoralized by hordes of subhuman garbage. Their minds are turned to rot so jews can be happy. Well if one of us must suffer then let it be the loathsome jew. I for one have had enough.

When a jew talks down to a white, he must be beaten senseless. The jew is not the master.

I am sick and tired of seeing the limelight stolen from worthy white souls, who deserve recognition for their great works, by greedy tyrranical jews.

Look around you, who is pushing to censor the internet, the fucking jews. Who pushes for the erosion of America, the fucking jews, while at the same time hypocritically pushing for segregation of their own society, the nasty jews.

Let me tell you darky scum what shall happen…

WE WHITES ARE GOING TO THE STARS, HUMANITY SHALL BECOME A SPACE TRAVELING RACE. WE SHALL ESTABLISH COLONIES THROUGHOUT THE COSMOS. YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US, BUT YOU SHALL NOT DICTATE THE TERMS. THE JEW IS NOT THE BOSS. GET IT THROUGH YOUR COMPROMISED FRONTAL LOBES YOU BUNCH OF primitive neurotic schizophrenics, who still practice barbaric unhealthy child mutilation ceremonies, designed once more to wax the pathetic jewish ego. I am referring to the butchering of male children, by savagely cutting away the perfectly natural foreskin of the penis then sucking the wound they created on the penis. That is what they do for fucks sake its the truth, they cut the foreskin off, then claim its for sanitary reasons, its not its just a bizarre cultural practice of these damn jews. They have tricked the American people & hijacked the evolution of our white nation to their own ends. They are steering our devolution toward a new dark age, they must be stopped. No longer can our European heritage be mocked by these creatures. They must be taught that it is not their place to dictate unto us, that they are not in charge of our destiny.

Jews are like HOBGOBLINS only far more annoying & useless.

white pride, power, and dominion world wide!
THE WHITE MAN
Sep 7th, 2009 at 3:53 am
This is nothing but propaganda, meant to stroke the ego of the jewish inferior.
iswanichen
Jan 2nd, 2010 at 8:32 am
“THE WHITE MAN
September 7th, 2009 at 3:51 am wrote:
I am so sick of this BULLSHIT propaganda. Its nothing but lies meant to wax the kike ego. Lies distorting the truth to their own ends.

The fact of the matter is this, jews are not really that intelligent at all, in fact they are genetic throw backs from a more savage time. Nothing but a bunch of superstitious ……”

hey THE WHITE MAN,the more i know about my jewish partners,the more I feel your opinion is goddamn true.
NeoCon Hysteria
Mar 16th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
What a load of complete and utterly contrived bullshit.

Same things are said as every jew does.

“We invented everything.”

Yeah. Uhhhh…….. No.

No. You didn’t.

Why do Jews lie so much? If you were so smart… why have you been kick out of countries over 300times? Thats not exactly a sign of intelligence. It is a sign however or criminality.

This type of egotistical falsehood is found in criminal ALL the time. Criminals always think they’re ‘so smart’ until they’re sitting behind bars.

And like the previous commentator wrote. Wheres the beef? I would equate this piece to a highschool misfit lieing about himself to get attention from the other kids. Only to be reject as a total fraud.
Natalia
Nov 24th, 2010 at 6:36 am
Greeks and Armenians are the smartest people in the whole world as well as the richest apparently they lack in great numbers as well as in neighborhood.Jews are NOT smart they just put them a lot of pressure and work all together taht they have been expelled from so many countries is not a sign of intelligence to me at all.

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