Posted on 03/27/2006 3:53:04 PM PST by Neville72
BRITAIN and France have experienced long periods of conflict and rivalry but now victory in one area can be claimed: Britons are more intelligent than the French. A new European league of IQ scores has ranked the British in eighth place, well above the French, who were 19th. According to Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, Britons have an average IQ of 100. The French scored 94. But it is not all good news. Top of the table were the Germans, with an IQ of 107. The British were also beaten by the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
Professor Lynn, who caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, said that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south. The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in southeast Europe it is 1,312cc. “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.”
He added that differences in intelligence across Britain could be attributed to bright people moving to London over hundreds of years. Adults in England and Wales have an IQ of 100.5, higher than Ireland and Scotland, both with 97. People living in London and the South East average 102. “Once in the capital they have settled and reared children, and these children have inherited their high intelligence and transmitted it to further generations.”
The pattern is repeated in other countries, Professor Lynn claimed. In France, IQ scores in Paris were much higher than those in rural areas.
Professor Lynn has spent three decades analysing thousands of test results to scrutinise the role of evolution in IQ. He has published his findings in a new book. Britons excel in another area of Professor Lynn’s research. He found that university students had, at 109, the second-highest undergraduate IQs in the world, beaten only by their US counterparts on 110.
Professor Lynn ascribes the differences between British and French intelligence levels to the results of military conflict. He described it as “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”.
A “normal” IQ ranges from 85 to 115 but exceptionally gifted people have scores starting at 145.
Poland's number 3....who knew? ;-)
Just kidding, I love you Polish folks (but I do love Polish jokes)!
Of course the Germans are the smartest. Any German would have confirmed that.
ping
I am sure France is trying to find a way to surrender.
ha!
but I do love Polish jokes - in France they tell Belgian jokes.
If the Germans were so smart, how did they manage to choose the wrong side in two WW?
In other words, Atkins makes you smarter?
If they are so smart, why are they on an economic death spiral?
"If the smartest American, and the dumbest Dutchmen were to switch countries, the IQ level of the NL would be diminished, while that of the USA would be increased."
In discussing WWII with a German friend I once made the comment that "we kicked your ass, twice!" His response was classic:
'Yah, vell, it took the whole damn world to do it.'
No more blonde jokes out there!
The wrong side chose them.
Proud to say that one of my ancestral homelands is number three and the other is number five. So much for "dumb polacks", eh?
Its no wonder why Italian and Polish Americans have per capita incomes higher than the national average and white American averages.
Meant to post #15 to you.
"He described it as '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.'"
Hmmmm.
That's why the Italians defeated Britain, I suppose.
And why Poland was such a mighty power in the East.
And why Germany/Austria/Turkey beat France and England in World War I.
No, wait...
Also, the article said the Germans were the smartest. But it appears the Dutch and the Germans tie, which means that the Germans aren't the smartest.
It would be interesting to see if the breakdown of "The British Isles" into England, Scotland, Wales and Ulster would leave the English or Scots with the lead.
"Professor Lynn, who caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, said that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south."
Curious, then, that temperate Holland is "smarter" than any of the cold countries, and warm Italy is smarter than Sweden, England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, or, actually, anywhere that's really, really cold.
Russia is as cold as it gets, but the're down there in the French range, on the charts.
Ahhh. This is almost meaningless. Bill Clinton is amazingly smart.
Intelligence without wisdom is practically/usually a vice.
When you envision the brain power that dreamed up this hare brained scheme, it's hard not to laugh.
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