←back to thread

Thinking positively: The genetics of high intelligence

(www.sciencedirect.com)
136 points gwern | 2 comments | 01 Nov 15 23:33 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
danieltillett ◴[02 Nov 15 09:50 UTC] No.10490915[source]▶
I would be very surprised if high intelligence was anything other than the extreme edge of a normal distribution of the human population. For it to be anything other than this it would require people of high intelligence to be a sub-population that did not breed with the rest of humanity.
replies(11): >>10490953 #>>10491090 #>>10491222 #>>10491322 #>>10491415 #>>10491550 #>>10491579 #>>10493236 #>>10493248 #>>10493909 #>>10495309 #
1. mgraczyk ◴[02 Nov 15 11:17 UTC] No.10491222[source]▶
Subpopulations can be physically and temporally distributed amongst the greater population. As long as breeding is not statistically independent of intelligence, there will be a tendency for intelligence-related genes to clump together.
replies(1): >>10491262 #
2. danieltillett ◴[02 Nov 15 11:28 UTC] No.10491262[source]▶
This is true, but to get extreme outlier sub-populations for a mulit-gene trait like intelligence would require pretty effective isolation. For any sub-population to be large enough to affect the distribution of intelligence across the human population, yet be able to maintain this isolation, is very unlikely.