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Thinking positively: The genetics of high intelligence

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136 points gwern | 1 comments | 01 Nov 15 23:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.243s | source
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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.
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troels ◴[02 Nov 15 10:46 UTC] No.10491090[source]▶
On the other hand - Chimps are significantly less intelligent than humans. So clearly, genetics play a role.
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1. DonaldFisk ◴[02 Nov 15 18:17 UTC] No.10493807[source]▶
On many, but not all cognitive tasks:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12993-chimps-outperfo...

Of course, genetics probably plays a role in that, too.