walfin, do you think maybe intelligence selection may be responsible for the differences in IQ between China and the surrounding nations? For example, it is a global pattern that city dwellers tend to have a higher IQ than surrounding rural residents, probably due to wealthier occupations existing in cities.
I don't think any studies have been done yet.
It could be attributed to any number of causes:
Nature (possibly permanent gains)
1. Selection
There are a number of possible sub-causes:
a. Migrants are naturally both more adventurous and organised at the same time, thus migrants generally have higher intelligence.
b. Push/pull factors attracting/repelling more/less intelligent people to/from a particular place.
c. A particular place breeds/exterminates intelligence because in those places intelligence is positively/negatively correlated with attractiveness, and/or public policy and/or societal pressure encourages/discourages reproduction by the intelligent.
2. Mutation
a. A mutant less/more intelligent gene appears
b. Some other mutant gene appears which causes a large segment of the population to die out/live longer or be more fertile, and the effect is not equal across the intelligence spectrum.
Nurture (most likely non-permanent gains)
1. Nutrition
2. Education
3. Experience.
Intelligence might be trained by one or more of the following:
a. The migration process itself (more relevant in previous)
b. The acculturation/assimilation process
There are possibly many more factors which I have not thought of. To explore all of these potential factors would go much further than what the "scientific" racists have done, and they will most likely
not do it because it does not serve their purpose, which is to show that some race is inferior/superior, rather than to find out more about the factors which affect intelligence (which could potentially help the races whom they think are less intelligent to improve their position in the world). Research by "scientific" racists is like cancer research funded by tobacco companies; they've already made up their minds beforehand.
In any case, all of the above factors could apply to
all races, including the genetic causes.
