Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence

Theory that Ashkenazi Jews are abnormally intelligent

Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence, often referred to as "Jewish genius",[1][2] is the stereotype[3] that Ashkenazi Jews tend to have a higher intelligence than other ethnic groups.

## Analysis

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Jewish success in many intellectual fields often prompts the stereotype. Many who argue for Jewish intelligence have pointed out the List of Jewish Nobel laureates amassing 22% of Nobel Prizes across all scientific categories while Jewish people comprise only 0.2% of global population at roughly 14 million people.[4][5] Even a small increase in average IQ would represent significant representation of outliers.[4] One psychologist, commenting on the state of research, says "it is fair to say that most, though not all, studies give Ashkenazi descendants a higher IQ than non-Jewish whites", but argues that the effect size remains contentious and unknown.[4] Many studies in the literature are often done by disreputable researchers, which may make assessing the size of difference difficult.[4]

### Selected studies

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A controversial 1994 book, The Bell Curve, argued that Jews had significantly higher intelligence scores than other groups.[3] The book is considered by many as an example of scientific racism.[6][3] Sander Gilman argues that implicit assumptions of Jewish intelligence may help fuel fear and common stereotypes of Jews controlling higher professions such as law.[3]

A 2004 paper by self-professed "scientific racist" Richard Lynn found that American Jews obtained significantly higher verbal IQ scores than the average white gentile, and even higher scores compared to black peoples.[7]

#### Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence

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A controversial paper was published in 2006 called "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" proposed that Ashkenazi Jews had a biological basis for intelligence.[8] The paper was authored by three authors who have been linked to theories described as "scientific racism",[9] The paper claimed that Ashkenazi Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence the basis of inherited diseases, selective pressure from the peculiar economic situation of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages, and supposed lack of intermarriage with outside groups. This paper suggested that the average IQ score of Ashkenazi Jews fall in a range of 108–115 under some studies, which would be significantly higher than that of any other ethnic group in the world.[8][10][11] The paper received widespread coverage in media.[12][13][14]

The paper attracted significant criticism and controversy. Steven Pinker argues that "any characterization of Jews in biological terms smacks of Nazi pseudoscience".[15] David Reich has argued that contrary to selective pressure theory, some of the inherited diseases that Ashkenazi Jews suffer may be more likely due to genetic drift. Adam Rutherford argues that some of these diseases may have been commonplace during the Middle Ages, and that genetic studies may indicate the bottleneck that caused the accumulation of disease occurred before the Medieval period.[16][17] Sander Gilman has argued it is problematic to paint Jews with tropes of being physically enfeebled geniuses, with the idea of hereditary illnesses in Ashkenazi Jews being due to consanguinity, having been previously suggested by 19th century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot.[18]

Bret Stephens cited the study in a The New York Times op-ed, suggesting that Jewish genius is innate to culture instead of biology, which led to an editor's note apologizing for even using the study.[19][4][20] Adam Shapiro has argued that while praising Jewish genius may seem to combat antisemitism, Stephens was actually attempting to co-opt White supremacy ideals by using race science.[21] Shapiro and other commentators also argue that using intelligence tests to divide and describe specific ethnic groups, even when to prove superiority of one group, is still linked to eugenics.[21][22]

#### Polygenic scores

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A controversial paper published in 2019 claimed that a Jewish sample had higher polygenic scores for educational attainment and cognitive ability than other religious groups. The paper also claimed that said difference in polygenic scores partially mediated the Jewish phenotypic advantage.[23][24]

This study was rebutted by researchers who showed that the Jewish genotypic advantage is far greater than predicted by the phenotypic advantage.[25] The relatively invariant nature of polygenic scores cannot account for changes in Jewish intellectual achievement over time.[26]

### Sociological explanations

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Bret Stephens has opined in The New York Times that the intellectual rigor of religious studies, especially in the context of constant upheaval, has allowed intellectual flexibility.[19] Malcolm Gladwell similarly argues in Outliers that the rigorous Talmud schools may foster intellectualism and perseverance in Jewish students.[27]

### Criticism

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See also: Model minority myth

Some have argued that the elevation of Jewish intelligence based on both biology or sociology may feed into model minority myths that harm both Jewish and black peoples.[4] Sander Gilman has argued that racializing intelligence is particularly problematic for Jews as it may feed into multiple antisemitic tropes and other categorization of a vast group of people.[18] Gilman also argued that pointing out identity when attributing success is only helpful for tribalism, and does nothing to point out social situations that allow such success to occur.[18] Matt Yglesias has written that the idea is used to legitimise scientific racism, including that the idea that Black people in particular are genetically inferior.[4]

## See also

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* Ashkenormativity
* Philosemitism
* Racism in Jewish communities

## References

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1. ^ Murray, Charles (2007-04-01). "Jewish Genius". Commentary. Archived from the original on 2018-10-27. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
2. ^ Valk, Jonathan (2015-06-14). "Is there really such a thing as Jewish genius?". haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
3. ^ a b c d Smith, Dinitia (1998-11-21). "How Even 'Good' Stereotypes Can Be Bad; Myriad Subjects With a Common Thread: The Images We Build to Define Ourselves". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Yglesias, Matthew (2019-12-30). "The controversy over Bret Stephens's Jewish genius column, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
5. ^ Efron, Noah (21 October 2013). "The Real Reason Why Jews Win So Many Nobel Prizes". Haaretz.
6. ^ Graves, Joseph L. (2001). The Emperor's New Clothes. Rutgers University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8135-2847-2.
7. ^ Lynn, Richard (2004-01-01). "The intelligence of American Jews". Personality and Individual Differences. 36 (1): 201–206. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00079-5. ISSN 0191-8869.
8. ^ a b Cochran, Gregory; Hardy, Jason; Harpending, Henry (September 2006). "Natural History of Ashkenazi intelligence". Journal of Biosocial Science. 38 (5): 659–693. doi:10.1017/S0021932005027069. ISSN 1469-7599. PMID 16867211. Archived from the original on 2018-08-21.
9. ^ "Henry Harpending". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
10. ^ Lynn, Richard; Longley, David (2006-11-01). "On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain". Intelligence. 34 (6): 541–547. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.03.011. ISSN 0160-2896. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10.
11. ^ "Study: Ashkenazi Jews Smartest on Earth, Partly Due to Diseases". Israel National News. Archived from the original on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
12. ^ Senior, Jennifer (2005-10-14). "Are Jews Smarter? What Genetic Science Tells Us". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
13. ^ "Natural genius?". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
14. ^ Wade, Nicholas (2005-06-03). "Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
15. ^ "Groups and Genes". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
16. ^ Slatkin, Montgomery (August 2004). "A Population-Genetic Test of Founder Effects and Implications for Ashkenazi Jewish Diseases". American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (2): 282–293. ISSN 0002-9297. PMC 1216062. PMID 15208782.
17. ^ Whittle, Patrick (2022-12-13). "Part II: Jewish skeletal remains in a Norwich well — Do they undermine the controversial theory of 'Jewish IQ'?". Genetic Literacy Project. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
18. ^ a b c Gilman, Sander L. (2008). "Are Jews Smarter Than Everyone Else?". Mens Sana Monographs. 6 (1): 41–47. doi:10.4103/0973-1229.34526 (inactive 2024-07-14). ISSN 0973-1229. PMC 3190562. PMID 22013349.`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2024 (link)
19. ^ a b Stephens, Bret (2019-12-28). "Opinion | The Secrets of Jewish Genius". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
20. ^ "Outcry after NYT writer appears to argue Ashkenazi Jews are genetically smarter". The Times of Israel. 29 December 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
21. ^ a b "The Dangerous Resurgence in Race Science". American Scientist. 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
22. ^ Helmore, Edward (2019-12-28). "New York Times columnist accused of eugenics over piece on Jewish intelligence". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
23. ^ Dunkel, Curtis; Woodley of Menie, Michael Anthony; Pallesen, Jonatan; Kirkegaard, Emil O. W. (2019-01-01). "Polygenic Scores Mediate the Jewish Phenotypic Advantage in Educational Attainment and Cognitive Ability Compared With Catholics and Lutherans". Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.
24. ^ Charney, Evan (2022). "The "Golden Age" of Behavior Genetics?" (PDF). Perspectives on Psychological Science. "Jews have higher PRSs for general intelligence than Catholics and Lutherans."
25. ^ Panofsky, Aaron; Dasgupta, Kushan; Iturriaga, Nicole (2020-09-28). "How White nationalists mobilize genetics From genetic ancestry and human biodiversity to counterscience and metapolitics". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. "This was rebutted by a group of sociogenomics researchers who showed that given the polygenic score of the Jewish group their IQ should actually be four standard deviations above non-Jews, not slightly above average as it is"
26. ^ Jordan, A. Chad; Brym, Robert (2020-09-28). "Jewish Intellectual Exceptionalism? Ethnic Representation at the University of Toronto Medical School". Contemporary Jewry. "We contend that the main problem with both the genetic and the cultural theories is their inability to explain variation in Jewish intellectual attainment over time. Instead of speculating about the proximate causal effects of nearly invariant traits like nebulous polygenic scores and ancient cultural practices on variation in the intellectual performance of Jews, we identify proximate sociological circumstances that are plausibly associated with intellectual attainment."
27. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). Outliers: the story of success (1st ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-01792-3.