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Ashkenazi Jews are smart. Shockingly brilliant, in general. Impressive in
brain power. How did they get that way? Ashkenazi Jews, aka Ashkenazim,
are the descendants of Jews from medieval Alsace and the Rhine Valley, and later, from throughout Eastern Europe. Originally, of course, they were
from Israel. Genetic research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests that the Ashkenazi bloodline branched away from other Jewish
groups there 2,500 years ago, and that 40% of them are descended from only
four Jewish mothers.
Approximately 80% of the Jews in the world today are Ashkenazim, with the remainder primarily Sephardic.
Researchers who study the Ashkenazim agree that the children of Abraham
are on top of the IQ chart. Steven Pinker – who lectured on “Jews, Genes,
and Intelligence” in 2007 - says “their average IQ has been measured at 108-115.” Richard Lynn, author of “The Intelligence of American Jews” in
2004, says it is “only” a half-standard higher: 107.5. Henry Harpending,
Jason Hardy, and Gregory Cochran, University of Utah authors of the 2005 research report, “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence,” state that
their subjects, “score .75 to 1.0 standard deviations above the general European average, corresponding to an IQ of 112-115.” Charles Murray, in
his 2007 essay “Jewish Genius,” says “their mean is somewhere in the range
of 107-115, with 110 being a plausible compromise.”
A Jewish average IQ of 115 is 8 points higher than the generally accepted
IQ of their closest rivals—Northeast Asians—and approximately 40% higher
than the global average IQ of 79.1 calculated by Richard Lynn and Tatu
Vanhanen in IQ and Global Inequity.
Plus, contemplate this astounding tidbit: Ashkenazi “visual-spatial” IQ
scores are only mediocre; in one study their median in this category was a below-average 98. They surmount this liability by logging astronomic
figures in “verbal IQ”, which includes verbal reasoning, comprehension,
working memory and mathematical skill; a 1958 survey of yeshiva students discovered a median verbal IQ of 125.6.
What does it mean that Ashkenazim have a high IQ, in terms of producing “geniuses”? With their population so small - a mere 0.25 of the world
total - does it make any serious difference? The answer is YES. A “bell curve” is used to illustrate IQ percentile in a specific group – in a
“general population” where IQ average is 100 the curve assumes these proportions:
less than 70 IQ - 2.5%
70-85 IQ - 12.5%
86-100 IQ - 35%
101-115 IQ – 35%
116-130 IQ – 12.5%
greater than 130 IQ – 2.5%
Applying the same bell curve for Ashkenazim, but with a 17-point upward
lift in median IQ (using the From Chance To Choice digit) produces the IQ upgrade below:
less than 87 IQ – 2.5%
88-102 IQ – 12.5%
103-117 IQ – 35%
118-132 IQ – 35%
133-148 IQ – 12.5%
greater than 148 IQ – 2.5%
This shifting upward of the bell curve by more than a standard deviation
(15 points) means that more than five times as many Ashkenazim are
eligible for Mensa (minimum 130 IQ) and more than five times as many have
the average IQ of an Ivy League graduate.
In reality, Ashkenazim are enrolled in the Ivies by a proportion ten times greater than their numbers; for example they represent 30% of Yale
students, 27% of Harvard, 23% of Brown, 32% of Columbia, and 31% of Pennsylvania.
This suggests that either the “bell’s curve” is lifted for the Ashkenazi a
bit longer at the high end or there are additional factors that enhance
their ability to succeed. Regarding the first possibility, Charles Murray
notes that “the proportion of Jews with IQs of 140 or higher is somewhere around six times the proportion of everyone else.” Harpending, Hardy and Cochran sport roughly the same equation; “4 out of every 1,000 Northern European is 140+ IQ, but 23 out of every 1,000 Jew is 140+.” Murray also
relays a report from sky-high up in the genius range, when he notes that a
1954 survey of New York public school children with 170+ IQs revealed that
24 of the 28 were… Jewish.
Now that I’ve established that Ashkenazi have superlative IQ scores,
let’s observe what they’ve accomplished with their highly functional
brains.
In the 19th century, Mark Twain noted that:
[The Jews] are peculiarly and conspicuously the world’s intellectual aristocracy… [Jewish] contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning
are way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world… and has done it with his hands tied behind
him.
Twain’s observation is not dated. Ashkenazi Jews have continued to
mentally out-compete other demographics since his statement, often
suffering horrendous consequences for their toil. Here is a brief list of Ashkenazi accomplishments in the last 90 years.
Nobel Prizes: Since 1950, 29% of the awards have gone to Ashkenazim, even though they represent only a small fraction of humanity. Ashkenazi
achievement in this arena is 117 times greater than their population.
This pace isn’t slowing down; it is accelerating. In the 21st century,
they’ve received 32% of the total, and in 2011, five of the thirteen Nobel Prize winners were Jewish – 38.5%.
Hungary in the 1930s: Ashkenazim were 6% of the population, but they
comprised 55.7% of physicians, 49.2% of attorneys, 30.4% of engineers, and 59.4% of bank officers; plus, they owned 49.4% of the metallurgy industry, 41.6% of machine manufacturing, 72.8% of clothing manufacturing, and, as housing owners, they received 45.1% of Budapest rental income. Jews were similarly successful in nearby nations, like Poland and Germany.
“Significant Figures”: In “Jewish Genius” by Charles Murray, the author
tallies up important contributing individuals in a variety of vocations,
noting how immensely over-represented Jews are compared to what could be expected due to their small population. His conclusion in various
categories is: Biology – “significant” Jews appear 5 times greater their population, Chemistry 6X, Physics 9X, Literature 4X, Music 5X, Visual Arts
5X, Math 12X, Philosophy 14X.2
USA (today): Ashkenazi Jews comprise 2.2% of the USA population, but they represent 30% of faculty at elite colleges, 21% of Ivy League students,
and 25% of the Turing Award winners. Plus, “Jews have made up 50% of the
top two hundred intellectuals… 40% of partners in the leading law firms in
New York and Washington… 59% of the directors, writers, and producers of
the fifty top-grossing motion pictures…”
Israel: In 1922 this swamp-and-desert land had an impoverished population
of 752,000 inhabitants. Today there are 7,746,000 residents, with a large Ashkenazi population (3 million, and 60% of the workforce) that has
elevated it into a high-tech entrepreneurial nation with the highest per
capita income in the region. Israel rates 1st in the world in graduate
degrees, 1st in museums, 1st in home computers, and 1st in publishing scientific papers.
Personally, I find the Nobel Prize statistic the most amazing. Consider
this: if everybody on the planet was an Ashkenazi Jew, would the result be
117 times more Nobel Prize-winning caliber individuals, with 117 times as
many spectacular achievements, per annum? INSTANT SINGULARITY! Without any
help from AI…
(Sephardic Jewish achievement is represented in many of the categories
above, especially in Nobel Prize statistics. When this article was
originally published - in a shorter version, on August 7, 2011 by the
Institute for Ethics in Emerging Technology (ieet.org) – Sephardic Jews expressed some perturbation that they were omitted from the essay. I’d
like to acknowledge the immense contribution of Sephardic Jews with this all-too-brief list of notables from their lineage:
Elias Canetti (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1981), Tobias Michael Carel
Asser (Nobel Peace Prize, 1911), Rene Cassin (Nobel Peace Prize, 1968),
Franco Modigliani (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1985), Francois Jacob (Nobel
Prize in Medicine/Physiology, 1965), Salvador Luria (Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology, 1969), Baruj Benacerraf (Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology, 1980), Rita Levi-Montalcini (Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology, 1986), Emilio Segre (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1959),
Claude Cohen-Tannoudj (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997), plus philosopher
Jacques Derrida, economist/philanthropist Bernard Baruch, painter Amedeo Modigliani, and Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister.
In the medieval era, Sephardic achievements were also quite significant.
In George Sarton’s Introduction to the History of Science, the author
notes that 95 out of 626 scientists in the world from 1150-1300 were
Sephardic Jews -15% - far exceeding their population proportion.
However, when Sephardic IQ is presently recorded, the sums are no higher
than the northern European average, and definitively not as elevated as Ashkenazi.)
Let’s proceed. With the facts I’ve laid out, only the most obtuse reader
can resist my pronouncement that Ashkenazi Jews are, on average, extraordinarily intelligent. I’m not asserting Ashkenazi cognitive
specialness because I’m Philo-Semitic, or Zionist, or pro-Israeli. I’m
pointing it out because it is irrefutably true.
That said, the question that my essay seeks to unravel is… Why? Why is the
IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high? Is the reason due to their genetics,
environment, culture, education, or a unique combination of multiple
factors?
In my initial publication of this essay, I provided eight reasons for high Ashkenazi IQ. But then, I received a flurry of email suggestions (many
from professors) providing me with additional information. Twenty theories
are now listed in this expanded essay, and I’ve attempted to give my
sources the credit they deserve, even though – in several instances - I
don’t have their actual names, just their Internet chat-monikers. Here’s
my new list – many related to each other - presented in roughly
chronological order:
Babylonian Eugenics – In 586 B.C.E., Jerusalem was totally destroyed by
the Babylonians, led by their monarch Nebuchadnezzar, who “carried into
exile… all the [Jewish] officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen
and artisans… only the poorest people of the land were left.” (2Kings
24:10-14) The Indestructible Jews, by Max Dimont, defines the deported
people as “the flower of Judah’s aristocracy and intellectuals.”
The exiled Jews of this first Diaspora became highly successful in
Babylon. Dimont claims, “In the libraries of Babylon, intellectual Jews
found a new world of new ideas. Within five decades, exiled Jews bobbed to
the surface of the top echelons on Babylonian society, in business
enterprises, in the scholastic world, in court circles. They became
leaders in commerce, men of learning, advisors to kings.”
In 538 B.C.E., the Persian king Cyrus the Great granted Jews permission to return to their homeland. Wealthy Jews - who had established successful
trade routes and businesses in Babylon - financed zealous returnees who
wanted to re-settle Judah. Initial attempts failed, but eventually, 1,760 settlers led by the prophet Ezra and the governor Nehemiah rebuilt the
wall of Jerusalem and resurrected the nation. These “Babylonian” Jews
returning to Israel discovered that their poorer brethren that were left
behind a half-century earlier had slipped away via assimilation, vanishing
into neighboring pagan creeds. Cyril Darlington, in his The Evolution of
Man and Society, suggests that the temporary separation of the Jewish
elite, and permanent removal of the uneducated and unskilled, provided a genetic intellectual boost to the creed.
The returning Jews also instituted two customs that enhanced the mental solidity of their culture’s future. A ban on intermarriage with Gentiles
was enforced, and the first five books of Moses were canonized, as the
Torah.
People of the Difficult Book: The Torah (the first five books of the
Jewish Bible) and the Talmud (recordings of rabbinic discussions) are intellectually complex and sophisticated. Practitioners of Judaism are
required to learn and study the extensive, mentally rigorous laws.
Thematic content of the scriptural passages is not simplistic or literal,
it is, conversely, designed for comprehension on multiple, abstract, metaphorical levels. Blind faith and slavish devotion, encouraged by other faiths, is not conducive to Judaism. Instead, worship in the ancient
monotheism demands significant literacy skills due to the cognitive
demands of the texts, with tradition maintaining that understanding the
Talmud requires “study of seven hours a day for seven years.” Charles
Murray notes that, “no other religion made so many demands upon the whole
body of its believers,” with the subsequent analysis that, “Judaism
evolved in such a way that to be a good Jew meant that a man had to be
smart.”
Healthy Hygiene & Diet: Professor Sam Lehman-Wilzig of Bar-Ilan University
in Israel provided me with this theory. His suggestion is based on the
fact that - due to their customary practices - the Jews probably enjoyed
better hygiene than Gentiles. He points to the Jewish washing of hands
before every meal, the men bathing at least once a week in the “mikveh” (a purification bathhouse) and the women bathing at least once a month, after their menstruation was over. He also notes the restriction on pork
prevented Jews from contracting trichinosis. (Famous casualties of this parasitic disease include Gautama Buddha and Wolfgang Mozart). With lower disease rates, Jewish bodies would not have suffered as much as Gentiles
and this would have improved their mental capacities.
This notion has been repeated elsewhere. In 1953, research by Johns
Hopkins University pharmacologist David I. Macht surmised that all the
dozens of meat items banned by Jewish dietary laws in Deuteronomy and
Leviticus were, in fact, more toxic than the kosher flesh that was
permitted. Additionally, in the recent book Survival of the Sickest,
author Sharon Moalem suggests that Jews removing leaven from their homes
during Passover helped keep out the rats that spread bubonic plague in the
13th century. Last but not least, wealthy Ashkenazi Jews dwelling in
larger houses in eastern Europe would have survived epidemics easier
because they didn’t suffer the same high multiple infection rate that
occurred in smaller homes with greater crowding.
Extensive correlation between high IQ, healthy diet, infectious diseases, sanitation, and home crowding, is examined via research studies in later chapters of this book, particularly in “Early Years.”
Education Emphasized, Way Back in B.C. – Jeremiah Unterman of Jerusalem informed me that the Torah instructs every Jewish father to teach the
Torah to his children, and Marisa Landau notes on a futurepundit.com
6/4/05 discussion that it’s forbidden by the Jewish religion to keep child illiterate. Additionally, Landau reports that Jewish women learned to
read and write, a phenomenon that was unique in the ancient world. Landau
also mentions that it has long been a custom among Jews to provide a full pension - for up to 10 years – to an intelligent son-in-law who wishes to entirely devote himself to study. The Jews, it seems, invented the notion
of “scholarships.”
In the medieval era, the French monk, Peter Abelard (1079-1142) penned
this about Jewish education: “A Jew, however poor, even if he had ten
sons, would get them all to letters, not for gain as the Christians do,
but for understanding of God’s law. And not only for his sons, but his daughters.”
Mandatory Schools For Males - In 64 A.D., the high priest Joshua ben Gamla issued and implemented an ordinance mandating schools for all boys,
beginning at age 6. Within 100 years, Jews had established universal male literacy and numeracy, the first ethnicity in history to achieve this.
The progressive, demanding edict created a huge demographic shift. The
high, oft-times prohibitive cost of educating children in the subsistence farming economy of the 2nd to 6th centuries prompted numerous Jews to voluntarily convert to Christianity, leading to a decline in Jewish
population from 4.5 million to 1.2 million.
Natural “eugenics” favored two groups in this situation: 1) the sons of wealthier, ostensibly more intelligent Jews, who could provide greater
funding for the schools that maintained their offspring’s membership as
Jews, and, 2) the smartest boys who could quickly learn reading, writing
and arithmetic at a pace at which they could afford to “stay Jewish.”
Who was left out? Removed from the gene pool? Answer: the poorer,
uneducated Jews, and/or those with the lowest IQ.
Urban Upgrade – 80-90% of Jews were farmers in 1 AD. But only 10-20%
remained in agriculture by 1000 A.D. The education required by Joshua ben Gamla’s edict delivered verbal and math skills to Jewish boys, enabling
them to move out of subsistence rural life into highly-skilled urban professions, involving sales, trade, and financial transactions.
Moving from a pastoral environment into cities implements an IQ boost, due
to urbanism’s increased complexity, literacy, and technology. A Hanoi
National University study in 2006 showed a whopping 19.4 IQ difference
between city and country students. A 1970 survey in Greece recorded a difference of 10-13 points. Other studies note smaller discrepancies of
only 2-6 points, but unanimously, urban residents always score higher, and
Jews are one of the world’s longest-urbanized ethnicities.
Dialectic and Rational Thought – Dr. Sam Lehman-Wilzig informed me that
one of the noteworthy approaches to Jewish learning is “dialectic.” The
Talmud itself is not a “law code” but instead, a huge compendium of
ARGUMENTS. Jews are encouraged to see different perspectives of an issue,
and they’re taught to question everything, including the Law, the Rabbi’s logic, and one’s own belief system. Rabbis developed argumentative
principles, an entire system of questioning that the Jews have utilized
for 2,000 years in both religious and secular debates.
Dialectic was not a ‘Jewish’ invention: it was a learning technique that
Jews borrowed and adapted from Greek philosophy; the synthesis is a ‘Socratic-Jewish methodology.’ Traces of the Greek influence are evident
in the Passover Seder where the Jewish father reclines on a pillow
(similar to the Greeks) while the youngest Jewish child asks Four
Questions. This method of learning was unique during the Middle Ages,
compared to Catholic Europe’s ‘authoritative’ traditions.
Dr. Sanford Aranoff, Professor of Science and Mathematics at Rider
University, conveyed to me a similar message. In his opinion, Judaism is
based on principles of rational thought. (Rational thinking begins with
clearly stated principles, continues with logical deductions, and then
examines empirical evidence to possibly modify the principles.)
The analytic, strategic skills developed in both Jewish dialectic and
critical thinking are an important component of IQ tests, and they’re
essential in legal, academic, science, and engineering careers.
Clever Clerics Propagate: A major difference between Catholicism and
Judaism is that priests have been celibate since the 4th century Council
of Carthage decreed that they abstain from conjugal relations, whereas
Jewish rabbis have always been encouraged to marry and multiply. In the
Middle Age this resulted in massive IQ depression for Catholics, because
their brightest, academically gifted boys were usually locked up in
seminaries that wasted their gene pool. Meanwhile… sage, scholastic Jewish rabbis were marrying smart women and creating large, clever families.
Three tomes that examine this phenomenon are Robert Novick’s Anarchy,
State and Utopia, Ernst Vandenberg’s The Jewish Mystique, and Paul
Johnson’s A History of the Jews.
Breeding for Brains:
“Our Rabbis teach, Let a man sell all that he has and marry the daughter
of a learned man. If he cannot find the daughter of a learned man, let him marry the daughter of one of the great men of his day. If he does not find
such a one, let him marry the daughter of one of the heads of the
congregation, or, failing this, the daughter of a charity collector, or
even the daughter of a schoolmaster; but let him not marry the daughter of
an illiterate man, for the unlearned are an abomination, as also their
wives and their daughters.” P’sachim, fol. 49, col. 2.
Judaic texts like the one above emphasize repeatedly that knowledge and intelligence are supreme virtues, with ignorance the grossest liability. Following this dictum, the Jews enhanced their gene pool for smartnesss.
In A History of the Jews, author Paul Johnson notes that, “among the Jews
the most intelligent people have always been very valued and sought after
as husbands, so they procreate and spread their good genes.” Charles
Murray observed another matchmaking tendency, when he notes that “by
marrying the children of scholars to the children of successful merchants,
Jews were in effect joining those selected for abstract reasoning ability
with those selected for practical intelligence.”
Meanwhile, Catholics were marrying for “class” reasons, angling for blue-
blood aristocrat gains that had no link to intelligence. Physical
strength and valor was also desired, via brave knights on the battlefield
- this exaltation of brawn over brains likewise did nothing to advance
that religion’s collective IQ.
Trading Tongues: Ashkenazi merchants plied their wares over a vast area, originally to Islamic regions, but later internationally - from rubber in Brazil to silk in China. To prosper in the exchange, they memorized
multiple languages. The stateless tribe needed diverse fluency anyway, to communicate in adopted lands with their neighbors that spoke German,
Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Dutch,
etc.
The Ashkenazi developed a “fusion” tongue: Yiddish (German, Hebrew,
Aramaic, plus other Slavic languages and a touch of Romance). At its
height - before World War II - Yiddish was spoken by 13 million. The
polyglot language produced exemplary culture in literature, theater, and
film.
Neurologists today recognize that multiple language learning enhances
memory, mental flexibility, problem solving, abstract thinking, and
creative hypothesis formulation. Explanations of the benefits abound; I recommend listening to the video, “Bilingualism Will Supercharge Your
Baby’s Brain.”
Squeezed Into Brilliance: Jews in Europe were officially excluded from
“common” occupations such as agriculture from 800-1700 A.D. Indeed, they
were usually not allowed to own land. The restrictions forced Ashkenazim
for 900 years into urban vocations that were cognitively more demanding,
such as trade, bookkeeping, commerce, sales, and investment. The frequent Christian prohibition against charging of interest in money lending - prohibited as “usury” – assisted in opening up financial banking
occupations for Jews. Historical records reveal that 80% of the Jews in Roussilon, southern France, in 1270 were money-lenders.
Later, after they were evicted from Western Europe, Ashkenazim were
welcomed in Poland as urban investors and initiators of trade who could
help modernize the nation. They were also in great demand in middle
management positions because they had mathematic and business
administration skills.
Ashkenazim who weren’t mathematically and verbally adept enough to succeed
in these “white collar” jobs drifted away from Judaism—low IQs were pushed
out. Conversely, the most successful merchants and number crunchers raised larger families, passing on an increasing percentage of algebraic brains.
Winnowed By Persecution: The most intelligent and/or wealthy Ashkenazim
were better equipped to escape Inquisitions, pogroms, persecutions,
holocausts, and other genocidal threats because they: 1) could afford to emigrate; 2) could predict the need to do so; and 3) had social and
economic opportunities in the nations they fled to. Poorer, less
connected, and less astute Ashkenazi ranks thus were inexorably depleted.
The repeated annihilation, expulsion, and flight of the Jewish people is universally known. The first Diaspora to Babylonia has already been
mentioned. A second Diaspora is popularly regarded as a series of
dispersals from Israel after the failure of Jewish revolts against the
Roman Empire from 70 C.E. – 135 C.E. In 629 C.E., King Dagobert of the
Franks ordered the Jews to convert, leave his land, or face execution. The First Crusade, 1096-1099 C.E., cruelly slaughtered thousands of Ashkenazi,
an estimated 25%. Jews were expelled from England in 1290, France in 1394
and parts of Germany in the 15th century. Pogroms in the Russian Empire in
the 19th and early 20th century murdered substantial numbers of Jews, and
the Holocaust, instigated by Adolf Hitler, led to the genocide of
approximately six million, primarily Ashkenazi.
Whenever and wherever persecution began, Jews were more likely to escape
if they could pay their way out, or were wealthy enough to have horses, carriages, employees as guards, rich relatives to flee to, and friends in
“high places.” High IQ has frequently been correlated with economic
success.
Sick Genius: Ashkenazim are prey to about nineteen debilitating genetic diseases, and it’s been surmised that several of them might have cognitive “side effects” that can enhance intelligence. Many of the disorders can
kill or severely weaken those who have two copies of the gene, but if you inherit just one, you get a “heterozygote advantage” that can include
neuron growth promotion and accelerated interconnection of brain cells.
For example, having just one of the allele in Tay-Sachs and Niemann-Pick – GM2ganglioside - could moderately increase dentrite growth.
Another Ashkenazi ailment is Gaucher’s disease, which seems to promote
axonal growth and branching. A survey discovered that out of 255 employed patients of Gaucher’s disease at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem,
were in occupations that require IQs over 120, and 15% were scientists.
Another survey of Ashkenazim with Torsion Dystomia revealed an average IQ
of 121.
I interviewed Gregory Cochran via email; he’s the University of Utah co-
author of the 2005 research report, “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence.” In his words, “any IQ boost due to Gaucher’s [would be] a
good deal less than 10-15 points [but] It may be that big for Torsion
Dystonia: everyone who has treated them marvels at how sharp they are… [However] only a fraction [of Ashkenazi IQ elevation] is due to particular mutations like Gaucher, in our opinion.” In another interview, Cochran pinpointed the fractions as, “One in two thousand Askenazi, at most, carry
a Tay-Sachs mutation and a Gaucher mutation, the two most common.”
Ashkenazim are not an isolated ethnicity, after residing with Eastern
European neighbors for over a millennium. While many observers suggest
that they’re 30% European, an Emory University study concluded that
researchers “were able to estimate that between 35 and 55 percent of the
modern Ashkenazi genome comes from European descent.”
Positive Thinking – Aubrey Max Sandman, PhD, an electrical engineer in
London, sent me an email asserting that positive attitude is what counts,
not genetics. His opinion is that non-Jews do not work as hard as Jews, to attain their full potential.
In actuality, “positive thinking” actually does elevate IQ. 2011 research
at Michigan State University revealed that a subject’s “mind set” makes a difference in intelligence because their attitude determines if they react productively, or self-destructively, to their mistakes. The report will
soon be published, hopefully with specific data charting IQ gains, in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.
Check Mate: Chess historically has been a highly favored activity among Ashkenazim; a 1905 magazine described it as the “Jewish National Game.”
Almost 50% of Grandmasters are Ashkenazi. The visual, organizational, and strategic skills required for chess build up the precuneus in the superior parietal lobe, and the caudate nucleus, a part of the basal ganglia in the subcortical region. Admittedly, these benefits are not hereditary, but youngsters who practice the game can elevate their memory storage,
strategic planning, and IQ.
https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/pellissier20130620
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