Jump to:
Introduction
Taxonomies of Race
Creativity
Crime
Honesty
Impulsivity
Intelligence
Music
Overconfidence
Personality and Culture
Sex
Sport
Researchers
Links
Bibliography
In the name of political correctness, a number of American anthropologists claim that race does not exist. They are wrong. Races exist (Entine 2001; Goodrum 2002; Sarich and Miele 2004; Stowe 2006), and race matters (Levin 2005). Every human being is equipped with the same psychology: they perceive their own community, nation or race as an ‘in-group’, whereas those outside belong to an ‘out-group’ (Tajfel 1981, 1982; Tajfel and Turner 1986). See also Salter (2006). The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the US non-profit public broadcasting television service, have an online companion to their 2003 documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion which lists 10 ‘facts’ about race. It turns out that all ten of these ‘facts’ are untrue (Sarich and Miele 2004). Denying (i.e. lying about) race differences is harmful because it implies that any differences between the groups must be man-made, so someone is to blame. Although evolution doesn't do equality, when it comes to species and sub-species, it doesn't do hierarchy either. So talk of a ‘superior race’ is meaningless (as can be seen below, each race excels in different areas). Are we even a superior species? The most successful animal, in terms of biomass, is the Antarctic krill.
The categorization of species, sub-species and thus races is not an exact science. Indeed, some of the genetic differences between Africans and Eurasians are more than half as great as between the consensus human genome and chimpanzees; and modern Eurasians and sub-Saharan Africans are about as genetically distant as modern humans are from Homo erectus (Fonda).
A note about Jews
The mechanism by which people become Jews is inherited ethnicity, which makes them genetically cohesive. It is best to think of Jews as a tribe and Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy.
Linnaeus (1758)
Blumenbach (1776)
Boyd (1950)
Coon, Garn and Birdsell (1950)
Baker (1974)
A closely similar seven-race taxonomy to the one above, comprising the five major races of Blumenbach and the Khoi Bushmen, consisting of the Hottentots and Bushmen of southwest Africa and the Kalahari desert, and the Australids, consisting of the Australian Aborigines and Melanesians.
Nei and Roychoudhury (1993)
Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi and Piazza (1994)
Source: Lynn (2006)
Whites are the most creative race. For cultural, social and institutional reasons, East Asians, despite having higher intelligence than Europeans, have a ‘creativity problem’ (Kanazawa 2006). They make good engineers and have made a large number of useful inventions, but have made few original contributions to mathematics or science (Hart 2007), have made few technological breakthroughs, had few notable figures and have won very few Nobel prizes (Jobling 2008). From around 600AD until 1300AD China was the most advanced nation in the world, but that period was atypical (Hart 2007).
Blacks are 3.3 times more likely than whites to commit a crime of violence in the US (U.S. Department of Justice 2006), similarly, blacks are 3.4 times more likely than whites to be arrested for a notifiable offence in England and Wales (Home Office 2006). Globally, Rushton (2000) found that African and Caribbean countries reported twice the amount of violent crime (rape, murder, and serious assault) as did European countries, and about three times as much as did countries from the Pacific Rim. The most likely reason for the high incidence of black crime is blacks’ lower intelligence and greater impulsivity, which themselves are probably biological in origin.
Kinsella (2007) describes how 100 wallets were deliberately lost to test honesty. 79% of white people were honest and returned the wallets and 57% of black people were honest and returned the wallets.
Blacks are more impulsive than other races, and the unwillingness of blacks to delay immediate gratification for a long-term advantage shows up from an early age (Mischel 1958, 1961b,a; Seagull 1966; Zytkoskee, Strickland and Watson 1971; Strickland 1972; Price-Williams and Ramirez III 1974).
| Race | Mean IQ |
|---|---|
| East Asians | 105 |
| Europeans | 100 |
| Inuit (Eskimos) | 91 |
| South East Asians | 87 |
| Native American Indians | 87 |
| Pacific Islanders | 85 |
| South Asians and North Africans | 84 |
| sub-Saharan Africans | 67 |
| Australian Aborigines | 62 |
| Bushmen and Pygmies | 54 |
| Homo erectus | 50 |
| apes | 22 |
| Homo habilis | 22 |
| monkeys | 12 |
Source: Lynn (2006)
Genetic factors explain 50%-90% of the difference between the mean IQ scores of Europeans and Africans (Jensen 1998; Rushton and Jensen 2005; Lynn 2006; Hart 2007), whilst the remainder is explained by the environment (which is ultimately the product of the genes of the population). The East Asian/European difference is probably largely genetically determined. For the sake of comparison, the last four entries include other primates and extinct species of the genus Homo.
Africans and Native Americans perform less well than Europeans on tests of musical abilities of pitch discrimination, tone discrimination, and memory, but they perform about the same as or slightly better than Europeans on tests of rhythm.
Source: Lynn (2006)
People in general (especially men) tend to be overconfident. Asians (excluding Japanese) exhibit the highest levels of overconfidence (Wright et al., 1978; Wright and Phillips, 1980; Wright and Wisudha, 1982; Wright et al., 1983; Yates et al., 1989; Lee et al., 1995; Whitcomb et al., 1995; Yates et al., 1997, 1998; Chuang and Wang, 2005).
Whites tend to score higher on extraversion. Asians are low on extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. Whilst blacks score high on agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. See Appendix B in Gosling, Rentfrow and Swann (2003). Lynn and Martin (1995) found Nigeria (but not Uganda) high in extraversion and low in neuroticism, whilst China was low in extraversion. Allik and McCrae (2004) showed a clear contrast of European and American cultures with Asian and African cultures; the former were higher in extraversion and openness to experience and lower in agreeableness. McCrae and Terracciano (2005) found that Europeans and Americans were generally more extravert than Asians and Africans. Lykaios (2007) rates countries for tension (vs. relaxation) and cosmopolitanism (vs. provincialism). Japan and the Eastern European countries are high in tension, while South-East Asia nations and Scandinavian countries are relaxed. South American and East Asian nations (excluding Japan) are provincial, with European nations being more cosmopolitan (English and German speaking nations are extremely cosmopolitan). Schmitt, et al. (2007) found that people from the geographic regions of South America and East Asia were significantly different in openness from those inhabiting other world regions. See also the Inglehart Values Map (2002) and agnostic (2006).
Orientals are the least sexually active and least fertile. Blacks the most sexually active and most fertile. Whites are intermediate. See Rushton (2000).
American football. Polynesians are the most ‘overrepresented minority’. Although blacks comprise only 13% of the population of the United States, they account for 65% of the players in the National Football League. Blacks are typically running backs, seldom quarterbacks. Blacks dominate positions that require quick reaction, while whites dominate positions from which actions are initiated, such as quarterback and pitcher.
Baseball. Blacks are overrepresented in baseball, but particularly so in the outfield, where a premium is placed on fast starts, speed and power hitting.
Basketball. Requires fast reflexes and sudden exertion, blacks excel. Although blacks comprise only 13% of the population of the United States, they account for over 75% of professional basketball players.
Bowling. Requires concentration and control, blacks are underrepresented.
Boxing. Requires fast reflexes and sudden exertion, blacks excel.
Golf. Requires concentration and control, blacks are underrepresented.
Gymnastics. Asians excel because they are more flexible and have the quickest reaction time.
Hurdling. Requires fast reflexes and sudden exertion, blacks excel.
Ice skating. Asians excel because they are more flexible and have the quickest reaction time.
Jumping. West Africans excel due to their higher percentage of ‘fast-twitch’ muscle tissue.
Running1: Sprints. West Africans excel due to their higher percentage of fast-twitch fibres.
Running2: Middle-distance. Kenyans dominate long distance running. It turns out that the Kenyan runners all come from one tribe, the Kalenjin (who make up only 10 percent of Kenya's population). The average Kalenjin runner is 1.5 standard deviations beyond that of the rest of the world: that is an enormous difference.
Running3: Marathons. Kenyans excel, as above.
Sumo wrestling. Samoan sumo wrestlers excel as they are larger and quicker than those from Japan.
Swimming. Whites are best at swimming. Compared to whites, blacks have heavier bone density and smaller chest cavities, whilst Asians have less upper body strength.
Table tennis. Asians excel because they are more flexible and have the quickest reaction time.
Tennis. Requires concentration and control, blacks are underrepresented.
Throwing events. Whites dominate, in part because of superior upper body strength.
Wrestling. Asians excel because they are more flexible and have the quickest reaction time.
Sources: Entine (1999), Sarich and Miele (2004), Levin (2005) and Hart (2007)