[flatline]

I think it's trivially obvious that they do?

The uncomfortable questions are whether people are genetically predisposed to, or naturally have a greater aptitude for, some particular interest, particularly on racial or gender lines. For many physical activities this is a settled question for gender, but that's about all we know.

Even this alone is not necessarily controversial, the problem as we've seen time and again is that the reaults of such a study are taken as a basis for discrimination. If we could rigorously quantify and prove a statement like "people of East Asian descent show a 2.3% greater aptitude for mathematics," it doesn't mean that the Chinese guy sitting in front of you has any such aptitude. Historically the metrics by which we have attempted to measure such things have been deeply flawed and biased. I'm not sure it will ever be possible to make such assertions in any rigorous manner, the factors behind cognitive tasks are just too complex.

[RivieraKid]

> The uncomfortable questions are whether people are genetically predisposed to, or naturally have a greater aptitude for, some particular interest, particularly on racial or gender lines.

The answer is obvious here: yes. The only question is the size of the effect.

[i_cannot_hack]

> The answer is obvious here: yes.

Let's say the statistical size of the effect is something around a millionth of a millionth of a percent, then I think most people would answer the question with "no" and be understood correctly by everyone. These kinds of questions almost always have a "big enough to have a perceptible impact"-clause implied. Pretending they don't feels needlessly pedantic.

[aaron695]

I took the comment as saying obviously it's not "millionth of a millionth of a percent". You are strawpersoning here.

There are going to be definite real world measurable differences.

OP leaves open the possibility, for instance, of cultural differences that have a effect an order or two of magnitude larger though.

Personally I doubt this, but OP seems open to the idea the size might be small.

[i_cannot_hack]

In that case I would like them to define a lower bound of a "measurable difference" and give a clear case why the effect is obviously higher than that. Simply saying it's obvious when many people actually disagree is not very constructive.

I'm not saying they are wrong, I just disagree with the tone.

[theoh]

Homophily is the term used to describe this phenomenon of groups forming on the basis of some kind of affinity (in the broadest sense): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophily

[ForRealsies]

2.3% greater aptitude for mathematics? Better spot the other races 50 points on the SAT.

[c517402]

They only report scores up to 800, so adding 50 to my 920 isn't really doing anything for me.