[tokenadult]

Steve Hsu and his comments on IQ embarrass the actual research psychologists I know. Just in the last week a psychologist sent me a link to a take-down of Hsu's latest project.

http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-project-probes-the-geneti...

The psychologist who sent me the link, and another psychologist colleague of his who was copied on the same email, are both experienced and astute human behavior geneticists (the other recipient was a math major as an undergraduate who became a psychology research after a mathematical career) and they don't agree with Hsu's conclusions about current data.

[btilly]

I read the article. Here is my personal reaction.

The sample size is indeed too low to have the statistical power to draw any solid conclusions. However it could be large enough to produce a set of candidate genes which reasonably might have small individual impacts on IQ. If you then could do a follow-up on a large population just looking at those genes, some of those candidates are likely to prove out.

It is a fishing expedition. You never know what you'll find. The odds that you come back empty handed are high. But it is still worth doing.

[ekm2]

Another eminent psychologist seems to think that same project may be onto something.

http://edge.org/response-detail/23838

[Kudzu_Bob]

Hsu's claim in this matter is much easier to swallow than your contention that an IQ of 120 is sufficient for eminence in any field. Next you'll be telling us that anybody over five and a half feet tall can play for the Knicks.