jews intelligence
One basic question to be answered in assessing a genetic explanation of unusual intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews is whether today's Ashkenazi Jews really do, as a group, have unusual intelligence. Assessing intelligence, especially of ethnic groups, is notoriously difficult and subject to racist and political biases.
One observational basis for inferring that Ashkenazi Jews have high intelligence is their prevalance in intellectually demanding fields. From 1901–2010, 21.5% of Nobel prize winners were Jewish, while Jews make up a much smaller fraction of the population of the countries represented. For example, 36% of Nobel prize winners from the United States have been Jewish, while Jews make up 2.1% of the U.S. population.[7] G. Cochran, J. Hardy and H. Harpending additionally cite the disproportionately high percentage of Ashkenazi Chess Grandmasters and Fields Medalists in mathematics, as well as winners of the Turing Award in computer science.[1] However, such statistics do not rule out factors other than intelligence, such as institutional biases and social networks.
A more direct approach is to measure intelligence with psychometric tests (although the validity of such tests as a measure of intelligence has often been disputed). Different studies have found different results, but most have found above-average verbal and mathematical intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews, along with below-average spatial intelligence.[8][9][10] Some studies have found IQ scores amongst Ashkenazi Jews to be a fifth to one full standard deviation above average in mathematical and verbal tests. However, most studies of Jewish intelligence have used samples which were either poor representations of the whole population or were too small to give reliable results, and some studies from the beginning of the 20th century had found Ashkenazi groups to have below-average intelligence.[10] In reference to the latter, G. Cochran, J. Hardy and H. Harpending argue that it is "a widely cited misrepresentation by Leon Kamin (Kamin, 1974) of a paper by Henry Goddard (Goddard, 1917). Goddard gave IQ tests to people suspected of being retarded, and he found that the tests identified retarded Jews as well as retarded people of other groups. Kamin reported, instead, that Jews had low IQs, and this erroneous report was picked up by many authors including Stephen Jay Gould, who used it as evidence of the unreliability of IQ tests (Seligman, 1992)."[1]
NOT GREEDY profit greed tributary system
Zheng He failed to pioneer a commercial empire on the scale of Portugal or Britain. Despite their commercial overtones, Zheng He’s voyages were mere extensions of Ming Empire’s tributary system, a system not based on profit. Emperor Hongwu established the Ming tributary system merely as a way for foreign countries to acknowledge the empire’s status – private profiteering by envoys was strictly denied. When Ming envoys refused to accept gifts from the Vietnamese, Hongwu applauded; when envoys from Korea used a trip to the Ming court to trade privately with Chinese merchants, Hongwu frowned. Under Emperor Yongle, the Ming tributary system expanded with Zheng He’s diplomatic expeditions, and became more flexible. Zheng He’s men sailed to the Strait of Malacca, Malay, Arabia, and East Timor, carrying the emperor’s official seal and banner, accompanied an array of grain ships, battle ships, horse carrying ships, troop transport ships, and even water tank ships (with on board aquariums). Yongle realized that trade and tribute were synonmous, and allowed foreign ambassadors who boarded Zheng He’s ships to profit. The emperor even set up markets in the Ming capital for these foreigner envoys to trade. Yet, while foreign envoys profitted, expeditions under Zheng He did not. Zheng He’s treasure ships aimed to bedazzle foreign princes – gold, silver, porcelain, silk, and other valuables were exchanged, in great quantities, for items less worthy, like giraffes that amused the emperor but provided little practical benefit. Even beginning economics students understand that with little return, any business venture, no matter how grand in scale, would be doomed to bankruptcy.
LOLOLOLOLOL BIAS WEST EAST
Positive illusions are unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards themselves. Positive illusions are a form of self-deception or self-enhancement that feel good, maintain self-esteem or stave off discomfort at least in the short term. There are three broad kinds: inflated assessment of one's own abilities, unrealistic optimism about the future and an illusion of control.[1] The term "positive illusions" originates in a 1988 paper by Taylor and Brown.[1]
The cultural prevalence also has a significant role in positive illusions. Although it is easy to document positive illusions in individualistic Western cultures, people in collectivist East Asian cultures are much less likely to self-enhance and, indeed, are often self-effacing instead (Heine & Hamamura, 2007).
The cultural prevalence also has a significant role in positive illusions. Although it is easy to document positive illusions in individualistic Western cultures, people in collectivist East Asian cultures are much less likely to self-enhance and, indeed, are often self-effacing instead (Heine & Hamamura, 2007).
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