IQ and Success :: Sociology Racism Prejudice Essays

IQ and Success Using data from a long-term survey, The Bell Curve purports to show that IQ is a far infract predictor of adult success than pip-squeakhood sociostinting status. But the authors employ an extremely limited number of social factors as the basis for their calculations. By taking into consideration a greater number of social factors (to murder the study resemble a more complete picture of existing life), sociologists have been able to show that social factors, non IQ, are a much better predictor of upcoming success. In The Bell Curve, authors Herrnstein and Murray pick out that a childs IQ is a far better predictor of future success than a childs initial socioeconomic status (or SES). For example, a whiteness child raised in the bottom 5 percent of SES is octet times more likely to become poor than a child from the top 5 percent. But a white child whose IQ is in the bottom 5 percent is fifteen times more likely to become poor than a child whose IQ is in the t op 5 percent. (1)Is this true? (Well, no -- but more on this below.) It does seems obvious that intelligence is important to succeed in life, but it in addition seems obvious that social factors play a large, if not larger, role. For example, the crushing economic disparity between North and South Korea has nothing to do with IQ differences, and everything to do with different social and economic policies. Even on a personal level, intelligence is only one of countless factors that contribute to success. Others take Access to education Training opportunities Personality type Physical draw Athletic ability Inheritance Nepotism Prejudice Social and business connections keen someone who is successful Lobbying Congress Business cycle trends Fads Inventions Discoveries Wars Speculation shimmer Miserliness Insider trading Unfair market practices And, last but not least, dumb luck -- being at the right place at the right time And these are just the adult factor s -- theres a solid host of childhood factors as well, which follow below. How the rules of the game are constructed determines which of these factors becomes close to important for winning and losing, and therefore which individuals have the most merit. For example, we might return that those who play professional baseball have the most merit -- that is, they are the best players in the game.