There was a fascinating case of South Korean twins reared apart after one was lost at the market when they were two years old and after foster care, was later adopted to the US. The researchers noted consistent similarities in personality, mental health profile and the pattern of cognitive abilities. They showed similar high conscientiousness and low neuroticism, high verbal comprehension and working memory.
What did Psypost report first after telling the charming story of how they got reunited? That they "expressed" different values WRT stereotypical cultural differences in individualism and vertical collectivism. What did Psypost highlight in the headline? The "striking"16-point difference in IQ, rather than the usual average of 7 points.
However...
The researchers suggested that this discrepancy might be partially explained by US’s history of concussions...
Um, yeah. You have to get to paragraph eleven for that. Old friend Gringo over at Maggie's Farm picked up on the same thing right away. They were pretty much the same on everything except what they said out loud about communitarianism, each being conventional according to culture - which would be something of a similarity; and the one with lots of concussions had intelligence in the same pattern, just less of it.
Even I grant that getting bapped on the head frequently is a significant environmental effect. Another is near starvation before age six. Or eating lead. Not much else.
Always remember that South Korean students outperform Americans because they are so regimented and are worked so hard, but Finnish students are better than Americans because they are so laid back and allowed to pursue interests without pressure. Got that? Couldn't possibly be genetic, so it has to be "whatever else you got in the environment."
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