IQ of a person directly depends on infectious diseases
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The mind is the most precious thing in the world. Not for money, but for a common currency for all biology - energy. As one study showed, the newborn spends almost 90% of the calories received for the construction and operation of the brain. (In adults this takes about a quarter of the energy absorbed.) If unforeseen costs arise in childhood, the brain will suffer. One of these factors is an infectious disease.
It is known that the average IQ performs geographic miracles, changing not only from country to country, but also within them. The reason remains debatable - whether it's genetics, or the conditions of life, or everything at once. Nigel Barber argues that the differences in IQ are due primarily to differences in education. Donald Templer and Hiroko Arikawa believe that it is more difficult to live in a colder climate, so IQ is higher there. Satoshi Kanazawa assumes that the IQ is higher, the farther from the African ancestral home of mankind (they say, there we survived without thinking, and outside it became more and more difficult).
Christopher Eppig, Corey Fincher and Randy Thornhill decided to test all hypotheses at once. Of all the factors (education, national wealth, temperature, distance from Black Africa) it was infectious diseases that turned out to be the best parameter for predicting IQ. Christopher Hussall and Thomas Sherratt recently repeated this analysis using more complex statistical methods and concluded that infectious diseases can be called the only really important predictor of the average national IQ.
It was also found that five American states with the lowest average IQ (California, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.) also have a higher level of infectious diseases, and the five most "smart" states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, etc.) simultaneously the most healthy.
The hypothesis is confirmed not only by cross-national studies, but also by studies of individuals. For example, it is shown that children infected with worms have a lower IQ in later life. Atheendar Venkataramani found that the Mexican regions covered by malaria eradication programs had a higher average IQ compared to other regions.
From a practical point of view, this means that the human mind is a variable, not a constant, that is, not only and not so much in genetics. Defeat the infection - the whole world will become smarter.
It remains to find out which periods of development are most sensitive to infectious diseases and which diseases are especially harmful to the brain.
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