The geography or geopolitics of IQ: A criticism

This article is a critical evaluation of The Geography of IQ, written by Garry A. Gelade, and published in the leading journal Intelligence. However, it is initially written to criticize Dr. Richard Lynn (University of Ulster, UK) and Dr. Tatu Vanhanen’s (University of Tampere, Finland) theory of IQ and the wealth of nations. Since the early 21st century, after the publication of two bestselling books, IQ and the wealth of nations and IQ and global inequality, this theory has become widely accepted by rightist or moderate parties and organizations in Europe, North America, and even the Far East. The main idea of this theory is that the inequality between the nations results from the difference between their average intelligence quotients. Although the theory of IQ and the wealth of nations provides political elites of the developing world with an incentive to improve quality of life and human development indices, from the critic’s point of view the statistical data and research method are weak and thin. Neglecting geopolitical insights and analysis, and setting the foundations of the project only upon the geographical distribution of the two measures, IQ and GDP, the theory tries to evaluate economic development throughout the world. This neglect is the reason for some of the mistaken views of Lynn and Vanhanen.