Disease and IQ

[pktechgirlbackup]

Given recent talk of death rates, disease, and productivity, I feel obliged to pass on this article on disease rate and IQ. In essence, there's a discontinuity in IQs in Mexico, corresponding with the time malaria was eradicated. It's not conclusive, but it does address one of my nagging doubts about Farewell to Alms: very few things either kill people or leave them untouched. Often they just take a lot of resources and leave you worst off. This doesn't disprove the hypothesis- it's possible that greater selective pressure would push people to evolve a more efficient brain, for example, but the book can't address them until it owns its hypothesis

Comments

[lepid0ptera]

There are so many other hypotheses to explain that data, i.e. poor nutrition causes both susceptibility to disease and poor IQ.

[pktechgirl.livejournal.com]

which would explain the Bill Gates data, but not the Mexican discontinuity, which had exogenous inputs. This is the exact knee jerk "correlation does not equal causality" reaction you've complained about in the past.