This was presented at London Conference in 2015. Not published so far because the authors “were busy”. In that spirit, I shall leave out their names and post the results.

A Meta-analysis of Roma Intelligence: an update

The Roma are the only major European ethnic group the average IQ of which is unknown. Although there is a substantial amount of research on this topic, most of it consists of Eastern European studies in various languages and sources hard to obtain. To date, this body of literature has not been brought together in a comprehensive manner, nor is it known to the international scientific community. For example, Lynn and Vanhanen (2012) estimate the IQs of many ethnic groups, but their estimate of Roma IQ is based on only one study. A partial review of the Czech and Slovak literature was conducted by Bakalář (2004), but does not include newer studies and studies from other countries.Our meta-analysis aims to unite the existing literature on Roma intelligence and draw statistical conclusions. We conducted an extensive search to include texts in English, German, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian. Our search methods included electronic search, manual search, and consultation with experts in the field. The search has yielded more than 60 articles with 43 usable samples. Data analysis is in progress.We will present an estimate of the overall Roma IQ, showing that the Roma are the group with the lowest IQ in Europe. We will compare IQs of different Roma sub-populations (normal schools, special schools, delinquents, orphanages). We will show that the Roma are possibly the only group in the world for which there is no Flynn effect.

We will also take a look at the often stated criticism that there is a substantial language bias against the Roma in IQ tests. We will show that such a bias is unlikely, as there is no substantial difference between Roma verbal and performance IQ scores. We will present tests of Spearman’s hypothesis for the Roma. Finally, we will show support for the cumulative deficit hypothesis: the older Roma are, the lower their IQ scores become. We will also deal with the methodological limitations of our data.