Ancient genomics AMA with Davide Piffer
I am in Italy together with Davide Piffer. We will be filming a conversation about ancient genomes and group differences. Please post your questions below so we can cover them…
Skill vs. luck in games: a survey study
Some games involve chance elements. We can theoretically distinguish between a few types of chance elements. First, the simplest, are direct chance elements as in rolling dice, flipping a coin,…
The dream of ratio scale psychology measures
Anon asks: Dear Emil Kirkegaard, I just read your article about the intelligence quotient being very arbitrary and not being able to divide or multiply with it, what about raw…
On Paul Bloom’s Psych (2023)
Psychology is a popular field, so there's quite a big market for introductory textbooks. I occasionally read these just to see how authors are introducing and treating various topics. In…
Can psychology become a proper science?
There is idealized science and there is real life science. In idealized science, disinterested, smart, rational agents attempt to figure out how reality works out of sheer curiosity. They collaborate…
Polygenic score validity and group differences
Probably the most common objection to studies of polygenic scores for education/intelligence for race differences is that the polygenic scores are less valid for non-European populations. For instance, here's a…
Might makes right, well, sort of
In moral philosophy, there is a theory of morality which is nearly universally used as a wrong-headed theory. It's the might makes right theory. In other words, whoever is in…
Of course it matters whether group differences are genetic in origin
It is sometimes said that as long as we accept the various group differences in society, it doesn't matter what the etiology really is. For instance, here's Richard Hanania: https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1688213682998931456…
Can the X chromosome explain greater male variability? Seems not
Men vary more than women in most phenotypes we can measure, including intelligence. Inquisitive Bird has a summary of the intelligence findings here. Thöni & Volk 2021 provide a nice…
Embryo selection can become the norm
In discussion of my recent book review of The Past is a Future Country: The Coming Conservative Demographic Revolution, J.O.A. Rayner-Hilles questioned whether embryo selection could really become powerful enough…