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This article aims to make an original contribution to the discussion of the dynamics of social status expression in Finland. Drawing upon fieldwork in Oulu and Kokkola, it will examine how a sample of Finnish people express and play for social status through the objects with which they decorate their homes. It suggests that Finnish social stratification may be undergoing a shift away from correlation with formal education towards identification with broader consumption patterns, especially amongst the young. However, it will also highlight social status-based differences in terms of both forms of expression and touch on how these reflect the evolution of Finnish social stratification and culture more broadly. Keywords: Finland, social status, home, decoration

A recent study by Dutton et al. (J Relig Health 59:1567-1579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00926-3 , 2020) found that the religiousness-IQ nexus is not on g when comparing different groups with various degrees of religiosity and the non-religious. It suggested, accordingly, that the nexus related to the relationship between specialized analytic abilities on the IQ test and autism traits, with the latter predicting atheism. The study was limited by the fact that it was on group-level data, it used only one measure of religiosity that measure may have been confounded by the social element to church membership and it involved relatively few items via which a Jensen effect could be calculated. Here, we test whether the religiousness-IQ nexus is on g with individual-level data using archival data from the Vietnam Experience Study, in which 4462 US veterans were subjected to detailed psychological tests. We used multiple measures of religiosity-which we factor-analysed to a religion-factor-and a large number of items. We found, contrary to the findings of Dutton et al. (2020), that the IQ differences with regard to whether or not subjects believed in God are indeed a Jensen effect. We also uncovered a number of anomalies, which we explore.

A number of very eminent and highly creative individuals are often claimed to have been born prematurely, and the idea that widely recognised scientific geniuses such as Newton, Kepler, and Darwin were preterm has become a cultural meme through the popular press, and through popular and academic science books. This potentially raises very important questions, related to the nature and origin of creativity and innovation, as it has been suggested that prematurity and genius may be linked. Here, we review suggested links between prematurity and genius, in terms of psychological traits associated with genius, and compare the percentage of top geniuses in Murray’s Human Accomplishment who are claimed to have been born prematurely to that of Western populations in general. Although a significant number of those in Murray’s sample have been asserted to be preterm, we found that none of them could be said with certainty to have been so, refuting the hypothesis that there is a clear connection between prematurity and scientific genius.

According to Lynn’s developmental theory of sex differences, male and female children have approximately the same IQ. Females, entering puberty earlier, pull ahead for a period in early adolescence before males ultimately reach a permanent IQ advantage, commencing in the late teens. This has also been found in some Arab countries, though there are a number of exceptions, including Saudi Arabia. In order to further test Lynn’s model, we administered the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) to a geographically representative sample of 2,090 school pupils aged 6 to 18 in the Omani region of Dhofar. We found that, in line with Lynn’s model, males reached a small IQ advantage by their late teens. However, our findings were not precisely congruent with what Lynn’s model would predict. We argue that Oman’s relative liberalism towards females, as well as sampling differences, explain our divergence from the Saudi Arabian sample.

We report the results of a new study of intelligence in Jordan for 5- to 11-year-olds assessed by the Coloured Progressive Matrices, a test of non-verbal reasoning. It gives a British-scaled IQ of 84.5. The result is in line with those of earlier studies using Raven’s Progressive Matrices in Jordan.

Research has consistently found that there are sex differences in self-reported personality traits. Studies have also found that there are intercultural variations in the magnitude of these sex-based personality differences, with these differences being the most pronounced in prosperous, gender-egalitarian Western societies. In this study, we contribute to this body of research by exploring sex-related personality differences on the HEXACO personality inventory in a large student sample in Saudi Arabia. Consistent with previous research, we find that sex differences in personality are of rather small magnitude, in line with the Socioecological Complexity Hypothesis whereby personality differentiation is found to be more pronounced the more complex a society is. We also report substantial sex differences in response styles, with acquiescent responding and evidence of “careless responding“ higher in males than in females

Many accounts of witchcraft in the Early Modern era testify to accused witches having had sex, willingly or unwillingly, with the Devil. Historians tend to explain this in terms of hysteria or pressure to confess to a perceived template for witch-like behavior. In this study, it is argued that these accounts can be understood via evolutionary analyses of female psychology. It is shown that the females who were accused of witchcraft tended to be high in social dominance and socio-sexuality, and/or unwilling to conform to the patriarchal system. It is further demonstrated that these precise traits are correlated with intense sexual fantasies, including so-called ‘rape fantasies’. It is averred that this model makes sense of the many accounts in which Early Modern witches confessed to having slept with Satan.

Cultures vary according to many partly genetic factors, including the average intelligence of their people. Studies have indicated that Finns have particularly high intelligence by European standards. However, the causes are unclear. It may be an ancient adaptation to a harsh yet stable ecology or a reflection of more recent demographic factors. We test the hypothesis of ancient adaptation by exploring average IQ and related proxies, in the Finns and among genetically related peoples: Estonians, and Russia’s Finno-Ugric speaking minorities. Employing national and regional level data, we find evidence indicating elevated intelligence among Finno-Ugrics, consistent with relatively high Finnish IQ being more than simply a recent phenomenon. We examine anomalies raised by these tentative findings, such as relatively low per capita science Nobel Prize achievement among Finns and our finding of a negative association between suicide rate and Finno-Ugric percentage in a population.

Introduction Gender dysphoria (GD) is associated with several psychiatric conditions, but the causal links are not known. We note that some of these conditions are associated with physiological masculinisation. Methods Here, we explore this association through a series of systematic reviews, using Google Scholar, on original studies that test the relationship between GD and at least one correlate of androgens, namely autism spectrum disorder, left-handedness, 2D:4D ratio, being male and male heterosexuality. Results Individuals with GD tend to exhibit scores that reflect heightened levels of androgens and masculinity compared with non-GD individuals. We further show that these same androgen indices are also associated with other identity disorders (or dysphoriae). Conclusions Autism is associated with masculinisation, and we argue that GD may reflect autism spectrum disorder traits that indirectly lead to anxiety and to one questioning one’s sense of self. We note that this is consistent with Blanchard’s transsexualism typology, which successfully integrates a wide range of empirical findings.

Performances on tests of creativity have been found to be in decline in the USA. Here, we explore scores on divergent thinking tests in private schools in Khartoum State in Sudan by comparing a 2005 and a 2018 administration of the Torrance Standardized Circles test to 8- to 12-year-olds of both sexes. We find a decline across the period in all three dimensions of the test (Fluency, Flexibility and Originality), as well as in the overall index of divergent thinking. In line with much previous research, females consistently outperform males. Examining previous studies that report Negative Flynn Effects on IQ in Arab countries, we conclude that our results most likely reflect highly localized and exclusively environmental causes, and caution against assuming that the same processes that underlie Negative Flynn Effects in the West, whether on IQ or any trait correlated with it, also underlie it in the Arab World.

Schizophrenia is correlated with religious delusions but, heretofore, the relationship between schizophrenia prevalence and religiosity has not been explored at the national level. Examining this relationship, we find that national level schizophrenia prevalence is correlated with national level religiosity and strongly negatively correlated with national level atheism across 125 countries. When controlling for cognitive performance and economic development in multiple regression analyses, the proportion of the variance explained was 2.9% (p p

A recent study by Dutton et al. (J Relig Health 59:1567-1579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00926-3 , 2020) found that the religiousness-IQ nexus is not on g when comparing different groups with various degrees of religiosity and the non-religious. It suggested, accordingly, that the nexus related to the relationship between specialized analytic abilities on the IQ test and autism traits, with the latter predicting atheism. The study was limited by the fact that it was on group-level data, it used only one measure of religiosity that measure may have been confounded by the social element to church membership and it involved relatively few items via which a Jensen effect could be calculated. Here, we test whether the religiousness-IQ nexus is on g with individual-level data using archival data from the Vietnam Experience Study, in which 4462 US veterans were subjected to detailed psychological tests. We used multiple measures of religiosity-which we factor-analysed to a religion-factor-and a large number of items. We found, contrary to the findings of Dutton et al. (2020), that the IQ differences with regard to whether or not subjects believed in God are indeed a Jensen effect. We also uncovered a number of anomalies, which we explore.

Following the Developmental Theory of Sex Differences, males and females have roughly the same IQ during childhood. However, because females enter puberty earlier their general IQ exceeds that of males during early adolescence, after which males enter puberty. By their late teens, males have a small IQ advantage. To test this model, we administered the SPM+ to a sample of 701 male and 705 female school students aged 10 to 19 years from different schools in the Dhofar Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman. Our results broadly validated Lynn's model, as males scores exceeded those of females from the age of 16 onwards. However, we note that there are also alternative explanations for our findings.

Many groups differ in their mean intelligence score. Spearman’s hypothesis states that the differences are a function of cognitive complexity. There tend to be large differences on subtests of high cognitive complexity and small differences on subtests of low cognitive complexity. Spearman’s hypothesis has been supported by a large number of studies. Can Spearman’s hypothesis be generalized to regions of a country, where these regions differ in mean intelligence? We utilized data from 86 different cognitive tests from all 47 Japanese prefectures and correlated the g loadings of 86 subtests with standardized differences on the same subtests. Spearman’s hypothesis was clearly supported: the biggest differences between the regions were on the tests that were of the greatest complexity, meaning that Spearman’s hypothesis may be generalizable from groups to regions. In Japan, g loadings offer a better explanation of group differences in intelligence than cultural differences. Future research should explore whether Spearman’s hypothesis is also supported for differences between regions of other countries.

Research is increasingly finding that stereotypes about the average intelligence or personality of different groups, when actually tested, have a substantial degree of empirical accuracy. This has been explored with regard to more incendiary stereotypes — such as about races and nationalities — but in no great detail with regard to different religious groups. In this study, we draw upon the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS) to discern the most important values held by atheists and agnostics. We compare these to stereotypes about atheists and agnostics in terms of personality or interests. We find that the stereotypes are accurate to a strong degree. Item ambiguity and other problems with the instrument may have impacted the results, leading to suggestions on how to overcome these problems in future research.

This study examines sex differences in reasoning ability assessed with Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices among 2,206 (1001 male and 1205 female) school students aged between 15 and 18 from urban and rural secondary schools in the Minya region of southern Egypt. There are no statistically significant differences in intelligence between males and females up until the age of 15. However, males scored significantly higher than females at the ages of 16, 17 and 18, consistent with Lynn’s developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence. In exploring the Egyptian education system and the social dynamics of the Minya region in more depth, we attempt to find various confounds which might offer explanations for this difference. However, we find that Lynn’s model is the most persuasive.

Cofnas (2018b) has critiqued Dutton’s (2018) proposition that Jewish involvement in Leftist, Western-tradition/nationalism critiquing movements may partly be attributed to relatively high Jewish ethnocentrism, rather than exclusively to relatively high Jewish intelligence. Here, I present the background to what has become a heated debate, and proceed to show that (1) there is compelling evidence that humans act, even in mundane tasks, in their genetic (and specifically ethnic) interests, and (2) Jews are relatively high in ethnocentrism and high levels of Jewish exogamous marriage do not undermine this because (a) marriage is an isolated measure of ethnocentrism; (b) Jewish-Gentile marriages are relatively unstable, implying a low level of bonding and so not implying low Jewish ethnocentrism; and (c) high exogamous marriage would be consistent with the kind of majority-embracing group strategy proposed in MacDonald’s (1998) Culture of Critique model. Given these empirical observations, I conclude that (3) MacDonald’s model makes testable predictions and is potentially falsifiable. It should now be tested more extensively and systematically.

Outline of research This study was carried out within the framework of the Queensland Speech Survey. It is the second of a series of scientific investigations into the varieties of English used by aboriginals in Queensland. The present study analyses and describes in detail the phonological characteristics of the informal English speech of a group of four male informants, aged between twelve and fourteen years, on Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement in North Queensland. This speech is described as a hierarchically structured system of interrelated units: phonological phrase, phonological word, syllable, and phoneme. Other higher level phonological features of intonation, pause, rhythm, length and tempo of articulation and voice quality are also considered in relation to this system. In addition, this dissertation discusses the effects of these characteristics on the intelligibility of the speech of these aboriginal informants for the non-aboriginal Australian listener.n

Numerous studies have found a negative relationship between religiousness and IQ. It is in the region of − 0.2, according to meta-analyses. The reasons for this relationship are, however, unknown. It has been suggested that higher intelligence leads to greater attraction to science, or that it helps to override evolved cognitive dispositions such as for religiousness. Either way, such explanations assume that the religion–IQ nexus is on general intelligence (g), rather than some subset of specialized cognitive abilities. In other words, they assume it is a Jensen effect. Two large datasets comparing groups with different levels of religiousness show that their IQ differences are not on g and must, therefore, be attributed to specialized abilities. An analysis of the specialized abilities on which the religious and non-religious groups differ reveals no clear pattern. We cautiously suggest that this may be explicable in terms of autism spectrum disorder traits among people with high IQ scores, because such traits are negatively associated with religiousness.

Sex differences in intelligence are of great importance with regard to understanding intelligence's underlying evolutionary forces. Previous research in this area has had a strong focus on Western ...

Impulsivity (or impulsiveness) is a psychological trait with a long history in research and a large amount of accepted associations with other traits and with life outcomes. But it is rarely studied outside of the Western world, raising questions as to whether it can be generalized beyond this. In this study the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 (BIS-11) was administered on two university student samples; one Egyptian (N = 450) and one Saudi (N = 396), in order to close this gap and to observe differences between sexes and cultures. We compared the Saudi samples with samples from typical Western countries (Germany, USA) by using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a means of assessing cultural differences. We found no indicators of sex differences or cultural differences along the superficial division between countries from the Western and Arab-Muslim world. Also, more differentiated cultural dimensions were predominantly unrelated to BIS-11 factor scores. Implications for further research and limitations, such as the inclusion of more samples from Arab-Muslim countries and the use of samples more representative for the whole population, were discussed.

Communicating intelligence research : media misrepresentation, the Gould Effect and unexpected forces

Patterns of adoption behaviour are starkly asymmetric across populations. To better understand this phenomenon we conducted a systematic review of transracial adoption and adoption in general. We f ...

It has been argued that Raven's tests are problematic in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. No discussion of Raven's in South Sudan, one of the least developed countries in Africa, has been presented. We present all known administrations of Raven's to South Sudanese samples. We find that Raven's in South Sudan is problematic. The scores are so low that they may imply that the subjects had little understanding of the test and simply guessed the answers. It is argued that the undeveloped nature of South Sudan means that a test based around shapes and analytic thinking is unsuitable. It is likely to heavily under-estimate their average intelligence.