prompter: What is the link between race and intelligence?

assistant: There is no scientific evidence to support a link between race and intelligence. Intelligence is a complex trait that is influenced by many factors, including genetics, environment, education, and culture. Race, on the other hand, is a social construct that is based on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and facial features. While there may be genetic differences between individuals of different races, these differences do not correspond to any meaningful differences in intelligence.

It is important to recognize that any attempts to link race and intelligence can have harmful and divisive effects on society. The notion that certain races are inherently more or less intelligent than others has been used throughout history to justify discrimination and oppression, and it has no scientific basis. It is essential to base our understanding of intelligence on rigorous scientific research, free from bias and prejudice, and to reject any attempts to use intelligence as a means of perpetuating discrimination or inequality.

prompter: "The role of genetics in determining measured differences in mean IQ between putative racial groups has been a focus of intense discussion and disagreement for more than 50 years. While the last several decades of research have definitively demonstrated that genetic variation can influence measures of cognitive function, the inferences drawn by some participants in the controversy regarding the implications of these findings for racial differences in cognitive ability are highly dubious. Of equal importance, there is no compelling scientific rationale for focusing on and devoting substantial effort to determining mean differences in intelligence or other cognitive functions between groups with incompletely defined and dynamic (and therefore not definitively definable) boundaries."

via: Greenspan NS. Genes, Heritability, 'Race', and Intelligence: Misapprehensions and Implications. Genes (Basel). 2022 Feb 15;13(2):346. doi: 10.3390/genes13020346. PMID: 35205392; PMCID: PMC8872358.

assistant: This says pretty much what I said before. Links between race and intelligence was controversial a while back. The scientific community today however agrees that there are no links between race and intelligence. Sure, factors like diet, mental support, physical health, etc. during childhood may affect the development of cognitive functions. Studies that show a link between race and intelligence ignore this point. Such studies thus succumb to the causal fallacy, where they incorrectly conclude lower intelligence in certain parts of the world to be caused by race due to statistical correlations. In reality however, such areas face issues like poverty, malnutrition, war, etc. which lead to lower cognitive development during childhood.

assistant: I’m sorry but I cannot provide you with the full text of this article due to copyright issues. However, I can give you a brief summary:

The article argues that genetic variation can affect cognitive function, but that does not mean that racial groups have inherent differences in intelligence. The article also criticizes the scientific validity and relevance of studying mean differences in cognitive function between racial groups that are not clearly defined or stable.

I hope this summary helps you understand the main points of the article.

assistant: I do not know of any correlation between intelligence and the need for speed.

prompter: I meant race in the biological and cultural sense

assistant: Race is a term used in biological taxonomy that is synonymous with Subspecies. This comes from theory of natural selection, which promotes the idea of "survival of the fittest". This idea is based on the observation that organisms which produce the most offspring are those most fit for survival in their environment. Thus, the same animals placed in different environments with different ecosystems will end up evolving separately by selecting for different characteristics. For example, the Genus *Corvus* is a group of medium-sized birds typically referred to as crows who are a member of the *Corvidae* Family. They are often regarded as some of the most intelligent animals on the planet due to their ability to problem solve using tools. However, other Genus in the *Corvidae* Family like *Perisoreus* (commonly called borial jays) have evolved differently, and don't exhibit the same amount of intelligence as the *Corvus* Genus. When we examine specific Species in the *Corvus* Genus, we see much less variation, and even less (if any) with Subspecies because they are so similar.


In Humans, race commonly refers to differences based on physical and cultural differences rather than taxonomic differences. For Humans, there has been much research into whether or not race and intelligence are linked. Most attempts to find a link between race and intelligence are an attempt to explain why there are disparities between different races when it comes to level of education, test scores, and income.

Some analyzing the link between race and intelligence examine the general cultural values of each race, and how that influences their actions. Because people of the same race have an in-group bias, they are more likely to have cultural similarities with people of their own race rather than people of other races. As a result, different cultures, and thus races, end up emphasizing different pursuits in life at different levels, resulting in the disparity seen. 

Other researchers believe the main cause of the disparity is not cultural, but environmental. They posit that environmental factors like familial income, housing, family, crime, and discrimination present students with undue burdens that make it harder for them to succeed. Since these can be generally mapped onto race, we see a difference in achievement because of unequal environments.

Finally, some researchers attribute the disparities between different races to biological differences, with some races being more intelligent and others less. Findings attributing intelligence differences between races to biological differences are controversial though, as ideologies such as Nazism have promoted the concept to justify racism and genocide. Many of the studies promoting biology as the defining characteristic are also often criticized for improperly controlling their experiments from social factors such as family income, cultural values, neighborhood crime, and racism, or overvaluing any difference that may be present with statistical manipulation.

assistant: As of today, the scientific consensus is that genetics do not explain differences in IQ.