A Meta-Analysis of Spearman’s Hypothesis Tested on Latin-American Hispanics, Including a New Way to Correct for Imperfectly Measuring the Construct of g

Nijenhuis, Jan te; Hoek, Michael van den; Dragt, Joep

doi:10.3390/psych1010008

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Researchers have devised various methods to assess the causality behind these differences [10,11]. Examples include transracial adoption studies [12,13] (for a review, see [14,15]), analysis of differential regression to the mean [7,16,17], investigations of Spearman's hypothesis [18][19][20], biometric decomposition of mean group differences [2,21], studies of multiracial persons [11,22], and various intra-and cross-national comparisons [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Lasker

Pesta

Fuerst

et al. 2019

Psych

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Using data from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, we examined whether European ancestry predicted cognitive ability over and above both parental socioeconomic status (SES) and measures of eye, hair, and skin color. First, using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we verified that strict factorial invariance held between self-identified African and European-Americans. The differences between these groups, which were equivalent to 14.72 IQ points, were primarily (75.59%) due to difference in general cognitive ability (g), consistent with Spearman's hypothesis. We found a relationship between European admixture and g. This relationship existed in samples of (a) self-identified monoracial African-Americans (B = 0.78, n = 2,179), (b) monoracial African and biracial African-European-Americans, with controls added for self-identified biracial status (B = 0.85, n = 2407), and (c) combined European, African-European, and African-American participants, with controls for self-identified race/ethnicity (B = 0.75, N = 7,273). Controlling for parental SES modestly attenuated these relationships whereas controlling for measures of skin, hair, and eye color did not. Next, we validated four sets of polygenic scores for educational attainment (eduPGS). MTAG, the multi-trait analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) eduPGS (based on 8442 overlapping variants) predicted g in both the monoracial African-American (r = 0.111, n = 2179, p < 0.001), and the European-American (r = 0.227, n = 4914, p < 0.001) subsamples. We also found large race differences for the means of eduPGS (d = 1.89). Using the ancestry-adjusted association between MTAG eduPGS and g from the monoracial African-American sample as an estimate of the transracially unbiased validity of eduPGS (B = 0.124), the results suggest that as much as 20%-25% of the race difference in g can be naïvely explained by known cognitive ability-related variants. Moreover, path analysis showed that the eduPGS substantially mediated associations between cognitive ability and European ancestry in the African-American sample. Subtest differences, together with the effects of both ancestry and eduPGS, had near-identity with subtest g-loadings. This finding confirmed a Jensen effect acting on ancestry-related differences. Finally, we confirmed measurement invariance along the full range of European ancestry in the combined sample using local structural equation modeling. Results converge on genetics as a potential partial explanation for group mean differences in intelligence.Psych 2019, 1 433 between ancestry and outcomes or that ancestry is a non-causal correlate of the trait in question that's actually caused by something else if the mediation is not spurious. Ultimately, controls alone cannot establish causality [50].Four studies we know of have related genetically-assessed ancestry to cognitive ability in samples of 25,51,52]. Others have done this for Hispanic Americans [24,25] and various groups in Latin America [53][54][55]. Of these, the earlier ones [51-54] re...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Lasker

Pesta

Fuerst

et al. 2019

Psych

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“…Unit-weighted estimation is then used to composite these effect-size vectors into a common factor along with the vectors of the subtest GCA loadings, White-Black-Hispanic performance differences (expressed as r-statistics with weighted averaging) for each subtest, PGS EDU -by-subtest associations, and subtest additivity (A), shared environmentality (C), and nonshared environmentality (E) components estimated using the twin (plus full siblings) subset (also rescaled as r-statistics). This configuration allows for a determination of whether or not gene-by-environment interactions might contribute to the differences posited by modern versions of Spearman's hypothesis, which hold that the magnitude of the differences in ability means between SIRE groups is positively moderated by GCA 5 (Jensen, 1980(Jensen, , 1998Spearman, 1927; see also the more contemporary work of Frisby & Beaujean, 2015;te Nijenhuis & van den Hoek, 2016;te Nijenhuis et al, 2019).…”

Section: Cpemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Adversity Reduces Polygenic Score Expressivity for General Cognitive Ability, but Not Height

et al. 2022

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It has been hypothesized that even ‘perfect’ polygenic scores (PGSs) composed of only causal variants may not be fully portable between different social groups owing to gene-by-environment interactions modifying the expression of relevant variants. The impacts of such interactions involving two forms of social adversity (low socioeconomic status [SES] and discrimination) are examined in relation to the expressivity of a PGS for educational attainment composed of putatively causal variants in a large, representatively sampled and genotyped cohort of US children. A relatively small-magnitude Scarr–Rowe effect is present (SES × PGSEDU predicting General Cognitive Ability [GCA]; sR = .02, 95% CI [.00, .04]), as is a distinct discrimination × PGSEDU interaction predicting GCA (sR = −.02, 95% CI [−.05, 00]). Both are independent of the confounding main effects of 10 ancestral principal components, PGSEDU, SES, discrimination and interactions among these factors. No sex differences were found. These interactions were examined in relation to phenotypic and genotypic data on height, a prospectively more socially neutral trait. They were absent in both cases. The discrimination × PGSEDU interaction is a co-moderator of the differences posited in modern versions of Spearman’s hypothesis (along with shared environmentality), lending support to certain environmental explanations of those differences. Behavior-genetic analysis of self-reported discrimination indicates that it is nonsignificantly heritable (h2 = .027, 95% CI [−.05, .10]), meaning that it is not merely proxying some underlying source of heritable phenotypic variability. This suggests that experiences of discrimination might stem instead from the action of purely social forces.

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Between-Group Mean Differences in Intelligence in the United States Are >0% Genetically Caused: Five Converging Lines of Evidence

Warne

2021

The American Journal of Psychology

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The past 30 years of research in intelligence has produced a wealth of knowledge about the causes and consequences of differences in intelligence between individuals, and today mainstream opinion is that individual differences in intelligence are caused by both genetic and environmental influences. Much more contentious is the discussion over the cause of mean intelligence differences between racial or ethnic groups. In contrast to the general consensus that interindividual differences are both genetic and environmental in origin, some claim that mean intelligence differences between racial groups are completely environmental in origin, whereas others postulate a mix of genetic and environmental causes. In this article I discuss 5 lines of research that provide evidence that mean differences in intelligence between racial and ethnic groups are partially genetic. These lines of evidence are findings in support of Spearman’s hypothesis, consistent results from tests of measurement invariance across American racial groups, the mathematical relationship that exists for between-group and within-group sources of heritability, genomic data derived from genome-wide association studies of intelligence and polygenic scores applied to diverse samples, and admixture studies. I also discuss future potential lines of evidence regarding the causes of average group differences across racial groups. However, the data are not fully conclusive, and the exact degree to which genes influence intergroup mean differences in intelligence is not known. This discussion applies only to native English speakers born in the United States and not necessarily to any other human populations.

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A Meta-Analysis of Spearman’s Hypothesis Tested on Latin-American Hispanics, Including a New Way to Correct for Imperfectly Measuring the Construct of g

Cited by 3 publications

References 47 publications

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Social Adversity Reduces Polygenic Score Expressivity for General Cognitive Ability, but Not Height

Between-Group Mean Differences in Intelligence in the United States Are >0% Genetically Caused: Five Converging Lines of Evidence

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A Meta-Analysis of Spearman’s Hypothesis Tested on Latin-American Hispanics, Including a New Way to Correct for Imperfectly Measuring the Construct of g

Cited by 3 publications

References 47 publications

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability

Social Adversity Reduces Polygenic Score Expressivity for General Cognitive Ability, but Not Height

Between-Group Mean Differences in Intelligence in the United States Are &gt;0% Genetically Caused: Five Converging Lines of Evidence

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Between-Group Mean Differences in Intelligence in the United States Are >0% Genetically Caused: Five Converging Lines of Evidence