A Study of the Intelligence of Children in Brazil

Abstract

An investigation was carried out on the intelligence of 10 year-olds in Brazil, using the Standard Progressive Matrices. It is estimated that the mean IQ in Brazil is 87.8. The mean IQs of the four principal racial and ethnic groups are estimated as whites, 95; browns, 81; blacks, 71; and Asians, 99. These IQs are calculated in relation to a British mean of 100. Key Words: Intelligence (IQ), Brazil, Blacks, Whites, Browns (Mestizoes) Asians, race differences Studies carried out in the United States and numerous other countries throughout the world have typically found a hierarchy of average intelligence levels among racial groups, such that Oriental peoples from Northeast Asia generally obtain average IQs of around 105, European white peoples obtain average IQs of around 100, Africans in sub-Saharan Africa obtain average IQs of around 75, and Afro-Americans in the United States obtain average lQs of around 85 (Lynn, 1991, 1997; Rushton, 2000). Hitherto, no evidence has been published on racial and ethnic IQs in Brazil. The present paper reports the first data on this question. There are a number of different racial and ethnic groups and admixtures in Brazil. There are whites, who were originally from Portugal and were later largely from Italy; blacks, who were transported as slaves from the 16th to the 18th century to work on the plantations; indigenous Native American Indians, who were very largely wiped out by diseases and through being killed by whites; hybrids, who are largely the product of unions between white male estate owners and black female slaves; and Asians, who are principally from Japan and who emigrated to Brazil towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The Brazilian censuses have recognized four racial and ethnic categories into which the population has been asked to place themselves. These are whites, browns (largely black-white hybrids), blacks, and Asians (who are very largely of Japanese origin). In the study to be described samples of these four groups have been intelligence tested. Method The objective of the study was to obtain IQs measured by the Standard Progressive Matrices for representative samples of children aged 10.0 years of the four recognized racial/ethnic groups in Brazil. The greatest problem was to find sufficient numbers of black and Asian children. To obtain these primary schools in Sao Paolo were selected that contained appreciable numbers of one or other of these two groups and all children in the grades containing 9-10 year-olds were tested. Testing was regarded as completed when approximately 200 blacks and 200 Asian children were obtained. To obtain samples whose mean ages were all 10.0 years, those with the highest or lowest ages were eliminated until the mean age reached 10.0 and in such a way as there were equal numbers of boys and girls in each sample. The children were group tested in classes and administered without time limits except that the testing session was ended after one hour. Nearly all the children completed the test within 40 minutes. The testing was carried out in the autumn of 2000. Results The data are given in Table 1. Column 3 gives the mean score on the Progressive Matrices, followed by the standard deviation, the percentile equivalent on the British norm table for the 1979 British standardization given by Raven (1981), and the IQ equivalent. …