Does dysgenics undermine longtermism?
The most interesting articles that came to our attention this week
Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Marcus Crede and colleagues carry out a meta-analytic review of the literature on the personality trait grit. Analysing 584 effect sizes from 88 different samples, they find that the proposed two-factor structure is supported, grit is only moderately correlated with performance and is very strongly correlated with conscientiousness.
Intelligence and inspection time: Achievements, prospects, and problems. In a classic article from 1996, Ian Deary and Con Stough introduce the concept of inspection time (the duration of exposure required for an individual to identify a stimulus) to the wider psychological community. They note that inspection time is the only single information-processing task that accounts for approximately 20% of the variance in general intelligence.
Evolutionary Trends of Polygenic Scores in European Populations From the Paleolithic to Modern Times. Davide Piffer and Emil Kirkegaard examine long-term trends in polygenic scores for IQ, educational attainment and other traits in various European populations. They find evidence for positive directional selection in favour of higher IQ and higher educational attainment. The shift during the Neolithic Revolution is particularly stark.
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