A commentary on Satoshi Kanazawa's study of intelligence and health.
We provide an exposition of the major conceptual, methodological and statistical shortcomings of the paper by Kanazawa (2006), concerning the relationship between intelligence and life expectancy. It is argued that the validity and robustness of the conclusions of the paper are compromised by fundamental problems, including failure to present competing views with fair balance, use of samples of convenience to draw conclusions about populations, performing tests of significance when there is no theoretical basis to do so and confusing association with causation. Given the far-reaching socio-economic implications of the conclusions, it is suggested that the messages of the paper be critically evaluated in relation to the major limitations of the research.
Alemayehu
Demissie
D
Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA. alem@stat.columbia.edu
Sineshaw
Tilahun
T
D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008017:Life Expectancy; D012107:Research Design; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors