I happen to be from India and find myself living on the East Coast. On numerous occasions random acquaintances have told me how they think Indians are unusually intelligent et cetera. This is, of course, based on their experience of Indians in the West. I like to point out that this is purely a survival bias. It just so happens that almost all Indian immigrants who come here are from the very top of the Indian cognitive distribution. Simply due to the barriers to entry, those who make it into graduate programs or get hired or otherwise make it to the West are far above the national average in cognitive ability. Since cognitive ability is at least partly inherited, this holds for second and third generation immigrants as well.
The Survival Bias
The Survival Bias
The Survival Bias
I happen to be from India and find myself living on the East Coast. On numerous occasions random acquaintances have told me how they think Indians are unusually intelligent et cetera. This is, of course, based on their experience of Indians in the West. I like to point out that this is purely a survival bias. It just so happens that almost all Indian immigrants who come here are from the very top of the Indian cognitive distribution. Simply due to the barriers to entry, those who make it into graduate programs or get hired or otherwise make it to the West are far above the national average in cognitive ability. Since cognitive ability is at least partly inherited, this holds for second and third generation immigrants as well.