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Thursday, November 03, 2011

Cultural Bias in IQ Tests

IQ tests have many questions that are considered culturally biased. For example, I had a look at an Australian test of intelligence, and I found this question: Suppose your brother in his mid-forties dies unexpectedly. Would you attribute his death to: a.God b.Fate c.Germs d.No-one e.someone f.Your brother himself. This question is unfair to many people such as people who believe in God and Godless people. People who believe in God believe that everything in the universe takes place by God's willing. So, they will choose the first answer. On the other side, Godless people may choose the second one. If we turn a blind eye to this problem, we will find another one which is ambiguous. Germs, no-one, someone, brother himself, all of them are possible answers to this question. If I were in the examinee's shoes, this question would confuse me. I wonder why scientists and researchers do not solve this problem. Why do not they make IQ tests without cultural bias?

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