National differences in intelligence, crime, income, and skin color
National differences in intelligence, crime, income, and skin color J. Philippe Rushton a, ⁎, Donald I. Templer b a Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2 b Alliant University, Fresno, California, United States article info abstract Article history: Received 3 November 2008 Received in revised form 20 April 2009 Accepted 20 April 2009 Available online 6 May 2009 National differences in murder, rape, and serious assault were examined in 113 countries in relation to national IQ, income, skin color, birth rate, life expectancy, infant mortality, and HIV/ AIDS. Data were collated from the 1993–1996 International Crime Statistics published by INTERPOL. Violent crime was found to be lower in countries with higher IQs, higher life expectancies, lighter skin color, and lower rates of HIV/AIDS, although not with higher national incomes or higher rates of infant mortality. A principal components analysis found thefirst general factor accounted for 52% of the variance. Moreover, the correlations were significantly higher with skin color, a more biologically influenced variable, than with measures of national income, a more culturally influenced variable. When the 19 sub-Saharan African countries were excluded from analysis the crime/IQ relation held but the crime/skin color relation did not. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: IQ National IQ Crime rates Skin color Life expectancy Reproductive strategies Life-history theory 1. Introduction This paper examines the relation of national differences in violent crime toLynn and Vanhanen's (2002, 2006)national IQ scores andRushton's (1985)r–Klife-history hypothesis that “one basic dimension—K—underlies much of thefield of personality”(1985, p. 445;Rushton, 2000, 2004). For example, Lynn and Vanhanen (2006) found national IQs reliably correlated with national income (.68), adult literacy (.64), enrollment in higher education (.75), life expectancy (.77), and democratization …