Following up on my earlier post about the connection between fertility rates and happiness, I wanted to take a wider view with more proper research controls to see if the pattern holds. Here is a map I've drawn of self-reported happiness around the world, as reported in the World Values Survey: As before, this is... Read More

Over at Psychology Today, clinical psychologist Ellen Walker has a blog called Complete Without Kids, which is dedicated to the modern child-free (presumably professional) adult. There, she extols and rationalizes the conscious decision to not reproduce. Of course, it's not like Psychology Today isn't loaded with the typical cutting-edge suspect psychological wisdom, and it isn't... Read More

My recent series on diet and cardiovascular health has produced some interesting findings. Within these findings, I have noticed some intriguing patterns. Following in the tradition of my "Tales of Two Maps" series, here are another set of two maps: This is the previously featured map of the year 2000 mortality rate from cardiovascular disease... Read More

Comedian/documentarian Tom Naughton recently made a highly intriguing post about the "Spanish Paradox"; that is, the low rate of cardiovascular illness among Spaniards despite their apparently poor markers of heart health. This post was made on the discussion site of Naughton's 2009 documentary Fat Head. This movie (which I have yet to see, but plan... Read More

Sure, there are a few inaccuracies (e.g., I'm not sure "Tsunami victims" is accurate for Melanesia; as well, my fiancée would argue that northern New England should be firmly in the "Drunks and Nothing" zone ;); and of course, for the British Isles, England at least leads the way in practicing the very opposite of... Read More

Yup, it's still there: Just sayin'

EDIT, 5/30/15: [Post updated with results of new meta-analyses of behavioral genetic studies. See below!] Edit, 1/3/13: [Post updated to reflect additional information provided in the comments. See below and see the comments.] The time has come for a little reminder of the First Law of behavioral genetics. In my final post of 2012, I... Read More

There has been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere as of late as to whether the "cads"—i.e., low paternal investment, promiscuous (and often low-IQ) men were siring more children than "dads"—high paternal investment, monogamous, high-IQ men. While I and others have produced some evidence (primarily from the GSS) that tenuously indicates that this is... Read More

Michael Moore recently held a Q & A session on Twitter in response to CurrentTV's showings of his 2002 documentary, Bowling for Columbine, which was about mass shootings and gun violence in America. This movie contained the infamous scene where Moore ambushed then NRA president Charlton Heston about the issue of violent crime in America... Read More

Last month, neuroscientist Dario Maestripieri committed a faux pas after visiting a conference of his fellow neuroscientists. On his Facebook page, he left the following statement about his female colleagues: An uproar over this ensued. Despite the furor, Meastripieri's comment actually sounds like a fairly sound empirical observation. Nonetheless, his comments have not sit well... Read More

A common theme that circulates in the HBD/Game blogosphere is that, in the wake of the sexual revolution, an increasing number of men end up mateless, thanks to the fact that a minority of men ("alpha males") monopolize most of the women. A commentor over at Peter Frost's blog even attached his own made-up numbers... Read More

Post edited (5/31/13) See below. As promised, here is my post on this fascinating, and rather mysterious topic. Who doesn't love bisexual women? Before my foray into the HBD world, I thought that that was a trick question. In any case, I'm certainly quite fond of them. :) But bisexuality, or for that matter lesbianism—like... Read More

(CNN) -- Boys in the United States are starting puberty earlier than ever, according to a new study publishing in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics. In the study, lead author Marcia Herman-Giddens from the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health and her colleagues show that boys are starting to sexually develop... Read More

J. P. Rushton, one of the foremost scientists in human behavior, has died on October 2nd. His contributions were many and expansive, particularly in the areas of altruism and genetic similarity, behavior and life history theory, and IQ and population, as Steve Sailer also discusses. For me, what was fascinating about Rushton—in addition to his... Read More

The Pioneer Hypothesis posits that, particularly for Europeans and East Asians, colonization of new territory selects for earlier and more rapid breeding. As well, it should select for behavioral traits that promote faster breeding. In the United States at least, this has meant greater religiosity and political conservatism, giving us well known maps like these:... Read More

Following up on my three previous posts, I want to talk again about what to do with this HBD knowledge. It is now clear, or at least should be, that demographic issues drive many of our current problems. Indeed, changes in the population drive history, and these changes are the primary reasons that civilizations rise... Read More

Steven Pinker, a great academic, and whose 2002 book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature introduced me to hereditarian explanations for human behavior (and which is required reading for anyone with no familiarity with the role that genes play in human behavior) has recently sent a note to Ron Unz attacking his... Read More

Courtesy Razib Khan's Pinboard Feed: ScienceDaily (July 15, 2012) — Your genes determine much about you, but environment can have a strong influence on your genes even before birth, with consequences that can last a lifetime. In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers have for the first time shown that the environment experienced... Read More

Post updated, 11/17/13 4/14/13 1/19/13, see below! It is already known that educational attainment and income are highly heritable. However, finding specific genes linked to cognitive and behavioral traits has been difficult. This is primarily because most traits arise not from a few genes with large effects, but from many genes with small effects (and... Read More

Updated: 8/30/12. See below. First and foremost welcome to my new blog site! From now on all my posts will on WordPress, All of the posts from my old blog can be found here on the new site, however the old blog will remain active so readers can find my previously linked articles. Please update... Read More

Post edited, 9/24/2012: See below! Earlier I discussed the origin of modern levels of IQ and the origin of modern ideologies. I noted that both of these things have roots in the societal conditions during the Middle Ages. But what, exactly, about this period led to the evolution of these traits? In this multi-part series,... Read More

In the spirit of (partial) full disclosure, in my earlier post on the topic, I announced that I'm liberal. In this post, I'll announce that I am Black. That is, at least, according to American hypodescent; I'm a mixed Black/White/Chinese second generation Jamaican-American. As such, of course I have a soft spot for the American... Read More

In my previous entry, I noted that the ethnic origins of White Americans can't be neatly correlated to their political attitudes. This appears to be because Whites within each part of the country hold similar political views to the other Whites in that region. At least, so it appeared from comparing the maps of the... Read More

Edit, 10/26/12: I've added a table of contents, to make navigating through this long post easier! Unlike the vast majority of HBD'ers, I lean to the political Left on a variety of issues. The primary reason for this is that most of the stuff that comes out of mainstream conservatives in America is utter insanity.... Read More

As some of you know, and probably most of you don't, I am an atheist. It is the only logical conclusion based on the principle of demanding proof before regarding things as true, as many would tell you (also here). That said, some intellectuals would argue that not believing in any sort of creative force... Read More