Culture fair intelligence tests

 

Migrants and people from cultures other than the American and European, on average tend to score lower on IQ tests. Some people have interpreted this as evidence that people from non-white cultures are by nature less smart. However, this conclusion is wrong.

In most cases, the intelligence tests used are not culture fair. After all, in order to do well on a Dutch IQ test, you will have to be able to speak and understand Dutch. In addition, migrants often have had less education, and tend to have less developed test skills. The latter means that they are not used to, for example, multiple-choice questions or have not learned to work under time pressure.

Many migrants have never before taken an IQ test. So it should be no surprise they score lower.

Culture fair intelligence tests

Over the years, several culture fair intelligence tests have been developed. They contain less verbal instructions and the questions relate to images or puzzles. Raven's Progressive Matrices are an example of such a test. However, research has shown that even these tests are not completely free of cultural bias.

It still remains to be seen whether it is at all possible to develop IQ tests that could be called 100% unbiased intelligence tests. We do not think that should be a big problem. After all, it is not the tests that are discriminating, it's the people interpreting the test scores.

Read on about high giftedness or take a free IQ test.