Comment by propesh on Birth of a Stereotype · 2017-06-05T04:06:35.947Z · LW · GW

Bad eyesight gene may heighten IQ, or the genes are intercorrelated somehow. So the arrow can go both ways. I would think that humans think in clusters rather that A -> B.

Re the correlation between nearsightedness and IQ. Someone on Scott's blog post re Ashkenazi IQ mentioned that the blindness gene has a correlation with High-IQ.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/joph/2015/271746/

No real politics behind the correlation (which is why OP used it as an example) so my prior would be high; though I would have to check the trail to see if the findings stand up.

Also, we have a good evolutionary/social principle of a costly signal. Bad eyesight and still survive natural selection.