Heiner Rindermann

Chemnitz University of Technology · Department of Psychology

Data for Previous study A: Refugees in Chemnitz Data for Study C single (indivudual) level Study C average (country) level

Background: The relationship between emotional competence and the quality of romantic relationships has already been established. The present meta-analysis aims to fill the research gap of non-romantic relationship quality and to identify relevant moderator variables. Methods: Both studies on romantic relationships and on social relationships in ge...

Description and commentary on the retraction of the article “Rindermann, H. (2024). Surprisingly low results from studies on cognitive ability in developing countries: Are the results credible? Discover Education, 3(1), 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00135-5” by Discover Education. Added information about further experiences with Discover E...

I disagree with a threatened retraction of the article “Rindermann, H. (2024). Surprisingly low results from studies on cognitive ability in developing countries: Are the results credible? Discover Education, 3(1), 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00135-5”. I request the transmission of the expert opinions (if they exist). I propose a scient...

Data for: Rindermann, H. (2024). Surprisingly low results from studies on cognitive ability in developing countries: Are the results credible? Discover Education, 3(1), 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00135-5 SPSS-sav data file. For a description of the variables and sources, see publication.

Developing countries achieve surprisingly weak results in international cognitive competence studies. The results are about one to two standard deviations below the average norm-values obtained in Western countries. The results are so low that they are sometimes difficult to believe. For example, in the World Bank collection, Nigeria scored 262 stu...

The World Happiness Report (WHR) 2021 revealed that public trust in government institutions was helpful in reducing COVID-19 death rates. Societies with higher levels of institutional trust are more likely to follow official orders, leading to greater success of virus suppression strategies implemented by the government. This study adapted an origi...

Background For more than twenty years, large and generally stable differences in academic achievement and cognitive ability have been reported within Germany. In such studies, the southern regions lead in the west and east, while city-states lag behind. Expressed in school learning time, the students in Bavaria are 14 months ahead of the students i...

German student achievement results are getting worse and worse. The educational researcher Heiner Rindermann predicts that the trend will continue, only with a return to achievement-oriented education and with more children from families with a good educational background can be broken. The original interview in German appeared in the German month...

Introduction The degree to which (self-reported) social class predicts parent-offspring resemblance for educational attainment (EA) is examined in a globally representative dataset of 69,116 individuals sourced from 56 countries. Methods A hierarchical general linear model is used to predict participant EA with the two-way interaction between clas...

Heute sind die Begriffe „rechts“ und „links“ vor allem im politischen Raum verortet. Demnach gibt es linke als auch rechte Überzeugungen und linke als auch rechte Parteien. Diese politische Verortung geht auf das französische Parlament von 1789 zurück. Die Einteilung der Welt in „rechts“ und „links“ ist jedoch älter und geht jeder politischen Sicht...

Heute sind die Begriffe „rechts“ und „links“ vor allem im politischen Raum lokalisiert. Demnach gibt es linke als auch rechte Überzeugungen und linke als auch rechte Parteien. Diese politische Verortung geht auf das französische Parlament von 1789 zurück. Die Welt in „rechts“ und „links“ einzuteilen, ist jedoch älter und geht jeder politischen Sich...

Heute sind die Begriffe „rechts“ und „links“ vor allem im politischen Raum lokalisiert. Demnach gibt es linke als auch rechte Überzeugungen und linke als auch rechte Parteien. Diese politische Verortung geht auf das französische Parlament von 1789 zurück. Die Welt in „rechts“ und „links“ einzuteilen, ist jedoch älter und geht jeder politischen Sich...

This is a presentation on the published article: Rindermann, H. & Carl, N. (2018). Human rights: Why countries differ. Comparative Sociology, 17, 29–69. The presentation is also shown at YouTube: https://youtu.be/8uNj2NnXo4s

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: Das Erlernen emotionaler Basiskompetenzen ist eine zentrale Entwicklungsaufgabe für Kinder und steht in einem positiven Zusammenhang mit dem Aufbau sozialer und kognitiver Kompetenzen. Insbesondere das mittlere Kindesalter (6–12 Jahre) eignet sich für den Einsatz von Interventionen, da Kinder in dieser Altersphase selb...

Vortrag auf YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D4GwZKuScU. Übersicht: Die international vergleichenden Schulleistungsstudien (TIMSS, PISA, IGLU-PIRLS u. a.) sowie die innerdeutschen Vergleichsstudien (früher PISA und IGLU, heute IQB) kommen zu robusten Ergebnismustern. International liegen Länder in Ostasien vorn, gefolgt von Nord-, West- und Mitt...

Intelligence research has been subjected to rigorous scientific examination, but it also faces open hostility from opponents within psychology, from academic disciplines outside of psychology, and from the media. This does not occur for highly technical research topics (such as psychometrics), but seems to apply particularly to group differences re...

Introduction Home-based childcare is increasingly becoming the focus of research, policy and public interest. Self-assessment of quality can increase the social validity of quality improvement efforts among stakeholders. A new online self-assessment tool for parents and non-relative providers of home-based childcare is introduced that has been deve...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies reported negative associations between a country’s mean IQ and economic development at the one side and the prevalence of infectious diseases on the other, arguing that a more rational behavior and better living conditions decreased health risks. The purpose of this study was to transfer these previous findings on the r...

Based on past historical development and on assumptions about factors influencing a development of cognitive competence at the societal level, we design a model for the future development of intelligence in the 21st century in Germany. Factors include the FLynn effect, education, migration, the recent refugee waves, different birth rates, and gener...

The cognitive human capital approach assumes that cognitive abilities (CA) enable societies to be innovative and competitive and to achieve higher productivity and prosperity. However, does happiness enhance the effect of CA on economic growth? Our study views happiness as an intrinsic motivator that helps workers be more productive and get the mos...

When trauma is experienced in childhood (adverse childhood experiences [ACE]), developmental impairments often manifest even into adulthood. In the face of an increasing number of ACE, conclusions from current scientific literature for the optimized handling of ACE will be necessary, which must be developed by interdisciplinary teams. The greatest...

Tilt represents an ability pattern and is based on differences in two dimensions (e.g., math and reading), yielding strength in one dimension (math) and weakness in the other (reading). Whereas prior research examined tilt relations with economic productivity at the individual or country levels, the current study is the first to examine the stabili...

Background: Some of the physical health complaints that adolescents have, such as headaches and stomachaches, cannot be explained on a somatic level. It is unclear which psychological factors can explain the development of these complaints: stress and social support are often discussed, but emotions rarely are. Aims: This cross- sectional study aim...

Zusammenfassung. Hintergrund: In zwei Studien werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Bildschirmkonsum bei Kindern und Jugendlichen und deren kognitiven Kompetenzen für den deutschsprachigen Raum untersucht. Begründet wird der Zusammenhang (u.a.) dadurch, dass der Bildschirmkonsum dem Konzentrationsvermögen schadet und lernförderliche Freizeitaktivit...

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie prüft, inwieweit Klauersche Trainings zur Förderung des (induktiven) Denkens und ihre Wirkung auf kognitive Fähigkeiten mit Need for Cognition (NFC; die Motivation und Freude, kognitive Anstrengungen zu erbringen) zusammenhängen. Es wurde bei 145 (121 final) Vorschul- und Erstklassenkindern (Alter 6 bis 7 Jah...

For promoting high levels of educational quality, it is crucial to have mentally healthy and dedicated kindergarten teachers. This study focuses on the question whether kindergarten teachers differ in their mental health promoting personality characteristics and stress management strategies. Effects of selection, experience, and gender were examine...

Research on cognitive ability is done in different paradigms. In the Piagetian paradigm, cognitive ability focuses on cognitive development along qualitative stages. Interactive real scenarios, “Piagetian tasks”, are constructed for measurement. According to age, tasks differing in complexity are applied in individual measurements. In the psychomet...

The “erasing race” effect is the reduction of the salience of “race” as an alliance cue when recalling coalition membership, once more accurate information about coalition structure is presented. We conducted a random-effects model meta-analysis of this effect using five United States studies (containing nine independent effect sizes). The effect w...

Intelligence requires sufficient working-memory capacity. Traditionally, working memory was seen as a process and as a prerequisite for fluid intelligence. Working memory was assumed to be determined by maturation and health. There is a gap in the literature: It is still not fully understood to which extent and how working memory can be influenced....

The Good Country Index ( GCI ) measures countries’ contributions to global prosperity in domains such as peace, climate and health. It is known that political institutions and wealth can enhance a country’s ability to be ‘good’. However, past research has shown that the cognitive ability of a society – and of its intellectual classes in particular...

Experts (Nmax = 102 answering) on intelligence completed a survey about IQ research, controversies, and the media. The survey was conducted in 2013 and 2014 using the Internet-based Expert Questionnaire on Cognitive Ability (EQCA). In the current study, we examined the background of the experts (e.g., nationality, gender, religion, and political or...

Die vorliegende Untersuchung hatte das Ziel, den derzeitigen Stand der Gestaltung von Vorlesungen aus fachkultureller Sicht mittels einer großen Stichprobe von Dozierenden in Deutschland (N = 983) zu beschreiben. Untersucht wurde, wie Lehrmethoden eingesetzt werden und wie dies mit Lehransätzen (Trigwell, Prosser & Ginns, 2005) und Fachkultur (Hube...

Using newly available polygenic scores for educational attainment and cognitive ability, this paper investigates the possible presence and causes of a negative association between IQ and fertility in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study sample, an issue that Retherford and Sewell first addressed 30 years ago. The effect of the polygenic score on the sa...

Intelligence requires sufficient working memory capacity. Traditionally working memory was seen as a process and as part of fluid intelligence assumed to be determined by maturation and health. Recent research dealing with trainability of working memory yielded inconsistent results. In our study, we compared 249 children (6-16 years) with and witho...

Studierende besuchen Vorlesungen immer seltener. Dabei wirkt sich Absentismus negativ auf die studentischen Prüfungsleistungen aus. Der Frage nach den Gründen und möglichen Einflussfaktoren soll nun in einer repräsentativen und fächerübergreifenden Studie nachgegangen werden. Dazu wurden Daten mittels eines Fragebogens von insgesamt N = 1841 Studie...

The OpenPsych journals were set up in 2014 by Emil Kirkegaard and Davide Piffer due to dissatisfaction with existing journals in differential psychology and behavioural genetics. To date, 51 papers have been published in total, encompassing a range of topics from differential psychology and behavioural genetics to socio-political science. However,...

In 19 (sub)samples from seven countries (United States, Austria, Germany, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Vietnam, Brazil), we analyzed the impact of parental education compared with wealth on the cognitive ability of children (aged 4–22 years, total N = 15,297). The background of their families ranged from poor indigenous remote villagers to academic familie...

According to the cognitive human capital theory, cognitive ability furthers at the individual, institutional and societal level productivity, production, income and wealth. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using various indicators (psychometric IQs, student assessment tests, education vs. GDP per capita, growth), different methods (correlat...

Gächter and Schulz (2016) assumed an effect of institutional rule violation on individual honesty within societies. In this reply we challenge this approach by including a nation's cognitive ability as a further factor for cross-national variations in the prevalence of rule violations and intrinsic honesty. Theoretical considerations, correlational...

Countries differ with respect to human rights. Using the cross-country CIRI data (Cingranelli & Richards), the authors tested two theories. The cognitive-moral enlightenment theory going back to Piaget and Socrates postulates that individuals and nations with higher levels of cognitive ability think and behave in a way more conducive to human right...

Cambridge Core - Cognition - Cognitive Capitalism - by Heiner Rindermann

Cognitive capitalism theory argues that the positive effects of cognitive ability on economic productivity should increase nonlinearly with increases in ability amplifying increases in productivity. The theory was tested using country-level indicators of cognitive ability an productivity. Cognitive ability was based on international student assessm...

Cognitive capitalism theory argues that the positive effects of cognitive ability on economic productivity should increase nonlinearly, with increases in ability amplifying increases in productivity. The theory was tested using country level indicators of cognitive ability and productivity. Cognitive ability was based on international student asses...

Zusammenfassung. Zur Darstellung der Quantitat und Qualitat von Forschungsleistungen haben sich bibliometrische Indikatoren als nutzlich erwiesen. Da diese aber vom akademischen Alter und der Fachrichtung abhangig sind, wird die Entwicklung von Normwerten auf der Grundlage einer reprasentativen Vergleichsstichprobe empfohlen. Zur Berechnung einer N...

There are many factors that go into high educational and occupational achievement, including hard work, motivation, and luck. But how important is talent? Specifically, how likely were global innovators and leaders intellectually talented or gifted when younger? This paper reviews retrospective data on multiple US samples (Total N = 11,745), includ...

Experts on intelligence, cognitive ability and student achievement were surveyed for their opinions on the causes of the 20th century rise in intelligence test results called the “FLynn effect”, on the causes of a possible end of the FLynn effect and on the future development of IQ in different world regions. Ratings from N = 75 experts attributed...

In three rural Ecuadorian schools from" different regions (central highlands in the Andes, hinterland of Quito, and Amazonian lowlands) N = 161 pupils aged 9-14 with about 86% Amerindian background were tested for cognitive ability. Fluid intelligence was measured using culture-reduced Raven's SPM, while crystallized intelligence was measured using...

In 34 kindergartens (N = 355 children) in Saxony and Bavaria, the educational quality and associations with family characteristics were investigated, including progressive (Montessori & Waldorf) and traditional kindergartens as well as private, semi-public and public kindergartens. Progressive kindergartens cared for considerably larger groups of c...

In 34 kindergartens (N = 355 children) in Saxony and Bavaria, Germany, the educational quality and associations with family characteristics were investigated, including progressive (Montessori and Waldorf) and traditional kindergartens as well as private, semi-public, and public kindergartens. Progressive kindergartens cared for considerably larger...

We add results from studies in Germany and Brazil supporting Lynn's theory on cognitive sex differences and their development. We show that there are associations between hormonal transitions during adolescence, especially in women, and increasing sex differences in cognitive abilities, particularly spatial ability, during adolescence. We suggest t...

In 34 sachsischen und bayerischen Kindergarten (N = 355 Kinder) wurden bei reformpadagogischen (Montessori, Waldorf) und nicht-reformpadagogischen sowie privaten und (halb-)offentlichen Kindergarten Zusammenhange zwischen der padagogischen Qualitat sowie den familialen Merkmalen untersucht. Reformpadagogische Kindergarten wiesen deutlich grosere Ki...

Country-level total fertility rates (TFR) and cognitive ability are negatively correlated, suggesting the existence of a selection pressure that might be reducing global G. Also, the cross-population frequencies of several SNPs have been found to predict cognitive ability between countries. This study applies a cross-cultural sociogenetic approach...

Cognitive ability stimulates economic productivity. However, the effects of cognitive ability may be stronger in free and open economies, where competition rewards merit and achievement. To test this hypothesis, ability levels of intellectual classes (top 5%) and average classes (country averages) were estimated using international student assessme...

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit Lehrqualität in Form von Lehrveranstaltungen und ihrer Evaluation. Lehrqualität umfasst die drei Bedingungsfaktoren Dozentenhandeln, Studentenhandeln und Rahmenbedingungen, die zusammen Lehrerfolg hervorrufen. Lehrqualität kann nicht perfekt, aber weitgehend objektiv, messgenau und gültig durch Studierende bewertet werd...

Presentation about genetic distances, geography, cross-national differences in IQ, and evolution of human intelligence.

Creativity is negatively associated with certain personality traits (e.g., conformity) and social influences (e.g., group pressure). In this study, creativity was examined in relation to unconventionality, which was expected to correlate positively with creativity, especially originality. This hypothesis was based on the theory that unconventional...

The study analyzes whether genetic differences (“genetic distances”) help to explain cross-national IQ differences being controlled for environmental factors. Genetic distances are an indicator of evolutionary history and of difference or similarity between populations. Controlled for environmental determinants the relationship between genetic dist...

Following Snyderman and Rothman (1987, 1988), we surveyed expert opinions on the current state of intelligence research. This report examines expert opinions on causes of international differences in student assessment and psychometric IQ test results. Experts were surveyed about the importance of culture, genes, education (quantity and quality), w...

There is a persistent discussion on the overlap between emotional intelligence and personality. This article focuses on relations between the Big Five and emotional competence (EC; comprising the perceived abilities to recognize own and others' emotions, regulate own emotions, and express emotions). In a sample of 92 apprentices and working persons...

To test the usability of bibliometric databases for the evaluation of psychological and educational research, the number of publications and the h-Index of 453 professors of psychology and 358 professors of educational science from Bavaria, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and from Austria were acquired from the databases Scopus and Google Sc...

The path to becoming a CEO (and performance on the job) can be viewed as a difficult cognitive challenge. One way to examine this idea is to see how highly selected CEOs are in terms of education and cognitive ability. The extent to which Fortune 500 CEOs were selected on education and cognitive ability at an earlier age was retrospectively assesse...

The US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures cognitive competences in reading and mathematics of US students (last 2012 survey N = 50,000). The long-term development based on results from 1971 to 2012 allows a prediction of future cognitive trends. For predicting US averages also demographic trends have to be considered. The l...

Good governance or “government effectiveness” (per the World Bank) is seen as a critical factor for the wealth of nations insofar as it shapes political and economic institutions and affects overall economic performance. The quality of governance, in turn, depends on the attributes of the people involved. In an analysis based on international data,...

Scholastic tests regard cognitive abilities to be domain-specific competences. However, high correlations between competences indicate either high task similarity or a dependence on common factors. The present rating study examined the validity of 12 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Third or Trends in International Mathemat...

In their seminal study “Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children”, Hart and Risley (1995) showed a close relationship between differences in family environment and children's development. The conventional conclusion was that children's cognitive development (measured by psychometric intelligence and verbal abilit...

Twin studies have shown a strong genetic factor for individual differences in intelligence. Causes of international differences are still unknown; behavioral genetic designs analyzing the impact of genetic and environmental factors cannot be applied. In this study, we analyze cross-national associations between geographic and genetic distances and...

Summary Immigration, immigration policies and education of immigrants alter competence levels. This study analysed their effects using PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS data (1995 to 2012, N=93 nations) for natives' and immigrants' competences, competence gaps and their population proportions. The mean gap is equivalent to 4.71 IQ points. There are large diffe...

Based on a Piagetian cognitive epistemology approach, this study investigated cognitive ability levels and their relation to thinking patterns in Nigeria and Germany (N-Ni = 29-47 and N-Ge = 52-70). 12 selected items of the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test (APM) and a self-designed questionnaire measuring epistemic rationality (e.g. deali...

Despite the fact that the recently evolved Microcephalin and the related Abnormal Spindle-like Microcaphaly Associated (ASPM) alleles do not appear to be associated with IQ at the individual differences level, the frequencies of Microcephalin have been found to correlate strongly with IQ at the cross-country level. In this study, the association be...

Summary Cognitive abilities of children in Costa Rica and Austria were compared using three age groups (N=385/366). Cognitive ability tests (mental speed, culture reduced/fluid intelligence, literacy/crystallized intelligence) were applied that differed in the extent to which they refer to school-related knowledge. Preschool children (kindergarten,...

The inductive reasoning trainings by K. J. Klauer are characterized as a German cognitive apprenticeship approach for all age groups. The effects of program I were compared across two field studies with special-needs students. The paper-pencil-based training version (N1 = 34 students; M = 8;9 years) resulted in no improvement of the students cognit...

This poster examines expert opinions on the causes of international differences (IntD) in cognitive ability and intelligence using responses from a larger survey (overview of the 2013 Survey of Expert Opinion on Intelligence presented in Rindermann et al. at ISIR 2013). The survey of expert opinions consisted of 62 main questions with follow-up qu...