Analysis of Correlations between Human Development Index and IQ scores evaluating Hypotheses of bias and outliers. Project for class Data Analysis at Central European University, taught at Bachelor Level by Assitant Professor Elisa Omodei, BsC Data Science and Society.
This analysis investigates the correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of a country's achievements in the field of human development, and a country's average IQ score, a measure of individual analytic intelligence. The Project in detail examines the variables interplay on a country level as well as on regional levels utilizing univariate and bivariate techniques, with a focus on exploring the following Hypotheses:
- The average IQ and Human Development Index positively correlate on a Country Level.
- Less developed regions are more prone to outliers.
- The IQ is biased towards Western countries.
The project aims to answer the Hypotheses, and is structured as follows:
- Cleaning, Preparation and Merging
- Univariate for HDI and IQ Data separately On the country and regional level
- Bivariate Analysis for HDI and IQ
Firstly, the findings can be used to show that IQ is biased towards Western country, which could be used to readjust the measurement norm in a way to reduce the bias, Secondly, legislators can use the result to evaluate their country's IQ performance relative to others with similar HDI-Socres or within their respective regions. They can further use these findings to readjust their strategies in terms of education and other human development indicators that could have an influence on IQ in the long term.
This project is an analysis of correlation, not causality. We believe that the causality is that some components of the HDI have a causal mechanism towards countries' average IQ, and we are keen to highlight that we don’t believe there is causality in the reversed direction.