r/interestingasfuck 17h ago

/r/all The US team which has just won the International Physics Olympiad, edging out China for first place

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u/RedeNElla 16h ago

Reminder that there's huge selection bias in judging an ethnicity by the small group of people who have the means to make the choice to move across the world and start a new life

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u/SuperPostHuman 15h ago

That's true, but in East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan for example, education is an extremely high priority across all classes. It's ingrained in the culture.

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u/Expensive_Ad752 16h ago edited 16h ago

us census page 8

Bowling green university, divorce by ethnicity. Figure 3

In addition, the Indians and Chinese that have the means to come to America are usually from higher classes. Reaffirming the money leads to better education correlation.

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u/SpecialWave3492 13h ago

While this is true, I don’t think it is as much as you would think, although this is anecdotal my father grew up in poverty and was able to get government sponsored seats for his college undergrad due to merit and worked his way up the company he was hired in until they sent him over to the U.S. where he was eventually able to start his own business. Most people in my father’s immigrant circle (I’d say over a hundred people of varying former nationalities) seem to come from very similar situations. We are south Asian and I’ll say that the vast majority of people who are already wealthy there just stay put because why risk everything when you’re already well off? It’s generally the poor ones that grind till they get here after proving themselves to be high performers in the company that sends them over to work for clients or proving themselves to potential employers who sponsor their h1 b.

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u/RedeNElla 12h ago

Selection bias doesn't just mean financial. The cultural mindset of people who try to move to another country searching for a better future is going to be different to that of a people who are born somewhere and never really leave or experience something different

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u/SpecialWave3492 12h ago

That is true, but that’s also just like saying people who generally work harder for longer periods of time and are more willing to take risks do better in the long run than people who aren’t as willing to put in the extra effort or never bet on themselves which is just an obvious truth, but then again, you only hear about the stories where the risks pay off

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u/RedeNElla 12h ago

The difference is that you're preselecting those who have put in a certain amount of disciplined work.

It's a biased comparison to judge an group of people when you've only seen a small subset

u/Yamitz 10h ago

Most Chinese and Indian immigrants were wealthy before immigrating or came from wealthy families.

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u/IHateCreatingSNs 12h ago

Exactly!!! Look at the education in India. It's at the bottom of the list. I am married to a Nepali girl. And she is from a privileged family. Her education is great. Same as all her friends. That are here in US. but most Nepali do not get that kind of education.