Working class kids have 'lower IQs', says researcher

London, May 22 : Children from working class background have lower IQs than their wealthier counterparts and that's why few of them get admissions into elite universities, says an academic.

According to Bruce Charlton, an evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle University, the reason behind why fewer students from poor families are admitted to Oxford or Cambridge is not social prejudice, but lack of ability.

Charlton suggests that low numbers of working-class students at elite universities is the "natural outcome" of "substantial" IQ differences between classes.

"Poor people have lower average IQ than wealthier people... and this means that a much smaller percentage of working-class people than professional-class people will be able to reach the normal entrance requirements of the most selective universities," The Scotsman quoted him, as saying.

Charlton said that the average child from the highest social class is up to 30 times more likely to qualify for admission to a highly selective university than the average child from the lowest social class.

ANI