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skeptical_lurker comments on Open thread, Nov. 17 - Nov. 23, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: MrMind 17 November 2014 08:25AM

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Comment author: skeptical_lurker 17 November 2014 09:07:11PM 3 points [-]

I went to a talk which presented the horrifying fact that immigrants are several times more likely to develop psychosis (varying from 2x to 10x dependant upon group, IIRC), and they theorised that some people have trouble empathising with people of other races, and this literally drives them insane. (Their other theory was that the cause is stimulant psychosis, but there wasn't evidence to support this as the primary cause)

I'd rather this wasn't the case. I quite like some level of controlled immigration, especially if they bring curry. But I worry that driving people insane is a fairly severe negative externality.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 17 November 2014 10:06:46PM *  7 points [-]

Here's a study.

Schizophrenia occurs in national populations with an annual prevalence of 1.4 to 4.6 per 1000 and incidence rates of 16–42 per 100 000 (Jablensky, 2000). Although the incidence rates vary between countries by a factor of less than 3, wider ranges of variation are found among population subgroups within single countries. In the UK, for example, incidence rate ratios of 4 or above have been estimated both for the lowest social class in the indigenous White population and for Black immigrant groups. These data provide the most compelling evidence yet to hand for the role of socio-economic factors in aetiology.

I think the amount of additional schizophrenia is low enough that this isn't a major issue for immigration.

Comment author: satt 18 November 2014 03:02:24AM 1 point [-]

Guessing that link's meant to go somewhere else...

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 18 November 2014 04:24:47AM 1 point [-]

Thanks. I've found a better link than the one I intended, so I've updated the comment text.

Comment author: maxikov 20 November 2014 01:23:21AM 3 points [-]

  1. Did this study consider the difference between white and non-white immigrants to mostly white Western countries?

  2. Did this study consider the difference between white and non-white immigrants to non-white countries?

  3. Did this study consider the difference between immigrants who (try to) assimilate to local communities, and those who prefer to stay within national communities?

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 20 November 2014 08:28:39PM 2 points [-]

Did this study consider the difference between white and non-white immigrants to mostly white Western countries?

Yes, the effect was very pronounced in Africans, possibly due to the use of the traditional African stimulant khat. But white people do drugs too, so this seems very dubious.

Did this study consider the difference between white and non-white immigrants to non-white countries?

&

Did this study consider the difference between immigrants who (try to) assimilate to local communities, and those who prefer to stay within national communities?

No, although maybe other studies did.

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