The Mouse Trap, Sandy Guatam’s excel­lent blog on cog­ni­tive and devel­op­men­tal psychology, discusses the cor­re­la­tion between a low IQ and poverty, and the impli­ca­tions thereof.

What are the impli­ca­tions for soci­ety of a more mech­a­nis­tic under­stand­ing of the effects of child­hood poverty on brain devel­op­ment? To dif­fer­ent degrees, and in dif­fer­ent ways, we regard chil­dren as the respon­si­bil­ity of both par­ents and soci­ety. Par­ents’ respon­si­bil­ity begins before birth and encom­passes vir­tu­ally every aspect of the child’s life. Society’s respon­si­bil­ity is more circumscribed.

[…]

In my view the soci­etal impli­ca­tions are far reach­ing, if low [socio-economic sta­tus] leads to low­ered cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing, it becomes our duty to pro­vide more cog­ni­tive stim­u­la­tion and ensure that all chil­dren get suf­fi­cient social/emotional nur­tu­rance so that their IQ can flower to its full potential.

via Mind Hacks