“ and these effects all disappeared when the groups were matched to remove potentially confounding factors”
I would be interested to know how they managed to remove the potentially confounding factors.
To me, it seems clear: bilinguals whose language isn’t a major language of the country often come from immigrant families. Immigrants have a great work ethic and teach their kids in the foreign language. Then the kids work hard to fit in and learn the other language, too. They tend to be less interested in “decadent” activities and end up overachieving. This is especially true for immigrants from formerly Communist countries that prioritized STEM.
In the past, people learned Latin or German to access scientific literature etc.
Not to mention that learning two DISPARATE languages enables people to triangulate better on other languages and ways of thinking
I would be interested to know how they managed to remove the potentially confounding factors.
To me, it seems clear: bilinguals whose language isn’t a major language of the country often come from immigrant families. Immigrants have a great work ethic and teach their kids in the foreign language. Then the kids work hard to fit in and learn the other language, too. They tend to be less interested in “decadent” activities and end up overachieving. This is especially true for immigrants from formerly Communist countries that prioritized STEM.
In the past, people learned Latin or German to access scientific literature etc.
Not to mention that learning two DISPARATE languages enables people to triangulate better on other languages and ways of thinking