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Eric Turkheimer

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Eric Nathan Turkheimer
Turkheimer in 2010
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProfessor of psychology
Known forBehavior genetics, Gene-environment interactions
TitleHugh Scott Hamilton Professor of psychology
SpouseCarol Manning
Academic background
EducationHaverford College
University of Texas at Austin
ThesisCognitive development of adopted and fostered children (1986)
Doctoral advisorJohn Loehlin
InfluencesIrving Gottesman
Academic work
DisciplinePsychology, Behavior Genetics
Sub-disciplineGxSES
InstitutionsUniversity of Virginia
Notable studentsPaige Harden[1]

Eric Nathan Turkheimer is an American psychologist and the Hugh Scott Hamilton Professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.

Early life and education

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Turkheimer is the son of Nathan Turkheimer, the former board chairman of the public relations law firm Turkheimer & Ryan, Inc.,[2] and his wife, Barbara Tack Turkheimer. He grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, where he graduated from Croton Harmon High School in 1971. He is Jewish.[3] He received his B.A. in psychology from Haverford College in 1976. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) in 1986, where he studied under Lee Willerman and John Loehlin.[4][5]

Career

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In 1986, Turkheimer joined the faculty of the University of Virginia, where he became an associate professor in 1992 and a full professor in 2001.[4] He was Director of Clinical Training there from 2003 to 2008.[5] In April 2021, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6]

Research

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Turkheimer is known for studying the effects of socioeconomic status and genes on IQ, especially in regards to gene-environment interactions. For example, in a 2003 study, he and his colleagues found that the environment accounted for about 60% of the variance in IQ among low-income children, while genes accounted for almost none of it. In contrast, this study also found that the reverse was true for wealthy children.[7][8][9][10][11] Later studies have shown the effect size of the interaction varies between countries.[12][13] Since then, along with his University of Virginia colleague David Fask, he has published other studies that also suggest that IQ is more heritable among wealthy families than among poor ones.[14][15] In a 2011 commentary about environmental influences on human behavior,[16] he wrote that “The nonshared environment, in a phrase, is free will. Not the kind of metaphysical free will that no one believes in anymore, according to which human souls float free above the mechanistic constraints of the physical world, but an embodied free will, tethered to biology, that encompasses our ability to respond to complex circumstances in complex and unpredictable ways and in the process to build a self.”[17]

Media and politics

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Turkheimer has been featured on multiple YouTube talk shows, including Stefan Molyneux,[18] The Majority Report with Sam Seder,[19] and The David Pakman Show.[20] In 2017, Turkheimer along with Richard Nisbett and Paige Harden, published a piece in Vox criticizing Charles Murray and Sam Harris' views on race and intelligence, following an appearance of Murray on Harris' show.[21]

Politically, Turkheimer identifies as left-wing. He supports what he calls "the radical scientific left", (e.g. Peter Schönemann), despite disagreeing with them on a few issues.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (6 September 2021). "Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Eugenia Yeuell, Art Student, Bride of Eric Turkheimer". The New York Times. 1977-06-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  3. ^ Nisbett, Eric Turkheimer, Kathryn Paige Harden, and Richard E. (2017-06-15). "There's still no good reason to believe black-white IQ differences are due to genes". Vox. Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b "Eric Turkheimer Curriculum Vitae". University of Virginia. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  5. ^ a b "Eric Turkheimer: Professional Biography". University of Virginia. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  6. ^ Perez, Lorenzo (2021-04-22). "Arts & Sciences Dean, Psych Professor Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences | UVA Today". UVAToday. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  7. ^ Turkheimer, E; Haley, A; Waldron, M; D'Onofrio, B; Gottesman, II (November 2003). "Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children" (PDF). Psychological Science. 14 (6): 623–8. doi:10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1475.x. PMID 14629696. S2CID 11265284. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-31.
  8. ^ Benson, E.S. (2004). "Heritability: it's all relative". Monitor on Psychology. American Psychological Association (published 2004-04-01).
  9. ^ Gopnik, Alison (2013-09-20). "Poverty Can Trump a Winning Hand of Genes". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Ridley, Matt (2012-06-22). "Is IQ in the Genes? Twins Give Us Two Answers". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ Kirp, David L. (2006-07-23). "After the Bell Curve". New York Times Magazine.
  12. ^ Tucker-Drob, Elliot M.; Bates, Timothy C. (2016-02-01). "Large Cross-National Differences in Gene × socioeconomic Status Interaction on Intelligence". Psychological Science. 27 (2): 138–149. doi:10.1177/0956797615612727. ISSN 0956-7976. PMC 4749462. PMID 26671911.
  13. ^ Dattani, Saloni; Howard, David M.; Lewis, Cathryn M.; Sham, Pak C. (October 2022). "Clarifying the causes of consistent and inconsistent findings in genetics". Genetic Epidemiology. 46 (7): 372–389. doi:10.1002/gepi.22459. ISSN 0741-0395. PMC 9544854. PMID 35652173.
  14. ^ Tucker-Drob, E.; Rhemtulla, M.; Harden, K.P.; Turkheimer, E.; Fask, D. (2010). "Emergence of a gene x socioeconomic status interaction on infant mental ability between 10 months and 2 years". Psychological Science. 22 (1): 125–133. doi:10.1177/0956797610392926. PMC 3532898. PMID 21169524.
  15. ^ "In the Red". Virginia Magazine. 2011.
  16. ^ Turkheimer, Eric (2011). "Genetics and human agency: Comment on Dar-Nimrod and Heine (2011)". Psychological Bulletin. 137 (5): 825–828. doi:10.1037/a0024306. PMID 21859182.
  17. ^ Drake, Nadia (2013-05-09). "What You Do Is Who You Are". National Geographic. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013.
  18. ^ Stefan Molyneux (2015-10-18), Does Poverty Impact Intelligence? | Eric Turkheimer and Stefan Molyneux, retrieved 2020-09-22
  19. ^ The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder (2018-05-22), TMBS - 41 - Measuring the Intellectual Dark Web's IQ ft. Eric Turkheimer & Nida Khan, retrieved 2018-06-22
  20. ^ David Pakman Show (2018-06-06), IQ Expert: Race Not the Cause of IQ Gap, retrieved 2018-06-22
  21. ^ "Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ". Vox. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  22. ^ Turkheimer, E. (1997) "The search for a psychometric left." Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive / Current Psychology of Cognition 16 (6): 779-783.
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