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Main article: Race and intelligence (Research)
Main article: Race and intelligence (Controversies)

Given the observed differences in IQ scores between certain groups, a great deal of debate revolves around the significance of these observations. Some believe that these differences indicate a natural genetic hierarchy of races and suggest that attempts to close the gaps are doomed to fail. Others see the gap as merely reflective of existing socially constructed class hierarchies rather than genetic differences.

Interpretations and public policy

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File:Two Curve Bell with Jobs.jpg
These are idealized normal curves comparing the IQs of Blacks and Whites in the US in 1981. Source: Social Consequences by Gottfredson. Labels show expectations for career prospects and job performance for people at different ranges of the IQ distribution.

The distribution of IQ scores among individuals of each race overlap substantially. In a random sample of equal numbers of US Blacks and Whites, Jensen estimates most variance in IQ would be unrelated to race or social class.[1] The average IQ difference between two randomly paired people from the U.S. population is approximately 17 points, and this only increases to 20 points when the pair are black and white. When the pair are siblings, the average difference is still 12 points.[2]

In essays accompanying the publication of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray argue that whether the cause of the IQ gap is genetic or environmental does not really matter, because that knowledge alone would not help to eliminate the gap and that knowledge should not impact the way that individuals treat one another. They argue that group differences in intelligence ought not to be treated as more important or threatening than individual differences, but suggest that one legacy of Black slavery has been to exacerbate race relations such that Blacks and Whites cannot be comfortable with group differences in IQ or any other traits.[3][4]

Practical importance

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The appearance of a large practical importance for intelligence makes some scholars, such as Sackett fear that the source and meaning of the IQ gap is a pressing social concern. In his own words "Sub-group differences in performance on high-stakes tests represent one of American society's most pressing social problems, and mechanisms for reducing or eliminating differences are of enormous interest"[8] Gordon 1997 and Gottfredson 1997b argue that the IQ gap is reflected by gaps in the academic, economic, and social factors correlated with IQ. However, some[weasel words] dispute the general importance of the role of IQ for real-world outcomes, especially for differences in accumulated wealth and general economic inequality in a nation.

The effects of differences in mean IQ between groups (regardless if the cause is social or biological) are amplified by two statistical characteristics of IQ. First, there seem to be minimum statistical thresholds of IQ for many socially valued outcomes (for example, high school graduation and college admission).[9] Second, because of the shape of the normal distribution, only about 16% of the population scores at least one standard deviation above the mean on IQ tests.[10] Thus, although the IQ distributions for Blacks and Whites are largely overlapping, different IQ thresholds can have a significant impact on the proportion of Blacks and Whites above and below a particular cut-off.

IQ Cohorts & Significance (U.S.)
IQ range Whites Blacks Black:White ratio Training prospects High school dropout Lives in poverty "Middle-Class Values" index[11]
<75 3.6% 18.0% ~5:1 simple, supervised work; eligible for government assistance 55% 30% 16%
75-90 18.3% 41.4% ~2:1 very explicit hands on training; IQ >80 for military training; no government assistance 35% 16% 30%
90-100 24.3% 24.9% ~1:1 mastery learning, hands on 6% 6% 50%
100-110 25.9% 11.9% ~1:2 written material plus experience
110-125 22.5% 3.6% ~1:6 college format 0.4% 3% 67%
>125 5.4% 0.2% ~1:32 independent, self-teaching 0% 2% 74%
Based on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IQs for Whites (mean = 101.4, SD = 14.7) and for Blacks (mean = 86.9, SD = 13.0) from (Reynolds, Chastain, Kaufman, & McLean, 1987, p. 330). Training prospects from Wonderlic 1992 and Gottfredson 1997. Significance data is from Herrnstein and Murray 1994, and is based on Whites only. Results from the total population are nearly indistinguishable. Results for Blacks only are similar but not identical (see the table below for comparisons between groups). Note that these are merely correlations. For example, poverty could be both a cause and consequence of low IQ.

Small differences in IQ, while relatively unimportant at the level of an individual, could theoretically have large effects for the United States population as a whole. As a demonstration of these possible effects, Herrnstein and Murray 1994 used a resampling technique to argue that, all else equal, a simulated 3-point drop in average IQ had little effect on factors like marriage, divorce, or unemployment. However, their study found that a simulated drop in IQ from 100 to 97-points increased poverty rates by 11% and the proportion of children living in poverty by 13%. In the simulation, similar rises occurred in rates of children born to single mothers, men in jail, high school drop-out, and men prevented from working due to health-related problems. In contrast, when they simulated an increase in average IQ of 3-points to 103, they calculated that poverty rates fell 25%, children living in poverty fell 20%, and high school drop-out rates fell 28%.[12]

Professors James Heckman and Nicholas Lemann, as well as several other scholars and scientists have the criticized validity and reliability of the data which led to the aforementioned findings by Herrnstein and Murray 1994.[13][14]

Controlling for IQ

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Group Outcomes After Being Statistically Adjusted to Match IQ
Condition (matching IQ) Black % Latino % White %
High school graduation (103) 93 91 89
College graduation (114) 68 49 50
High-level occupation (117) 26 16 10
Living in poverty (100) 11 9 6
Unemployed for 1 month or more (100) 15 11 11
Married by age 30 (100) 58 75 79
Unwed mother with children (100) 51 17 10
Has ever been on welfare (100) 30 15 12
Mothers in poverty receiving welfare (100) 74 54 56
Having a low birth-weight baby (100) 6 5 3
Average annual wage (100) $25,001 $25,159 $25,546
Men ever incarcerated (100) 5 3 2
"Middle-Class Values" index[11] (100) 32 45 48
from Herrnstein & Murray (1994), Chapter 14. Professors James Heckman and Nicholas Lemann, as well as several other scholars and scientists have criticized the validity and reliability of the data which led to this chart.[15][16]

Because IQ correlates with a number of social and economic outcomes that have been found to differ between the black and white populations overall, The Bell Curve argues that the disparities in outcomes are due to group differences in IQ (See above chart). Professors James Heckman and Nicholas Lemann and others claim that its findings are based on data that is not completely valid and reliable.[17][18]

According to Murray and Herrnsteins' Bell Curve, when IQ is statistically controlled for, the probability of having a college degree or working in a high-IQ occupation is higher for Blacks than Whites. Controlling for IQ shrinks the income gap from thousands to a few hundred dollars. Controlling for IQ cuts differential poverty by about three-quarters and unemployment differences by half. However, controlling for IQ has little effect on differential marriage rates. For many other factors, controlling for IQ eliminates the differences between Whites and Hispanics, but the Black-White gap remains (albeit smaller).

Another study found that wealth, race and schooling are important to the inheritance of economic status, but IQ is not a major contributor and the genetic transmission of IQ is even less important.[19] Conversely, controlling for IQ in the above studies also reduces the apparent effect of wealth, race and schooling due to this same correlation.[citation needed]

White populations are not homogeneous groups regarding real-world outcomes. For example, in the U.S. 33.6% of persons with self-reported Scottish ancestry completed college, while only 16.7% of persons with self-reported French-Canadian ancestry have done so.[20]

For additional discussion of the effects of controlling for group differences on a variety of outcomes and groups, see Nyborg and Jensen 2001, and Kanazawa 2005.

As a result of caste position

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This table illustrates how social status or caste position is related to test scores and school success in nations around the world. Source: Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth by Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Martín Sánchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Vos[21]

Group Differences Around the World
  Status or Caste Position Test Scores, School Success
Country High Low High Low
United States[22] Whites Blacks Whites Blacks
  Whites Latinos Whites Latinos
  Whites American Indians[23] Whites American Indians
Great Britain[24] Great Britain Irish, Scottish English Irish, Scottish
Northern Ireland[25] Protestants Catholics Protestants Catholics
Australia[26] Whites Aborigines Whites Aborigines
New Zealand[27] Whites Maoris Whites Maoris
South Africa[28] English Afrikaaners English Afrikaners
Belgium[29] French Flemish French Flemish
Israel[30] Jews Arabs Jews Arabs
  Western Jews Eastern Jews Western Jews Eastern Jews
India[31] Nontribals Tribal people Nontribals Tribal people
  Brahmin Harijan Brahmin Harijan
  High caste Low caste High caste Low caste
Czechoslovakia[32] Slovaks Gypsies Slovaks Gypsies
Japan[33] Non-Burakumin Burakumin Non-Burakumin Burakumin
  Japanese Origin Korean Origin Japanese Origin Korean Origin

These results, just like the inferior test scores of Eastern and Southern Europeans immigrants in the United States 75 years ago, may represent a social division that leads to the gaps in test scores, rather than a pre-established and "natural" hierarchy of "races." In other words, these divisions, are closely aligned with local "social constructs" of race, the outcomes for ethnic groups are, in the opinion of these authors, a result of the social structure rather than confirmation of its validity.[21]

White supremacist interpretations

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Race and intelligence research is sometimes used by white supremacist organizations to support their theories of white superiority. Like racists in the past, they suggest that the low IQ scores of black people justify segregation and laws against interracial marriage. The Southern Poverty Law Center states that: "Race science has potentially frightening consequences, as is evident not only from the horrors of Nazi Germany, but also from the troubled racial history of the United States. If white supremacist groups had their way, the United States would return to its dark days. In publication after publication, hate groups are using this "science" to legitimize racial hatred.

In Calling Our Nation, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations publishes a piece by a New York psychologist surveying the work of Jensen, Garrett and numerous others. National Vanguard, the publication of former physics professor William Pierce and his neo-Nazi National Alliance, runs a similar piece that concludes that "it is the Negro's deficiency ... which kept him in a state of savagery in his African environment and is now undermining the civilization of a racially mixed America."[34]

Louis Andrews through his company L.R. Andrews, Inc. runs Washington Summit Publishers, which reprints a range of classical and modern racist tracts, along with books on eugenics, the discredited "science" of breeding better humans. Andrews has written widely on such matters related to race and intelligence.[35]

Both the FBI and Genocide Watch have observed that the progression towards hate crimes and genocide goes through stages, with the earlier stages necessary for the later. In order for later crimes to occur and often with the help of widespread propaganda, opinions must be formed that people should be categorized into different groups. Certain groups are then degraded and disparaged which by dehumanizing them make active violence possible.[36][37]

As the cause of economic growth in nations

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File:Discover Sept 1982.jpg
(Discover 1982)[1]

Some people have attributed differential economic growth between nations to differences in the intelligence of their populations. One example is Richard Lynn's IQ and the Wealth of Nations. The book is sharply criticized in the peer-reviewed paper The Impact of National IQ on Income and Growth.[38] Another peer-reviewed paper, Intelligence, Human Capital, and Economic Growth: An Extreme-Bounds Analysis, finds a strong connection between intelligence and economic growth.[39] It has been argued that East Asian nations underachieve compared to IQ scores.

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel instead argues that historical differences in economic and technological development for different areas can be explained by differences in geography (which affects factors like population density and spread of new technology) and differences in available crops and domesticatable animals.[40] However, these environmental differences may operate in part by selecting for higher levels of IQ[41]

References

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  1. ^ Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-96103-6. p. 357. Equal-sized random samples of children from California schools were used for this analysis. Social class was rated on a ten-point scale based on parents' education and occupation. Only 30% of total variance in IQ is associated with differences between race and social class, whereas 65% exists within each racial and social class group. The single largest source of IQ variance exists between siblings within the same family.
  2. ^ Mainstream Science on Intelligence
  3. ^ # Herrnstein, R. J. and Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-02-914673-9.
  4. ^ Charles Murray (September 2005). "The Inequality Taboo". Commentary Magazine 120 (2): 13-22.
  5. ^ There are no public-policy implications: A reply to Rushton and Jensen (2005) Robert Sternberg
  6. ^ Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth Claude S. Fischer
  7. ^ Heredity, environment, and race differences in IQ: A commentary on Rushton and Jensen (2005) Richard E. Nisbett
  8. ^ Sackett et al. 2004: "Sub-group differences in performance on high-stakes tests represent one of American society's most pressing social problems, and mechanisms for reducing or eliminating differences are of enormous interest" (p.11).
  9. ^ reviewed in Jensen 1998b
  10. ^ See the definition of a normal distribution, reviewed in Jensen 1998b
  11. ^ a b The criteria for the "Middle-Class Values" index were: (for men) obtained high school degree (or more), were in labor force (but could be unemployed) throughout previous year (1989), never incarcerated, were still married to their first wife; (for women) obtained a high school degree, had never given birth out of wedlock, never incarcerated, were still married to their first husband. Individuals unable to work and those still in school were excluded from this analysis, as well as never-married individuals who satisfied all the other criteria. Poverty is not a criterion, nor is having children.
  12. ^ For this calculation, Herrnstein and Murray altered the mean IQ (100) of the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's population sample by randomly deleting individuals below an IQ of 103 until the population mean reached 103. Their random deletion procedure was conducted twice and the calculated results were averaged together. Herrnstein and Murray note that their calculation ignore secondary effect. (Herrnstein_and_Murray 1994, pp. 364-368)
  13. ^ Cracked Bell by Professor James Heckman in Reason (March 1995).
  14. ^ The Bell Curve Flattened by Nicholas Lemann in Slate (January 1996).
  15. ^ Cracked Bell by Professor James Heckman in Reason (March 1995).
  16. ^ The Bell Curve Flattened by Nicholas Lemann in Slate (January 1996).
  17. ^ Cracked Bell by Professor James Heckman in Reason (March 1995).
  18. ^ The Bell Curve Flattened by Nicholas Lemann in Slate (January 1996).
  19. ^ Bowles and Gintis 2002. Note that race, schooling and IQ are all correlated, so considering them as separate factors lessens the apparent effect of IQ.
  20. ^ These values were taken from Kangas 1999, which reprints U.S. Census data which was originally reported by Hacker 1995, p. 105. Drummond 2005 challenges the factual accuracy of other reporting by Kangas 1999.
  21. ^ a b Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth by Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Martín Sánchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Vos. Page 192. (The footnotes given are also from this book.) Cite error: The named reference "bell myth" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  22. ^ The Bell Curve and many other places.
  23. ^ Church Academic Achievement
  24. ^ Richard Lynn discussed in Benson Ireland's 'Low' IQ
  25. ^ Lynn et al. Home Background
  26. ^ Klich Aboriginal Cognition and Psychological Science; Clark and Halford, Does Cognitive Style Account for Cultural Differences?
  27. ^ Ogbu, Minority Education and Caste
  28. ^ Verster and Prinsloo, The Diminishing Test Performance Gap
  29. ^ Raven, The Raven Progressive Matrices esp fig. 2
  30. ^ Kugelmass et al., Patterns of Intellectual Ability
  31. ^ Das and Khurana, Catse and Cognitive Processes
  32. ^ Adamovic, Intellectual Development and Level of Knowledge in Gypsy Pupils
  33. ^ Shimahara, Social Mobility and Education
  34. ^ Race and 'Reason'
  35. ^ The New Racialists A fresh crop of 'intellectuals' joins the radical right.
  36. ^ The seven-stage hate model: the psychopathology of hate groups by John R. Schafer
  37. ^ [http://www.genocidewatch.org/eightstages.htm THE EIGHT STAGES OF GENOCIDE By Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch]
  38. ^ Thomas Volken, "The Impact of National IQ on Income and Growth."
  39. ^ Jones and Schneider 2005
  40. ^ Richard Nisbett argues in his 2004 The Geography of Thought that some of these regional differences shaped lasting cultural traits, such as the collectivism required by East Asian rice irrigation, compared with the individualism of ancient Greek herding, maritime mercantilism, and money crops wine and olive oil (pp. 34-35).
  41. ^ This theory is discussed by Jensen 1998b (pp. 435-437), Lynn 1991b and Rushton 2000 in general and by both Wade 2006 and Steve Sailer with respect to Guns, Germs, and Steel. See Race and intelligence (Explanations)#Rushton's application of r-K theory. .. Voight et al. 2006 state generally that "a number of recent studies have detected more signals of adaptation in non-African populations than in Africans, and some of those studies have conjectured that non-Africans might have experienced greater pressures to adapt to new environments than Africans have" (Kayser et al. 2003, Akey et al. 2004, Storz et al. 2004, Stajich and Hahn 2005, Carlson et al. 2005).

Commenting out the categories

{{Race and intelligence}} [[Category:Race and intelligence controversy| ]]

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