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| The '''] controversy''' is a decades-old dispute about research which examines the nature, origins, and practical consequences of possible ] and ] differences in ]. | |||
| ==Introduction== | |||
| ===Overview=== | |||
| The ] publication of Jensen's "How Much Can We Boost IQ and School Achievement?" reintroduced race and intelligence to public and scholarly discussion. From that time through the publication of '']'' in ], research on race and intelligence has sparked fervent controversy. Discussion in the public and from scholars outside of the field of IQ research has been predominantly critical. | |||
| {{sect-stub}} | |||
| ===Controversial issues and scope of the controversy=== | |||
| ====Issues==== | |||
| * ] is measurable and/or is dominated by a unitary general cognitive ability. | |||
| * self-identified ] is a useful categorization for social science research and can produce scientifically meaningful conclusions. | |||
| * racial categories divide humans into "breeding populations" with concordant variation in some heritable traits | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ====Scope==== | |||
| <!--It's not clear what's intended for this section--> | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ===Points made by supporters and opponents=== | |||
| ====Points made by supporters==== | |||
| IQ differences among individuals of the same race reflect (1) real, (2) functionally/socially significant, and (3) substantially genetic differences in the ]. A consensus also exists for the view that average IQ differences among races reflect (1) real and (2) significant differences in the same ''g'' factor. However, it is a matter of debate whether IQ differences among races in the U.S. are (3a) entirely environmental or (3b) partly genetic. | |||
| * ] et al., "" ''American Psychologist'' 51, no. 2 (February 1996): 77–101. | |||
| * ] et al., "," ''Wall Street Journal'', December 13, 1994. | |||
| ====Points made by opponents==== | |||
| * Demographic groups do not differ meaningfully, on average, in important abilities and aptitudes. | |||
| * Differences in cognitive ability and educational outcomes are ultimately due to differences in family advantage. | |||
| * Cognitive ability is the result of exposures to opportunities to learn (i.e., equalizing learning opportunities will equalize learning). | |||
| ===Definitions of race and intelligence=== | |||
| ====Race==== | |||
| Some scholars have argued that race and intelligence research is fundamentally flawed. One common criticism is that the concept of "race" is meaningless. | |||
| The 10,000-member ] criticized "mistaken claims of racially determined intelligence" in a public statement: | |||
| <blockquote>...differentiating species into biologically defined "races" has proven meaningless and unscientific as a way of explaining variation (whether in intelligence or other traits). {{ref|aaa-1994}} </blockquote> | |||
| {{AYref|Tate and Audette|2001}} argued that the concept of "race" is both "logically incoherent" and incompatible with the existence of "gradations on a continuum of genetic data", and thus race "cannot explain psychological data." | |||
| Jensen summarized these views in his 1998 book '']'': | |||
| <blockquote>Nowadays one often reads in the popular press (and in some anthropology textbooks) that the concept of human races is a fiction (or, as one well-known anthropologist termed it, a "dangerous myth"), that races do not exist in reality, but are social constructions of politically and economically dominant groups for the purpose of maintaining their own status and power in a society. It naturally follows from this premise that, since races do not exist in any real, or biological, sense, it is meaningless even to inquire about the biological basis of any racial differences.</blockquote> | |||
| Jensen claims this line of argument has social and political sources rather than "scientific" ones, and that in the context of population genetics races are defined as "breeding populations with fuzzy boundaries". | |||
| Jensen (1973) claims that critics which argue against race and intelligence research from the view that racial groups are merely social constructs are committing an error of reasoning: | |||
| <blockquote>"Those social scientists who insist that there are no racial genetic differences in ability are often the most critical of studies which have used a social criterion of race rather than more precise genetic criteria. . . . seem not to have considered the idea that if the observed IQ differences between racial groups are due only to social-environmental factors, then the social definition of race should be quite adequate, and, in fact, should be the only appropriate definition. If it is argued that two socially defined racial groups which differ in mean IQ are not racially "pure" and that one or both groups have some genetic admixture of the other, it can mean only that the biological racial aspect of the IQ difference, if such exists, has been underestimated by comparing socially, rather than genetically, defined racial groups" (p. 219).</blockquote> | |||
| A 1985 survey ({{AYref|Lieberman et al.|1992}}<!-- add ref -->) asked 1,200 scientists how many '''disagree''' with the following proposition: "There are biological races in the species ''Homo sapiens''." The responses were: | |||
| * biologists 16% | |||
| * developmental psychologists 36% | |||
| * physical anthropologists 41% | |||
| * cultural anthropologists 53% | |||
| (This survey did not specify any particular definition of race.) | |||
| ====Intelligence==== | |||
| Psychometric concepts of intelligence are also criticized by public intellectuals. In '']'', ] argues: | |||
| <blockquote>" the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number for each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single series of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups—races, classes, or sexes—are innately inferior and deserve their status" (pp. 24-25).</blockquote> | |||
| However, intelligence experts view psychometrics as "the most influential approach", "the one that has generated the most systematic research", and the one that has "produced a substantial body of knowledge" ({{AYref|Neisser et al.|1996}}). | |||
| ====Race and intelligence together==== | |||
| It is also common to argue that both "race" and "intelligence" are arbitrary social constructions. Sternberg and colleagues question the basis of race and intelligence research {{AYref|Sternberg|2005}}: | |||
| <blockquote>In this article, the authors argue that the overwhelming portion of the literature on intelligence, race, and genetics is based on folk taxonomies rather than scientific analysis. They suggest that because theorists working on intelligence disagree as to what it is, any consideration of its relationships to other constructs must be tentative at best. They further argue that race is a social construction with no scientific definition. Thus, studies of the relationship between race and other constructs may serve social ends but cannot serve scientific ends.</blockquote> | |||
| The views of IQ experts are significantly different from those of other scholars and public intellecutals. | |||
| In ], ] published a ''Wall Street Journal'' editorial titled "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" ({{AYref|Gottfredson|2001}}), meant to outline "conclusions regarded as mainstream among researchers on intelligence," and co-signed by 51 other professors, all experts in intelligence and related fields. As defined in this collective statement, intelligence is measurable and largely heritable. IQ experts believe that the cause of racial and ethnic group differences in IQ is not merely test bias, that environment is important, but that "genetics could be involved too". | |||
| ==End material== | |||
| ===Notes=== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| <!-- Instructions for adding a footnote: | |||
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| 3) Take note of the name of the footnote that immediately proceeds yours in the article body. | |||
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| #{{note|aaa-1994}} {{AYref|AAA|1994}} | |||
| #{{note|incidents}} Including examples: ]s, vilifying distortion in the media (e.g. '']'' magazine featured a 1994 article titled "Professors of HATE" (in five-inch letters) with a photo of ]'s face doctored to look "ghoulish." The British '']'' headlined a 1999 interview with ] "Is This Man Truly the World's Most Loathsome Scientist?", disruption of lectures, censuring from academic superiors (e.g. Rushton) or firing (e.g. ]), police investigation (e.g. Rushton in 1989, and ] in Finland in 2004), harassment of family (e.g. ]'s children were reportedly treated badly by teachers, causing Eysenck to change the family name to Evans), and even death threats (e.g. Jensen, Rushton, and ]), bomb threats (e.g. Jensen, Rushton, and ]) and physical assault (e.g. Eysenck was assaulted by ] protestors in 1973 while giving a lecture; ]). | |||
| #{{note|nature-vs-nurture}} {{AYref|Degler|1992}}, {{AYref|Loehlin et al.|1975}} | |||
| #{{note|Hitler_1}} "," Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies, January 2003. | |||
| #{{note|Rushton}} Joseph L Graves, "," ''Anthropological Theory'' 2, no. 2 (2002): 131–54; Leonard Lieberman, "," ''Current Anthropology'' 42, no. 1 (February 2001): 69–95; Zack Cernovsky, "," ''Journal of Black Studies'' 25 (1995): 672. | |||
| #{{note|Gould_3}} , graphs from ''Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin,'' by Stephen Jay Gould (Three Rivers, MI: Three Rivers Press, 1997): 109, fig. 16. | |||
| #{{note|sci_1}} Linda S. Gottfredson, "," ''Scientific American''. | |||
| </div> | |||
| <!--READ ME!! PLEASE DO NOT JUST ADD NEW NOTES AT THE BOTTOM. See the instructions above on ordering. --> | |||
| <references/> | |||
| {{Race and intelligence}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Latest revision as of 01:02, 2 November 2007
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