Race Differences in Intelligence (book): Difference between revisions
→Reception: This book has had more than three reviews, and the second sentence is unsourced information about living people. I think it’s also false: AFAIK, Loehlin is not a Pioneer grantee. |
→Reception: We should also include Loehlin's review here |
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<blockquote>"Much labour has gone into this book. But I fear it is the sort of book that gives IQ testing a bad name. As a source of references, it will be useful to some. As a source of information, it should be treated with some suspicion. On the other hand, Lynn's preconceptions are so plain, and so pungently expressed, that many readers will be suspicious from the outset."</blockquote> |
<blockquote>"Much labour has gone into this book. But I fear it is the sort of book that gives IQ testing a bad name. As a source of references, it will be useful to some. As a source of information, it should be treated with some suspicion. On the other hand, Lynn's preconceptions are so plain, and so pungently expressed, that many readers will be suspicious from the outset."</blockquote> |
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A review by [[John C. Loehlin]], [[University of Texas]] [[Professor emeritus]], argues that the general trends in the data that Lynn presents are probably dependable, but finds fault with Lynn’s occasional carelessness in how his conclusions are presented. Loehlin summarizes his view of the book as follows: |
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<blockquote>Is this book the final word on race differences in intelligence? Of course not. But Richard Lynn is a major player, and it is good to have his extensive work on this topic together in one place. Future workers who address these matters under this or any other label will find that Lynn has done a lot of spadework for them. And they will also find that there is plenty to ponder over within these pages.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Loehlin, John C. | title = Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis | journal = Intelligence | volume = 35 | month = January-February | year = 2007 | pages = 93–94 | doi = 10.1016/j.intell.2006.05.001 | issue = 1 }}</ref></blockquote> |
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In a 2008 review of the data used in Lynn's book, Hunt and Wittmann<ref>Hunt, E. & Wittmann, W. (2008). National intelligence and national prosperity. Intelligence. Vol. 36, 1, January-February pp. 1-9.</ref> write: |
In a 2008 review of the data used in Lynn's book, Hunt and Wittmann<ref>Hunt, E. & Wittmann, W. (2008). National intelligence and national prosperity. Intelligence. Vol. 36, 1, January-February pp. 1-9.</ref> write: |
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Revision as of 01:56, 20 November 2010
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| Author | Richard Lynn |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Washington Summit Publishers |
Publication date | March 2006 |
| Pages | 338 |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-59-368021-X Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis is a 2006 book by Richard Lynn claiming to represent the largest collection and review of the global cognitive ability data, by nine global regions, surveying 620 published studies from around the world, with a total of 813,778 tested individuals.
Lynn's meta-analysis lists East Asians (105), Europeans (99), Inuit (91), Arabs [both Middle Easterners and North Africans] (89 each), Pacific Islanders (85), Hispanics (84), Non-Bushmen Sub-Saharan Africans (67), Australian Aborigines (62), Bushmen and Pygmies (54), Homo Erectus (50), Apes (22), and Monkeys (12).[1][2][3]
Broadly speaking, Lynn estimates that about half of the IQ deficit of third world races can be explained by inadequate nutrition, while the other half is racially genetic. For example Lynn argues that while Africans living in Africa average IQ 67, African Americans living in the Southern United States (where European admixture is very low) average IQ 80. Lynn believes the latter figure represents their genotypic intelligence, while the IQs in Africa are stunted by malnutrition.
Ashkenazi Jews who Lynn classifies as South Asian/European hybrids, average 107-115 in the U.S. and Britain, and Ashkenazi Jews in Israel average 103[4]. Lynn argues that the U.S. Ashkenazis represent the elite who were intelligent enough to escape persecution in World War II. However not all American Ashkenazi Jews were from the elite: two million Ashkenazi Jews arrived in the U.S. between 1880 and 1920, the vast majority of whom were relatively poor when they arrived in the U.S.[5]
Like much research regarding race and intelligence, Lynn's work has been controversial [6]. When taken as national averages, the data available, particularly regarding the developing world, is speculative due to limited sampling, year of testing, and varying type of cognitive ability test used. Lynn's survey is an expansion by nearly four times of the data collected in his 2002 IQ and the Wealth of Nations with Tatu Vanhanen, which dealt with the relationship between IQ and economic development. IQ and the Wealth of Nations was criticized for error, alleged bias, and racism, but the book has also been used as a source of IQ data and hypotheses in several peer-reviewed studies.[7] Lynn argues the surveyed studies have high reliability in the sense that different studies give similar results, and high validity in the sense that they correlate highly with performance in international studies of achievement in mathematics and science and with national economic development.
As with Lynn's and Tatu Vanhanen's book IQ and Global Inequality, the book was published by Washington Summit Publishers.[8]
Overview
Lynn devotes a chapter to the data on each of the nine genetic clusters or population groups identified in previous genetic cluster analysis, which Lynn regards as races. The book subsequently defends the reliability and validity of the measures, concluding that, though additional evidence may be required to confirm some of the racial IQ estimates, that they correlate highly with performance in international studies of achievement in mathematics and science and with national economic development.
Reception
A review by Nicholas Mackintosh, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, criticizes Lynn's occasional manipulation of data, some of it originally collected by the reviewer, from which distorted conclusions have been drawn. Mackintosh expresses astonishment that Lynn infers elsewhere that Kalahari bushmen, with an average measured IQ of 54, should be regarded as mentally retarded; and that an 8 year old European child with the equivalent mental age would have no problems surviving in the same desert environment. He concludes:[10]
"Much labour has gone into this book. But I fear it is the sort of book that gives IQ testing a bad name. As a source of references, it will be useful to some. As a source of information, it should be treated with some suspicion. On the other hand, Lynn's preconceptions are so plain, and so pungently expressed, that many readers will be suspicious from the outset."
A review by John C. Loehlin, University of Texas Professor emeritus, argues that the general trends in the data that Lynn presents are probably dependable, but finds fault with Lynn’s occasional carelessness in how his conclusions are presented. Loehlin summarizes his view of the book as follows:
Is this book the final word on race differences in intelligence? Of course not. But Richard Lynn is a major player, and it is good to have his extensive work on this topic together in one place. Future workers who address these matters under this or any other label will find that Lynn has done a lot of spadework for them. And they will also find that there is plenty to ponder over within these pages.[11]
In a 2008 review of the data used in Lynn's book, Hunt and Wittmann[12] write:
"The majority of the data points were based upon convenience rather than representative samples. Some points were not even based on residents of the country. For instance, the “data point” for Suriname was based on tests given to Surinamese who had migrated to the Netherlands, and the “data point” for Ethiopia was based on the IQ scores of a highly selected group that had emigrated to Israel and, for cultural and historical reasons, was hardly representative of the Ethiopian population. The data point for Mexico was based upon a weighted averaging of the results of a study of “Native American and Mestizo children in southern Mexico” with result of a study of residents of Argentina. Upon reading the original reference, we found that the “data point” that Lynn and Vanhanen used for the lowest IQ estimate, Equatorial Guinea, was actually the mean IQ of a group of Spanish children in a home for the developmentally disabled in Spain. Corrections were applied to adjust for differences in IQ across cohorts (the “Flynn” effect), on the assumption that the same correction could be applied internationally, without regard to the cultural or economic development level of the country involved. While there appears to be rather little evidence on cohort effect upon IQ across the developing countries, one study in Kenya (Daley, Whaley, Sigman, Espinosa, & Neumann, 2003[13]) shows a substantially larger cohort effect than is reported for developed countries."
See also
- History of the race and intelligence controversy
- Race and intelligence
- Brain to body mass ratio
- Evolution of human intelligence
- Intelligence and public policy
- The Mismeasure of Man
References
- ^ Herrnstein and Murray 1994; Lynn 1991a; Lynn 2006
- ^ Rushton, J. P. (2006). "Lynn Richard, Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, Washington Summit Books, Augusta, GA (2005) ISBN 1-59368-020-1, 318 pages., US$34.95". Personality and Individual Differences. 40 (4): 853–855. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.10.004.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help) - ^ Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2002). IQ and the wealth of nations. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-97510-X
- ^ Race Differences in Intelligence pg 94
- ^ Hersch, Liebmann (1931). International Migration of the Jews. In Willcox's International Migrations, volume II
- ^ IngentaConnect The Science of Human Diversity: A History of the Pioneer Fund
- ^ (Volken). (Kamin 1995).
- ^ Washington Summit Publishers
- ^ based on World distribution of the intelligence of indigenous peoples from Lynn (2006) p. vi
- ^ Mackintosh, N.J. (2007). "Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis". Intelligence. 35 (1): 94–96. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.08.001.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Loehlin, John C. (2007). "Book review - Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary hypothesis". Intelligence. 35 (1): 93–94. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.05.001.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Hunt, E. & Wittmann, W. (2008). National intelligence and national prosperity. Intelligence. Vol. 36, 1, January-February pp. 1-9.
- ^ Daley et al., 2003 T. Daley, S. Whaley, M.D. Sigman, M.P. Espinosa and C. Neumann, IQ on the rise: The Flynn effect in rural Kenyan children, Psychological Science 14 (5) (2003), pp. 215–219.