Race and intelligence

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Is race a factor in deciding intelligence?

-- bryan bonaparte (bbonaparte@mail.candi.ac.uk), January 27, 2003

Answers

I believe it is fair to say that the majority view in psychology is that, to the degree that there is a correlation between race and IQ scores, it is completely confounded with other apparently relevant factors such as socio-economic status and educational opportunity. This "consensus" rapidly splinters, however, when you look at people's reasons -- some think "intelligence" is an problematic concept, and in any case not "objectively" measured by IQ tests. Many now believe, on the basis of recent genome studies, that the concept of race is incoherent as well. Still others are moderately content with the coherence of the concepts of "intelligence" and of "race" but believe that the evidence for a *causal* link between race and intelligence is weak or non-existent. On the other hand, there are still a few well-known individuals who believe that there is an important link between the two (e.g., Arthur Jensen, Phillipe Rushton, Charles Murray).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), January 29, 2003.

is it imposible for us to believe that humans can have different "BREEDS" as do dogs, cats and other animals. we all know that certin breeds are advanced in specific areas than others (ex. a german sheperd is smarter than a rotwiler. even though rotwilers are very trainable they aredumber than sheperds

-- craig (craigdog21@aol.com), April 04, 2003.

The employment of analogy, such as the one advanced by Craig, is a notoriously weak form of argument. Even if one were to consider different human races as "breeds," the question would still remain whether there is any *evidence* of IQ differences due to race. The sheer *existence* of different races proves nothing. That there may be (something akin to) intellectual differences among breeds of another (fairly distant) species proves nothing either.

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), April 05, 2003.

race is a factor all races are pretty much the same in intelligence except one race africa they average an IQ of 85 in the u.s and 80 in africa if anyone is under 80 it is the level for mental retardation so the answer is no except one race or monkeys

-- frank (freedom@yahoo.com), June 17, 2003.

In reply to "frank's" comment, it is important not to confuse intelligence with scores on IQ tests. It is true that *on average* African-Americans score lower than European-Americans on IQ tests, but there are so many other factors in play that it is very difficult to attribute the difference to race alone. Some argue that the tests are geared toward European culture. Some argue that the *average* lower SES of African-Americans leads to lower IQ scores (Note: low-SES European-Americans score lower than higher-SES European-Americans). It is VERY tricky business to attempt to derive a *causal* conclusion from what is, after all, a merely *correlational* phenomenon. (By the way, I find it interesting that "frank" *failed* to mention that Asian-Americans score, on average, *higher* than European-Americans. A little bit of selective reporting there?)

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), June 17, 2003.


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