The Politics of Intelligence · Episode 9 of 9 · 28 min
Why the Race-and-IQ Claim Keeps Coming Back: The Bell Curve to Today
The race-and-IQ claim keeps returning, from The Bell Curve in 1994 to James Watson's remarks in 2007 and 2019 and to online 'race science' today, often with the same funding sources and the same logical flaw. The episode sets out what mainstream science affirms, what it does not, and which questions remain open, including the role of environment.
Who's who
- Richard J. Herrnstein+1 more episodeHarvard psychologist and Bell Curve co-author
- Charles MurrayPolitical scientist and Bell Curve co-author
- James D. WatsonDNA co-discoverer whose remarks on race and intelligence drew condemnation
- Ulric Neisser+1 more episodeChaired the APA task force that answered The Bell Curve
- James R. Flynn+1 more episodeResearcher who documented rising IQ scores
- Linda GottfredsonOrganized the 1994 'Mainstream Science on Intelligence' statement
- Kathryn Paige HardenBehavior geneticist urging honest engagement with the field
Where it happens
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New YorkEarly eugenics site later led by Watson
- Cambridge, Massachusetts+1 more episodeWhere Herrnstein died in 1994
Timeline
- 1971Herrnstein's Atlantic article argues for a heritable cognitive elite
- October 1994The Bell Curve published and becomes a bestseller
- 1996APA task force report answers the controversy
- 2007Watson's Sunday Times interview on Africa and intelligence
- 2018American Society of Human Genetics denounces attempts to link genetics and racial supremacy
- 2024The Bell Curve turns thirty; its racial hypothesis still lacks mainstream support
Still debated
Mainstream science affirms that IQ scores predict outcomes and are heritable within populations, but not that group differences are genetic. How much unmeasured environmental factors, such as multigenerational poverty and discrimination, account for remaining gaps is called an open question.