One of the most controversial areas of psychology.
Before you scream “RACIST!!”, hear me out.
This was legit an essay topic I had to debate in my Masters of Psychology course in the UK. It caused an uproar among my classmates, with some clearly disturbed by this topic that they refused to complete the essay.
While this discussion perhaps won’t fly in many woke cultures around the world today, this topic has been a widely debated area that has plagued generations of psychologists.
As budding psychologists, I reckon it is essential for us to understand this topic in order to be well-prepared for when racists use this bullet to fire their racist hatred remarks.
Heck, even scientists sometimes use this argument to power their scientific racism. A classic example of that is the eugenics movement that aims to “breed out” unfavourable traits from “less intelligent races”.
Discussing this does not mean I condone racism or racial behaviour, but I do think we need to understand both sides of the coin to have a holistic view of the debate.
If you want to understand what the hell the eugenics movement is talking about, read on. But tread carefully as this article might contain triggering information.
Trigger warning: This article contains triggers for the depiction of racism, racial arguments, racial slurs and colourism.
Discovery of Racial Differences in Intelligence
During World War I, the US started using standardized mental tests for anyone who wanted to join the army. This was the first time in human history that there were large pools of data on IQ scores.
Accidentally, it was then discovered that there were 15–18 points of IQ differences between the Blacks and the Whites. With the Whites achieving approximately about 1.0–1.1 standard deviations higher than the Blacks (Shuey 1958). In scientific terms, that was a significant finding!
When data was collected across other populations, the trend remained persistent.
From preschool children to college attendees.
From developmentally challenged children to gifted savants.
And even members of the armed forces and criminals.
This sparked a lot of interest in race differences in intelligence and subsequently, data has been collected across various Black and White groups in the US over the period of 50 years.
The data on racial differences in IQ in the United States are one of the most thoroughly documented findings in psychology. Yet, psychologists differ greatly in their interpretation of this.
Some say that the difference in scores is related to the IQ test themselves being developed to favour certain races. Intelligence tests contain a strong cultural bias that is in favour of White, middle-class groups (Ford 2004).
For example, (1) they measure knowledge and content that are more familiar to White, middle-class students compared to other ethnicities, (2) the language on these tests is more familiar to White, middle-class students; and (3) the examples used in the questions are more familiar to White, middle-class students.
In this case, it is argued that such IQ tests are measuring what other ethnicities have not been exposed to, and thus the results of IQ tests are merely a measure of differential experiences rather than their intelligence.
As a result of these cultural biases, other ethnicities are denied access to high-quality, challenging educational opportunities, such as gifted education programs, that utilise these IQ scores as entrance requirements.
Global IQ Scores Show Persistent Trends
International research with IQ data from 192 countries was conducted by Richard Lynn in 1991. The data spanned from the beginning of the 20th century to the early 1990s.
From there, it was found that the average world IQ is 90.
The highest IQ scores belonged to the East Asian clusters (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans) with 105.
This was followed by Europeans (100), Inuit-Eskimos (91), South East Asians (87), Native American Indians (87), Pacific Islanders (85) and South Asians & North Africans (84).
The lowest IQ scores belonged to the sub-Saharan Africans (67), Australian aborigines (62) and Kalahari Bushmen & Congo Pygmies (54).
The international findings seem to support the American findings that there are indeed IQ differences across races.
Some races like East Asians consistently score higher averages globally, whether they live in Asian countries such as Japan, Hong Kong and China, or in Western countries such as the United States, Canada and Europe. This is an interesting find that fuels the debate about the nature and nurture of intelligence.
It is worth noting that Richard Lynn is a strong proponent of the eugenics movement. He has unapologetically used scientific data and his authority as a professor at the University of Ulster to argue for the genetic inferiority of non-white people.
In his own words;
“I am deeply pessimistic about the future of the European peoples because mass immigration of third world peoples will lead to these becoming majorities in the United States and westernmost Europe during the present century. I think this will mean the destruction of European civilization in these countries.”
— Interview with neo-Nazi Alex Kurtagic, 2011
It is shocking to see how scientific data can be manipulated so easily to fuel the evils in society.
The “Intelligent” Gene
Multiple scientists have used the genetic argument to explain racial differences in intelligence. From Sir Francis Galton’s (1891) Hereditary Genius to Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s (1994) The Bell Curve.
They propose that certain genes or alleles for high intelligence are present in some races and absent in others.
For example, the microcephalin gene which is associated with brain size has shown that a mutation occurred approximately 37,000 +- 13,000 years ago (Hunt & Carlson, 2007).
Coinciding with the expansion of homo sapiens throughout Eurasia, the microcephalin gene is more common in Eurasian ancestral populations than in sub-Saharan African populations. This could potentially explain the higher IQ scores of East Asians and Caucasians.
However, it should be interpreted with caution as brain size and functioning is governed by a dynamic interaction of many genes. Narrowing one gene to be responsible for intelligence might be too simplistic.
Plus, brain size is not the only thing that matters when it comes to intelligence. The brain’s neural network organisation and efficiency are far more important factors.
Environmental Factors of Intelligence
One of the most commonly cited environmental factors in intelligence is socioeconomic status.
Typically, certain races like Blacks and Hispanics in the US are overrepresented in poverty. This opens them up to an array of issues faced by those in lower socioeconomic groups, such as poor prenatal care and nutrition, emotional trauma, adverse childhood experiences, under-resourced poor schools and bad neighbourhoods with a high crime rate.
These issues impact their ability and achievement in IQ tests. If one struggles to obtain good nutrition, brain development will be impacted, and eventually lead to lower IQ scores.
Interestingly, the Black-White IQ gap in the US has narrowed down by 5.5 points between 1972 and 2002, and the standard deviation difference has reduced from 1.1 to 0.75 (Dickens & Flynn, 2006).
This could be due to the Black’s improved access to education and nutrition, the progress from the legacy of slavery and the diminishing racism.
Proponents of the environmental theory often quote this as strong evidence of the impact of nurture on intelligence. When an individual is given similar environmental conditions, they too can thrive intellectually!
So the lower IQ scores of certain races are not representative of lower intelligence but merely reflect the inequality gap that exists.
The Truth is Probably A Little More Complicated
When it comes to something as complex as intelligence, it’s never just a simple answer. A multitude of different things affects intelligence, both genetically and environmentally.
Due to its complexity, one can easily twist the findings to fit a particular narrative. This is true with many topics concerning science, but even more so with psychology. Unlike the other ‘hard’ sciences like physics and chemistry, psychological findings are more open to interpretation.
That’s why it’s even more important to educate ourselves so that when a clearly morally wrong argument is made under the name of science, we are ready to rebut it.
References
Dickens, W. T., & Flynn, J. R. (2006). Black Americans reduce the racial IQ gap: Evidence from standardization samples. Psychological Science, 17(10), 913–920.
Ford, D. (2004). Intelligence Testing and Cultural Diversity: Concerns, Cautions and Considerations.
Lynn, R. (1991). Race Differences in Intelligence a Global Perspective. The Mankind Quarterly.
Nisbett, R. E. (2009). Intelligence and how to get it: Why schools and cultures count. WW Norton & Company.
Roth, P. L., Bevier, C. A., Bobko, P., SWITZER III, F. S., & Tyler, P. (2001). Ethnic group differences in cognitive ability in employment and educational settings: A meta‐analysis. Personnel Psychology, 54(2), 297–330.
Shuey, A. M. (1958). The testing of Negro intelligence.
This article was originally published on Medium.
