The truth about race and IQ

last updated 8 January 2015

Richard E. Nisbett

The New York Times

Are blacks, on average, inherently less intelligent than whites? said psychology professor Richard E. Nisbett. That once-discredited notion is again gaining credibility, due to statements by Nobel Prize winner James Watson and a recent series of columns by science writer William Saletan in Slate.com. Since blacks on average score lower on IQ tests than whites, Saletan and Watson reason, it’s only political correctness that prevents most scientists from acknowledging the obvious. Not so. Actually, the evidence actually strongly points to IQ being heavily influenced by cultural and family background; the more familiar you are with the words and concepts woven into the test, the better you do. In the U.S. as a whole, IQ has shot up 18 points since 1947. Did Americans evolve that quickly—or did “powerful social factors,’’ such as higher levels of education, account for the rapid increase? The most telling study on IQ found that black and mixed-race kids adopted by white families had IQ points 13 points higher than those adopted by black families. Does that indicate a genetic explanation, or a cultural one? Let’s not get fooled by lazy thinkers who put too much stock in genetic explanations. IQ is hardly a pure measure of intelligence.