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The problem with intelligence and race is that scientists are required, ex ante, to believe that if there was a link between intelligence and race, then this wo

The problem with intelligence and race is that scientists are required, ex ante, to believe that if there was a link between intelligence and race, then this would not be something we should want to investigate, but if there was not a link, then this would be something that we should want to investigate and publicize. But Bayesian reasoning doesn't work like that. You can only say "I want to know if X is true", not "I want to know that X is not true".

pekk 11y ago
The problem with this line of argument is that books like "The Bell Curve" have been debunked on scientific grounds, leaving no reason for scientists to believe in them except that someone wants them, ex ante, to believe that black people are genetically determined by their race to be stupid (and so forth).
- JesperRavn 11y ago
  Trying to determine the cause of racial differences in IQ is extremely complicated, since we cannot simply assign a person Black genes and a White environment while growing up (since having black skin in itself will mean a person's environment while growing up is different). I'd be very interested in seeing a specific study, but to my knowledge there is no compelling evidence for either nature or nurture when it comes to racial IQ differences. There have been a lot of studies with varying results. But the narratives that "people went looking for differences because of their racial biases, but then their studies were debunked" is not accurate. The fact that people believe this narrative is due to politics. For example, Steven J Gould "debunked" craniometry in "The Mismeasure of Man". But his debunking was criticized by peer reviewed work that upheld the original craniometry work[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man#Craniometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man#Craniome...

pekk 11y ago

The problem with this line of argument is that books like "The Bell Curve" have been debunked on scientific grounds, leaving no reason for scientists to believe in them except that someone wants them, ex ante, to believe that black people are genetically determined by their race to be stupid (and so forth).

JesperRavn 11y ago
Trying to determine the cause of racial differences in IQ is extremely complicated, since we cannot simply assign a person Black genes and a White environment while growing up (since having black skin in itself will mean a person's environment while growing up is different). I'd be very interested in seeing a specific study, but to my knowledge there is no compelling evidence for either nature or nurture when it comes to racial IQ differences. There have been a lot of studies with varying results. But the narratives that "people went looking for differences because of their racial biases, but then their studies were debunked" is not accurate. The fact that people believe this narrative is due to politics. For example, Steven J Gould "debunked" craniometry in "The Mismeasure of Man". But his debunking was criticized by peer reviewed work that upheld the original craniometry work[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man#Craniometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man#Craniome...