Crude and dangerous ideas about the genetic heritability of intelligence, and a supposed biological basis for the Black/White achievement gap, are alive and well inside the education policy process but taking new and more subtle forms. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, the paper analyses recent hereditarian writing, in the UK and the USA, and…

This article reviews sex studies of children of cousin marriages and three studies of children of incestuous matings. It is argued that these studies, taken as a whole, provide no substantial evidence for an inbreeding depression effect within the polygenic system commonly asserted to determine IQ. (Author/DB)

Critiques ideas expressed by Gould in "The Mismeasure of Man." Agrees with Gould that many scientists who studied human intelligence were racist, but disagrees that their work must therefore necessarily be dismissed. Disputes Gould's claim that factor analysts who study human intelligence have reified their factors and that factor…

The author recounts his experiences investigating alleged fraud by Cyril Burt (1976) in his work on the genetic foundations of human intelligence. The evidence fails to prove Burt guilty, and his assertions about the genetic factors of individual differences in intelligence are finding corroboration in contemporary psychology. (SLD)

Raymond Cattell's efforts to sort out the relationships of genetic or environmental patterns to personality factors have contributed to behavior genetics. Early writings on the projected decline of intelligence in Britain, studies using Multivariate Abstract Variance Analysis, and other miscellaneous studies on personality factors and mental…

The futility of the debate between heredity and environment as determinants of intelligence is argued, with convictions inspired by C. Burt's work (apart from the question of fraud in his work). It is contended that the influence of this misconceived ideological disagreement is apparent in today's educational systems. (SLD)

This paper examines the question of the hereditary nature of intelligence and the validity of some of the statistical procedures which have been used in measuring the degree of hereditability. The author feels that proof of the question lacks sufficient scientific rigor for the support of any conclusion, particulary for a question of such…

This volume includes eight essays. In his "Foreword," Carl Senna examines the revival of the hereditarian position by Arthur Jensen. "Race and Intelligence" contains a critique of Richard C. Lewontin of Jensen's argument, revealing what appear to be deeply embedded assumptions derived from a particular world view. David Z. Robinson, in "If You're…

Cognitive deficits in black and other minority children have been assumed, described, and then explained. In direct and indirect ways, the "evidence," especially in the broad public domain has been mounting to suggest a genetic cause for discovered differences between racial groups on test of aptitude and achievement. It is the purpose of the…

In his book, "I.Q. in the Meritocracy," Richard J. Herrnstein (1973) calls on a classic article by Barbara S. Burks (1928) to support his position that a large part of the variation in intelligence can be accounted for by variation in heredity, as distinguished from variation in environment, and from covariation of heredity and…

The egalitarian dogma, the belief that blacks and whites are genetically equal in cognitive ability, has been perpetuated through intimidation and pious thinking. Data on racial differences and the corruption of scholarship that causes them to be ignored are discussed. (SLD)

Argues that Herrnstein and Murray's cognitive stratification is not intrinsically ominous, since context determines its meaning; their "intelligence" data actually measures educational achievement; environmental effects are underestimated; and analyses and social policy recommendations are bound to the U.S. context. Concludes that…

This paper critically examines the portions of Arthur Jensen's books, "Genetics and Education" and "Educability and Group Differences," that concern Barbara Burks' 1928 study of adoptive families. Jensen cites the low correlations of children's IQs with measures of home environment from Burks' study as evidence that environment…