"All Brains Are the Same Color"

Source: RICHARD E. NISBETT, The New York Times, December 9, 2007.

This old article seeks to debunk the idea that blacks may be less intelligent than whites. He writes:

The hereditarians begin with the assertion that 60 percent to 80 percent of variation in I.Q. is genetically determined. However, most estimates of heritability have been based almost exclusively on studies of middle-class groups. For the poor, a group that includes a substantial proportion of minorities, heritability of I.Q. is very low, in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent research by Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia. This means that for the poor, improvements in environment have great potential to bring about increases in I.Q.

Comment: I.Q. is, of course, that which is tested by I.Q. tests. The score on one I.Q. test is most useful in predicting the score on the next I.Q. test. Which is not very useful in the real world. For what its worth, I think race is a rather silly way to estimate competence. The differences within groups swamps that between groups. It is also obvious that what we learn has huge impacts on what we can do and how well we can do it whatever our genetic endowment. But think for a minute about a ten percent difference in genetic endowment. Think about someone who is 75 inches tall versus someone ten percent taller, or 79.5 inches tall. Is a basketball coach going to be more interested in someone 6'3" tall or someone 6'10 1/2" tall? Now think about how much practice and coaching a guy 6'10 1/2" tall is going to get to develop his natural talent. A ten percent difference in height may lead to a radical difference in the time and effort devoted to developing basketball skills, which in turn may lead to a career in the NBA rather than one limited to a high school team. Very few of us can excel in basketball to the degree of playing pro ball, but most of us could excel in something if we found a comparative talent and developed it fully. The shame of it is that far too often people are deprived of that opportunity because of some prejudice. JAD