Mainstream Science on Intelligence

The statement as it appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, December 13, 1994

"Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was a public statement issued by a group of researchers led by psychologist Linda Gottfredson. It was published originally in The Wall Street Journal on December 13, 1994, as a response to criticism of the book The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, which appeared earlier the same year.[1] The statement defended Herrnstein and Murray's controversial claims about race and intelligence, including the claim that average intelligence quotient (IQ) differences between racial and ethnic groups may be at least partly genetic in origin.[2] This view is now considered discredited by mainstream science.[3][4][5]

The statement was drafted by Gottfredsen, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Delaware. It was sent to 131 researchers whom Gottfredsen described as "experts in intelligence and allied fields". Of these, 52 signed the statement, 48 returned the request with an explicit refusal to sign, and 31 ignored the request.[6][7]

According to a 1996 response by former American Psychological Association president Donald Campbell, only ten of those who signed were actual experts in intelligence measurement.[8] The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that 20 of the signers were recipients of funding from the white supremacist organization the Pioneer Fund, including Gottfredson herself.[7]

During subsequent years, both the substance and the interpretation of this letter have received criticism from scientists.[9][10][8][11][12][13]

  1. ^ McInerney, Joseph D. (March 1996). "Why Biological Literacy Matters: A Review of Commentaries Related to The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 71 (1): 81–96. doi:10.1086/419269. JSTOR 3037831. S2CID 88113127.
  2. ^ Staub, Michael E. (8 May 2019). "The Mismeasure of Minds". Boston Review.
  3. ^ "Intelligence research should not be held back by its past". Nature. 545: 385–386. 25 May 2017. Historical measurements of skull volume and brain weight were done to advance claims of the racial superiority of white people. More recently, the (genuine but closing) gap between the average IQ scores of groups of black and white people in the United States has been falsely attributed to genetic differences between the races.
  4. ^ Evans, Gavin (2 March 2018). "The unwelcome revival of 'race science'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  5. ^ Turkheimer, Eric; Harden, Kathryn Paige; Nisbett, Richard E. (June 15, 2017). "There's still no good reason to believe black-white IQ differences are due to genes". Vox. Vox Media. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gottfredson 1997 17–20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b Campbell 1996
  9. ^ Graves & Johnson 1995, pp. 279–280
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Laosa 1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Harrington 1997, pp. 116–118
  12. ^ Alderfer (2003)
  13. ^ Armour-Thomas (2003)