For this blog post I read the next three articles in "The Bell Curve Wars" They continued the pattern of attacking the Bell Curve but did so without resorting to personal attacks. Instead they provide alternate research that refutes the claims of Herrnstein and Murray. The three articles site 7 studies from the last 70 years, 6 of which systematically refute the idea that those of African origin have a lower IQ than Europeans. They acknowledge that on IQ tests African-Americans score on average 15-18 points lower than whites. However, the 6 studies cited argue that this impact in environmental and/or contextual. In order to combat this each of the studies looks at situation where those from different ethnic backgrounds are raised in equivalent environments. These situations included government programs to help children “at risk” for low IQ’s (born prematurely, malnourished etc.) and adoptions of African-American children into white families (and vice-versa). The studies also examined the IQ scores of those of mixed-race descent; the theory being that if Europeans have higher IQs than Africans with some European genes would perform better than those of “pure” African descent. This was not the case. All these studies found no appreciable IQ difference between those of African and European descent, which suggests that if you control for environmental factors the IQ gap disappears. (The 7th study was inconclusive) I was surprised just how strong the pre-existing evidence against the ideas of the Bell Curve was. All the studies cited attack the basic assumptions of Hernstein and Murray, that IQ is substantially heritable, that IQ is immutable and that the substantial differences between different groups IQ scores are the result of quantifiable genetic differences. Nonetheless, despite repeated assaults on their work I believe Herrnstein and Murray’s work has significant value because they clearly address the issue of the IQ gap. While it can be explained by environmental factors African-Americans consistently perform significantly worse on IQ tests than whites. It is not known what precisely IQ measures but it does measure something: notably that ability to succeed in today’s society. IQ has a consistent positive correlation with income, high school graduation, life expectancy etc. For whatever reason African Americans (and other marginalized groups, including poor whites) are already at significant disadvantage by the age of 4 (when many IQ tests are administered). This is not because of genetics, but environmental factors, factors which must be equalized from birth if we are to eliminate the achievement gap.