Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!gatech!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!l.cc.purdue.edu!cik From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: IQ is not static, genetic differences inconsequential. Summary: Wrong conclusion. Message-ID: <1461@l.cc.purdue.edu> Date: 1 Aug 89 11:27:59 GMT References: <3549@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> <4431@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department Lines: 28 In article , mcconnel@zodiac.ADS.COM (Chris McConnell) writes: > If you are really interested in this whole question, read the book > "The Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Jay Gould. It is a very > interesting history and critical examination of the whole question of > ranking races/sexes by some linear measure. If you are really in a > hurry, just read the conclusion. The studies that you refer to about > twins are well known as being bogus. (The guy who did them falsified > his results.) The whole idea of IQ as a means of ranking race/sexes > is totally bogus since the variation between individuals completely > blows away the differences between races. That the differences between races/sexes is small compared to the differences between individuals has nothing to do with whether genetic differences are consequential. It is quite possible that intelligence, and the aspects of intelligence, are almost totally genetic, but that racial differentiation has not occurred. As the genetics of the sexes are necessarily almost identical, any non-trivial "inherent" differences here would have to be due to the biochemical and biophysical differences between the sexes, which are clearly non-trivial. A physical anthropologist can usually tell the sex, and very likely the race, from one bone, and certainly from a full skeleton. It is unfortunate that Burt falsified his figures, because the ongoing Minnesota twin study indicates that Burt may have understated the case. -- Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907 Phone: (317)494-6054 hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)