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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca!mroussel
From: mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel)
Subject: Re: Who is smarter?
Message-ID: <1991Feb21.045709.1294@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
Summary: Rushton's work is garbage.
Keywords: Rushton
Organization: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto
References: <1991Feb20.203306.1463@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 1991 04:57:09 GMT

In article <1991Feb20.203306.1463@sbcs.sunysb.edu> srwilson@csws13.ic.sunysb.edu (Steve Wilson) writes:
>Recently on the newsgroup, soc.culture.japan, there has been a buzzing
>about an aparent study that was conducted to find out which race is
>physically smarter due to the structure of the nervous system, etc...

     You are no doubt referring to the "work" of Philip Rushton, a professor
at the University of Western Ontario.  Rushton's "study" is methodologically
flawed.  His so-called research has been repudiated by just about every
researcher in the field (other than his fellow racists, of course).
     From time to time, someone tries to prove that some race or other
is superior.  Since there is no satisfactory definition of what
constitutes superiority (especially in the area of intellectual ability),
such studies are a worthless waste of time at best.  At worst, they are little
more than politically motivated propaganda disguising as research.
Rushton's work falls in the latter category.  (If anyone is interested
in seeing Rushton's research pulled apart, they have but to examine
Canadian newspapers from about a year ago.  His research is sufficiently
ridiculous that I see no need to annoy everyone with its idiotic
details.)

                                Sincerely,

				Marc R. Roussel
                                mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca


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