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From: pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men,soc.women
Subject: Re: Rape: a genetic catastrophe
Message-ID: <4165@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 5 Feb 88 17:18:08 GMT
References: <517@gtx.com> <5129@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <2201@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1966@bsu-cs.UUCP> <373@rruxa.UUCP> <4090@sigi.Colorado.ED <427@iitmax.UUCP>
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Reply-To: pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
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In article <427@iitmax.UUCP> draughn@iitmax.UUCP (Mark T. Draughn) writes:
>In article <4090@sigi.Colorado.EDU> pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier) writes:
>>Yes, knowlege can be missused.  It is potentially true that Asian Americans
>>could missuse the fact that they have higher I.Q.s than whites on average.
>>They could use this to foster "all whites are genetically inferior" views
>>and oppress whites.  Other groups (mostly "whites") have missused similar
>>information before.  But, that the Asian-American population could missuse
>>the facts does not make them false.
>
>Uh, well, actually...
>
>The problem with studies that show racial group differences in I.Q. is not
>a flaw in the tests, but a flaw in the theory behind them.  Just because
>they are called "Intelligence" tests doesn't mean they really test anything
>that may be called intelligence.  So someone is good at analogies and
>Mark Draughn				UUCP: ...ihnp4!iitmax!draughn
>Computer Science Department		BITNET: SYSMARK@IITVAX

I never meant to imply that it would be a proper use of the test score or that
the test score reflected much of anything worthwhile.  Thanks for making that
point more clear.
My main point is still the same.  There are good data that
show causal relationships between genotype and personality traits (I hate
to have to insert disclamers all over the place, but I don't mean to imply that
environment has no effect.  As I said in my last posting, the study to which I
refered was conducted on the Amish in part for that reason).
We are going to have to face the fact that alot of what we are is heritable.
At least on form of manic depression has been added to the list of genetic
diseases (there is another, less well-done study linking another form of
bipolar disorder to the X chromosome--reference on request).
Saying "i don't want it discussed because if it is true it can be misused"
is no way to deal with it.
We need to understand the cause of a problem before we can address it well.

-tony