The most incorrect truth of all: IQ

When I began my university studies in 1964, our introductory psychology texbooks told us that IQ research had begun late in the 19th century and that in the seven decades since, the reality and importance of IQ had become well established. IQ was in fact regarded as one of the most important contributions to knowledge made by psychology. And one thing that had emerged from those decades of research was that there was a very large gap between the average IQ of blacks and whites -- though it was also pointed out that a few individual blacks were highly intelligent.

Then there came the great political and cultural upheavals of the 60s, which resulted in a huge rise to power of the cultural Left, with their refusal to acknowledge anything that did not suit them. And, like all Leftists since the French revolution, "all men are equal" was their creed.

But if all men are equal so are all races. So the most well-established finding in psychology had to go. And various attempts were made to explain away the black/white IQ gap. If YOU think YOU can explain it away, be sure that lots of others have thought of that idea long ago.

And the criticisms did result in some advances. It was confirmed, for instance, that nutrition could in extreme cases play a small role -- explaining up to 5 points of the 15 point IQ gap. But most of the criticisms were shown to be wrong by further research. The IQ gap is now one of the most scrutinized findings in the whole of psychology and the gap still remains -- no matter what other factors you allow for. Prof. Richard Lynn has recently summarized the findings on the topic in a small book. I did a brief review of the book here.

So the objections to the finding are political, not scientific. Therefore THE FINDING MUST NOT BE MENTIONED. But an economics Professor has recently decided to ignore that:

"An economics professor from Loyola University in New Orleans traveled to Baltimore's Loyola last week to give a lecture, and everybody's been apologizing ever since. Everybody, that is, but the professor, Walter Block, who chalks up the flap to political correctness.

College officials have declined to elaborate on just what Block said. Apparently it was so offensive that they can't even bear to say why they're offended.

He said he'd told the audience that differences in IQ might account for why blacks and women earn about 30 percent less than their white, male counterparts.

Source

The IQ gap between men and women is smaller -- only 4-5 points -- and has only recently been established. It was masked for a long time by the superior performance of women on verbal tasks.