The Inequality Taboo by Charles Murray

commentary ^ | September 2005 | Charles Murray

[garbanzo]

I shift from “innate” to “intractable” to acknowledge how complex is the interaction of genes, their expression in behavior, and the environment. “Intractable” means that, whatever the precise partitioning of causation may be (we seldom know), policy interventions can only tweak the difference at the margins.

While I tend to think of IQ as respectable pseudoscience, I think this point is essentially correct. For example, why have women reached parity in fields like medicine and law, but not science?

[Fzob]

ping

[PatrickHenry]

a

"Durned Good Article, if you don't like it you're a retard!" Ping List

[LS]

I read "BC" years ago and the one study that I could not get out of my mind involved sets of identical twins, blacks and whites, raised in different households, one rich (or better off), one poor. In each case the black-white differences remained, and the ratios between them remained. Until there is some scientific evidence that this is flawed, Houston, we have a problem.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for posting...he has cojones, eh?

One thing I would like to add: while group differences in traits, abilities and behaviors are good for predicting same in groups, they cannot be used to predict these factors in individuals based on their belonging to groups. Individuals go against type all the time, it's just that they're not in the majority within their group for the against-type trait they exhibit.

[Jim Noble]

Excellent catch!

A simple platform flows from the article: Stop the lying.

Maybe something will come of this.

[Crawdad]

I just finished "In the Name of Eugenics" this week. An interesting book.

[Popman]

Thanks, great article

[js1138]

Until you provide us with a citation, and explain just what those genetic differences are, then Houston, we have a bigot.

[longshadow]

Durned good, indeed.

I have Murray's "In Search of Happiness and Good Government" -- is ability to objectively analyze complex issues is stunning.

[Junior]

Americans did these things despite government. Indeed, for the first century and a half of this nation's history, it was effectively a libertarian state.

[Pharmboy]

Here's some evidence for ya

[Pharmboy]

Here's more

[PatrickHenry]

I have Murray's "In Search of Happiness and Good Government" -- is ability to objectively analyze complex issues is stunning.

Check this out: Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray.

[Shawndell Green]

"they cannot be used to predict these factors in individuals based on their belonging to groups."

Sure they can. While there may be the odd grandmother who can outrun the odd teenage track team member, one is pretty safe in playing the odds.

[Shawndell Green]

"why have women reached parity in fields like medicine and law, but not science?"

Women's general superiority in verbal ability is mentioned in the article and verbal ability and manipulating emotions is important in law.

High grades are a very important factor in getting into medical school. As noted in the article, women get better grades than their test scores would predict. I think that is because women are more willing to do required busywork than are men of similar ability. To graduate from medical school and become a doctor takes lots of grinding work and women are, in general, more willing to work hard and steady, while men tend to work more in fits and starts.
Also, medical schools have practiced affirmative action in order to increase the number of women in medical school. Graduate schools of science are also using affirmative action to get more women advanced science degrees, but not enough women are interested in applying to science schools to attain parity.

Medicine has a nurturing and interpersonal element that appeals to women. Science deals with abstractions that do not have an emotional appeal to women. Men look at working in a field in which they do not have to have much interaction with other people, (read idiots) as being a good thing.

[Shawndell Green]

"Houston, we have a problem."

Not really. The only problem we have is dealing with reality. As mentioned in the article, people of all races and both sexes can be found across the continuum. The fact that we are never going to have equality of outcome for each and every subgroup without a police state is a problem the liberals have to deal with.

[forsnax5]

While there may be the odd grandmother who can outrun the odd teenage track team member, one is pretty safe in playing the odds.

The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet. ~Damon Runyon

[RATkiller]

Bookmark

[LS]

I gave you the citation: Murray and Hernnstein cite extensive studies of fraternal twins of different races, where one was raised in a (say) rich white household and one in a poor white household; and blacks where one was raised in a rich black household and one in a poor household. The ratio between the richer/poorer twins stayed about the same in each race, but the IQ difference between blacks and whites---either "richer-raised" or "poorer-raised" stayed the same. That ain't bigotry. That's science that someone better explain, and not brush under a rug.