Race and IQ debate - links

William Saletan, a writer for Slate, recently wrote a loud series of articles on genetic racial differences in IQ in the wake of James Watson's controversial remarks. It prompted lots of discussion; here is an excellent response from Richard Nisbett, a leading authority in the field on the environmentalist side of the debate.

More academic articles: Rushton and Jensen's 2005 review of evidence for genetic differences; and what I've found to be the most balanced so far, the 1995 APA report Inteligence: Knowns and Unknowns which concludes for all the heated claims out there, the scientific evidence tends to be pretty weak.

Blog world: Funny title from Brad DeLong; and another Slate response to Saletan and Rushton/Jensen.

The politics of the race and intelligence question is a huge distraction from trying to find out the actual truth of the matter. But I suppose the political implications are why it attracts so much attention -- for good or bad.

The most interesting thing I learned is the Flynn Effect: IQ's as measured by standardized tests have been consistently rising, in all populations throughout the world ever since IQ tests were invented. This implies some sort of non-genetic determiners -- perhaps education and environmental factors -- can have a very large effect on intelligence. Here is a good overview from Ulric Neisser, the lead author on the APA report.