Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to THE BELL CURVE (Silver Burdett Professional Publications) [Hardcover]

Bernie Devlin (Editor), Daniel P. Resnick (Editor), Stephen E. Fienberg (Editor), Kathryn Roeder (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387982345 | ISBN-13: 978-0387982342 | Publication Date: August 7, 1997 | Edition: 1

This is author-approved bcc. If it is too long, delete the last sentence in each of the biographies. THE BELL CURVE by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, a best selling book published in 1994, set off a hailstorm of controversy about the relationships among IQ, genetics, and various social outcomes, including welfare dependency, crime, and earnings. Much of the public reaction to the book was polemical and did not focus on the details of the science and in particular on the validity of the statistical arguments that underlie the books's conclusions. A detailed understanding of the arguments in THE BELL CURVE requires knowledge about (i) statistical models for genetic heritability, (ii) factor analysis, especially as it has been applied to the analysis of IQ tests, (iii) logistic regression and multiple regression analyses,and (iv) causal modelling and alternative statistical frameworks for making inference from longitudinal data. In this volume a group of statisticians and social scientists have assembled a scientific response to THE BELL CURVE. The sixteen chapters begin by presenting an overview of the scientific and statistical issues and summarize the material in Herrnstein and Murray's book. Then separate chapters by various experts deal with more focused issues, including reanalyses of data relied upon by the authors of THE BELL CURVE. The final chapters consider some of the implications of the work described in the book for American public policy and scientific research. BERNIE DEVLIN is Program Director of the Computational Genetics Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He serves on

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bernie Devlin is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Statistics at Carnegie-Mellon University. He serves on the DNA Advisory Board to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director regarding standards for forensic DNA testing laboratories, and the National Forensic Review Panel for the National Institute of Justice regarding the performance of proficiency tests.

Stephen E. Fienberg is Maurice Falk Professor of Statistics and Social Science at Carnegie-Mellon University and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Statistical Association.

Daniel P. Resnick is Professor of History at Carnegie-Mellon University. His research deals with the relationship of historical thinking and experience to public policy development.

Kathryn Roeder is Associate Professor of Statistics, Carnegie-Mellon University. She has a strong research interest in applied problems including statistical genetics, DNA forensic inference and criminology. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387982345
• ISBN-13: 978-0387982342
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,879,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book even though it is highly left-biased, January 2, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Pleasant Hill, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to THE BELL CURVE (Statistics for Social Science and Public Policy) (Paperback)

This book has 25 scientific contributors, ostensibly to answer for the Carnegie Commission Task Force on Early Primary Education the question whether the publication of The Bell Curve in 1994 had any scientific merit. This book takes a look at the dataset and reanalyzes much of what Herrnstein and Murry had looked at.

Though it brings more perspectives on the subject, and takes issue with much of what TBC concluded, it does vindicate that TBC is now a serious beginning look at intelligence, genetics, and its impact on the nation. This book says, as so many other researchers have contended, "The Bell Curve is a serious book and is not to be ignored."

However, when reading the book, which I recommend for anyone that is very familiar with the subject, remember that of the 25 contributors, only John B. Carroll was also a signatory to "Mainstream Science on Intelligence: 52 scientists respond to The Bell Curve (12/13/1994) in the Wall Street Journal." This book is put together primarily by left-leaning academics. To balance its message, I would strongly recommend reading Arthur Jensen's book The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability. So again, read this book but keep in mind it is highly biased.

67 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A second reading and a second review., January 19, 2001

By 

Matt Nuenke http://eugenics.home.att.net (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to THE BELL CURVE (Statistics for Social Science and Public Policy) (Paperback)

This book was written as a response to the 1994 book "The Bell Curve" by Herrnstein and Murray. But unlike several other books that condemned TBC without any empirical data, this book actually does expand the issue of racial differences intelligence and is well worth reading by any one interested in this ongoing debate. At least in this book, while still motivated by an egalitarian goal to deny racial differences in intelligence, the authors do give TBC credit for being essentially a very sound book empirically, while picking away at some of the issues at its periphery. But as they do this, they also make many fundamental errors and omissions. This is to be expected however because TBC is very hard to refute on empirical grounds alone.

As an example, the authors take TBC to task for using heritability in the broad sense rather in the narrow sense like breeders do, which reduces the heritability between races supposedly by about 20% or so. The problem is, as shown by Jensen in "The g Factor", heritability in the broad sense should be used in comparing group averages, while heritability in the narrow sense should be used in predicting the expected intelligence of one's children. TBC was not a book on how to have smart kids or breeding cows for higher butter fat production. So the argument was a feeble attempt at obfuscation.

Later in the book they admit that Blacks almost make as much money as Whites when wages are adjusted for the average difference in intelligence between the two groups. But they go on to say that "almost" is not good enough. The error here of course, as even they argue in this book, is that earnings are not just a matter of intelligence. It is the most important trait with regards to wages, but other traits are also important. Research has shown that conscientiousness is the second most important behavioral trait after intelligence in occupational success, and one would have to assume that conscientiousness would vary among racial groups as easily as intelligence due to evolutionary forces on selection under different ecological conditions. And Rushton has shown that many behavioral differences exist between Whites and Blacks on average, including conscientiousness.

So this book is a mixed bag on not denying that there are differences in the average intelligence between Blacks and Whites while trying at the same time to ameliorate the damage that recent research has produced showing that the differences are in fact real and persistent. But the funding for this book was such that the authors had no choice but to use some very fancy footwork to dance around the primary issue and try to diffuse its impact with regards to education and equality. Politics always comes into play, depending on who is paying the piper.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good Book but not for the casual readers, August 10, 2005

By 

J. CHANG - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to THE BELL CURVE (Statistics for Social Science and Public Policy) (Paperback)

This book is heavy stuff. It was written in a style similar to articles published in scientific journals. The opinions and views are drawn based on science and prior studies with thorough references. This book is not for the casual reader who is interested in the topic, but only wants to spend a few hours on it and hopes to walk away with a clearly understanding of the facts or the views of the experts.