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Richard E. Nisbett

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count Hardcover – February 2, 2009

by Richard E. Nisbett (Author)

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A bold refutation of the belief that genes determine intelligence.

Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for racial differences in test scores? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in music? Will math and science remain a largely male preserve. From the damning research of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson's statements, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture. In the tradition of The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, world-class social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as something that is biologically determined and impervious to culture--with vast implications for the role of education as it relates to social and economic development. Intelligence and How to Get It asserts that intellect is not primarily genetic but is principally determined by societal influences. Nisbett's commanding argument, superb marshaling of evidence, and fearless discussions of the controversial carve out new and exciting terrain in this hotly debated field.

Print length

282 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

February 2, 2009
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0393065057
ISBN-13

978-0393065053
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whether intelligence is largely determined by genetics or environment has long been hotly contested. Nisbett, a University of Michigan psychology professor, weighs in forcefully and articulately, claiming that environmental conditions almost completely overwhelm the impact of genes. He comes to this conclusion through a careful statistical analysis of a large number of studies and also demonstrates how environment can influence not only IQ measures but actual achievement of both students and adults. (People often overachieve when appropriate incentives are in place, Nisbett argues.) Nisbett builds a very strong case that measured IQ differences across racial, cultural and socioeconomic boundaries can easily be explained without resorting to hereditary factors. The result is a very positive message: schools, parents and government programs can have a huge impact if they take the right, which are not necessarily the most expensive, steps. Without those steps, he says, the current role of socioeconomic factors is frightening, with economically disadvantaged children largely condemned to failure. Although Nisbett relies heavily on statistics to document his claims, he does so in a manner accessible to general readers and uses a thoroughly appealing style to engage them throughout. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

[Nisbett's] biggest message, largely unspoken, is one of persistence and hope. If all kids are capable of learning under the right circumstances, parents and teachers should never give up on children who appear to be low performers. Everyone has the inherent ability to be smart. -- Dinesh Ramde

Richard E. Nisbett, a prominent cognitive psychologist who teaches at the University of Michigan, doesn't shirk the hard work....he offers a meticulous and eye-opening critique of hereditarianism...its real value lies in Nisbett s forceful marshaling of the evidence, much of it recent, favoring what he calls the new environmentalism, which stresses the importance of nonhereditary factors in determining I.Q. (New York Times Book Review, Jim Holt) "

A devastating and persuasive refutation of all those who believe intellectual ability is fixed at birth. Few Americans have done as much to deepen our understanding of what it means to be human. (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink) "

If intelligence were deeply encoded in our genes, that would lead to the depressing conclusion that neither schooling nor antipoverty programs can accomplish much. Yet while this view of I.Q. as overwhelmingly inherited has been widely held, the evidence is growing that it is, at a practical level, profoundly wrong. Richard Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has just demolished this view in a superb new book, Intelligence and How to Get It, which also offers terrific advice for addressing poverty and inequality in America.... Offers terrific advice for addressing poverty.... [and] provides suggestions for transforming your own urchins into geniuses. (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times) "

[Nisbett s] biggest message, largely unspoken, is one of persistence and hope. If all kids are capable of learning under the right circumstances, parents and teachers should never give up on children who appear to be low performers. Everyone has the inherent ability to be smart. (Associated Press, Dinesh Ramde)"

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (February 2, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 282 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393065057
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393065053
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,338,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #276 in Developmental Biology (Books)
- #2,333 in Education Assessment (Books)
- #2,543 in Human Geography (Books)

Customer Reviews:
57 ratings

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Richard E. Nisbett

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Richard E. Nisbett is Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Michigan and one of the world's most respected psychologists. He received the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from the American Psychological Association and many other national and international awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently . . . and Why and Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count have won multiple awards and have been translated into many languages. Most recently, he published Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking and Thinking: A Memoir.

"The most influential thinker, in my life, has been the psychologist Richard Nisbett. He basically gave me my view of the world."

Malcolm Gladwell, The New York Times Book Review

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Coert Visser

Intelligence is getable

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2009

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Did you read the 1996 book Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) and did it make you feel uneasy because you did not (want to) agree with its conclusions but did not exactly know how to refute them? Among its conclusions were (loosely formulated)

1) that intelligence is highly important in many areas of life,
2) that differences in intelligence are largely responsible for societal stratification,
3) that differences in intelligence are largely heritable, and
4) that intelligence gaps between (racial) groups are hard to close (if that is possible at all).

If you felt (feel) uneasy about these conclusions read this book by psychologist Dick Nisbett. You will probably like this book because it will provide answers to your questions. Not in a vague way but in a very specific, well reasoned and research based way. Here are some conclusions from the book:

1) There is no fixed value for the heritability of intelligence. If the environment is very favorable to the growth of development of intelligence, the heritability of intelligence is fairly high (maybe up to 70%. If however the environment is highly variable -differing greatly between individual families- then the environment is going play the major role in differences in intelligences between individuals (as is the case with the poor).

2) Aside from the degree to which heritability is important for one group or another in the population, heritable places no limits whatsoever on modifiability -for anybody,

3) Intelligence is developable and schools can make children smarter, for instance by using computer-assisted teaching and certain types of cooperative learning. 3) Genes play no role at all in race differences in IQ, environment differences do.

4) Believing that intelligence is under your control is a great start of developing intelligence,

5) Certain habits and values in cultures can be highly beneficial for learning and developing intelligence,

6) Parents can do a lot to increase the intelligence and academic achievement of children (both biological and didactic factors matter.

This book is great. [...]Let's hope it will inspire many parents, educators, policymakers and scientists. It just might ...

14 people found this helpful

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Tom K.

A good Rebuttal to Hereditariansm

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2019

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The science of racists is a patchwork of backward psychology and selective rationality. This is a good rebuttal to their bad ideas.

4 people found this helpful

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Boris Yakubchik

Great read for students and parents!

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2014

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It's a really good book that has science-based advice about how to become more intelligent; an excellent discussion about what it means to be intelligent.

The author is one of the best researchers out there! I highly recommend his other books. His research-articles are fantastic also, though are meant for an academic audience.

4 people found this helpful

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Biz Person

It's not hard work to see that hard work matters

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2009

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I bought this book based one some gushing reviews and hoping it might do some good for my parenting skills. The main thrust of the book is to dissect the question of whether IQ is a useful test, and if so, whether it comes from your genes or your environment. The author piles on a mountain of evidence that while genes matter, the environment matters at least as much. If you are willing to buy that proposition at the start, then you can skip five of the first 6 chapters without serious loss. In fact the Epilogue nicely summarizes all of this information in just a few pages, so you should just read that first. The most interesting section of these chapters analyzes how certain types of analytical intelligence have actually been improving for the general population over the past few decades due to increased levels of schooling and earlier teaching of symbolic reasoning.

Chapter 4 talks about school as an environment and the main actionable comment is don't let your kid have a rookie teacher.

Chapter 7 talks about how poverty conditions greatly hurt IQ and this information will be quite important for people with a policy interest.

One of the main points of Chapters 4 and 7 is that certain computer-based programs are highly effective at improving IQ for a fairly low price.

Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the disproportionate success of Asian-American and Jewish people. Chapter 8 declares that Asians have normal IQ scores, but they work so hard that they effectively add (e.g. 15 points of) IQ and that makes a huge difference. There is a discussion of differences in Asian and American thinking styles that concludes Asians make good engineers and Americans make good scientists.

Chapter 9 says that Ashkenazi Jewish people *might* actually have a small genetic advantage due to brain anatomy but there is not enough evidence to prove that for sure; Nisbett asserts that, like Asian households, Jewish households emphasize hard work on studying, and this is probably an important reason for their relative success.

Far from endorsing any particular culture or race, Nesbitt points out that there were moments in history when many different cultures - Ancient Arabs, Spanish people, English people, Chinese scholars, etc. - became the most prolific in the world at intellectual achievement. This adds fuel to his point that culture matters.

Overall, Nisbett makes a powerful argument that HARD WORK significantly affects intelligence and that culture, family, schooling and other environmental factors greatly affect hard work and thus can determine intelligence. Therefore, he feels we should not give up any group, because enough of intelligence (or at least +/- 15 points of IQ plus a bunch of inangibles like self-discipline and practical intelligence) is determined by our environment that how we treat people will make a substantial difference in their ultimate success.

Chapter 10 finally gets to parenting and what you can do to improve the intelligence of your child, which comes down to: praising their hard work! Plus a bunch of minor suggestions, which you can read for yourself.

If you have read Malcom Gladwell's Outliers recently as I did (also on my Kindle!), the framework here is completely consistent with his idea: working longer and harder than average is essential to being more successful than average.

If you have not read Outiers yet, then go read it as it is a lot more fun than this book. If you have read Outliers but worried that it lacked academic rigor, then this book should interest you greatly. And if you think that people are either born smart or not, then this book will convince you that how you treat kids will still make a big difference to their future success.

145 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

One of the most important books of our time.

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2014

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Every parent should read this book - it's not just about getting more IQ points, but it gives important ideas on how to improve your child's thinking as well as your own. It is easy to understand,

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Top reviews from other countries

Daniel Roberts

after you read this book and someone calls you dumb, you can recite the 5 main principles of ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2016

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interesting and complicated view on what intelligence is.
after you read this book and someone calls you dumb, you can recite the 5 main principles of what defines intelligence and nerd the crap out of them.

One person found this helpful

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