PoliticalCorrectness/TheBellCurve

One of the most controversial books published since Darwin.

"The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray.

See Google: Herrnstein Murray controversy

See also books with "bell curve" in their title on amazon.

The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the Future of America
Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined
Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions
Debunking the Bell Curve & Scientific Racism
Beating the Bell Curve
Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure

Anyone want to summarise it, or say whether they are for or against?

: From Google, it appears to be:

The IQ results fit a bell curve, more or less.
Success in various ways fits bellcurves
There is a strong correlation
Various different social or racial groups in America appear to have different positions on these curves. In general.

Does that summarise it?
To all except the last point, I'd say "Well, DUH!" and to the last point I'd say "Can I see your evidence and how you define a racial group? Because that seems quite unlikely."
Then again, I remmeber that IQ tests are horribly flawed and very biased towards certain social norms (the language portions are especially bad) and also wonder whether it measures active intelligence, or potential intelligence. You might assume that there is a causal link between being successful and having the opportunity of good teaching etc. --Vitenka

: On what grounds does it seem unlikely? Bear in mind that adult IQ is directly affected by malnutrition during pregnancy and childhood. To state that all groups in a society have an equal average IQ is to claim that all groups are equally likely to suffer malnutrition irrespective of that group's average income. --DR

CategoryScience CategoryControversy?