Racial and ethnic group differences in the heritability of intelligence: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Abstract
Via meta-analysis, we examined whether the heritability of intelligence varies across racial or ethnic groups. Specifically, we tested a hypothesis predicting an interaction whereby those racial and ethnic groups living in relatively disadvantaged environments display lower heritability and higher environmentality. The reasoning behind this prediction is that people (or groups of people) raised in poor environments may not be able to realize their full genetic potentials. Our sample (k = 16) comprised 84,897 Whites, 37,160 Blacks, and 17,678 Hispanics residing in the United States. We found that White, Black, and Hispanic heritabilities were consistently moderate to high, and that these heritabilities did not differ across groups. At least in the United States, Race/Ethnicity × Heritability interactions likely do not exist.
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The heritability of intelligence is high and virtually identical in European and African-American populations.
“This difference exists even though the heritability of intelligence is both high and virtually identical in the European and African-American populations [4].”
From Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability (2019) · cites this paper as [4]
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Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability
Lasker, J., Pesta, B. J., Fuerst, J. G. R., & Kirkegaard, E. O. W. (2019) · Psych · doi:10.3390/psych1010034 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“This difference exists even though the heritability of intelligence is both high and virtually identical in the European and African-American populations [4].”
Self-citationWarne, R. T. (2021) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.134.4.0479 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pesta, B. J., Kirkegaard, E. O. W., te Nijenhuis, J., Lasker, J., & Fuerst, J. G. R.
- Affiliations
- Cleveland State University (US)
- University of Ulster (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pesta, Bryan J.
- Venue
- Intelligence
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 78
- Pages
- 101408
- ISSN
- 0160-2896 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2991458744
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 0.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Intelligence (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Keywords
- heritability of intelligence, racial and ethnic differences, environmentality, gene-environment interaction, socioeconomic deprivation, genetic potential
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