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Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability.
Abstract
The culture-only (0 % genetic–100 % environmental) and the hereditarian (50% genetic–50 % environmental) models of the causes of mean Black–White differences in cognitive ability are compared and contrasted across 10 categories of evidence: the worldwide distribution of test scores, g factor of mental ability, heritability, brain size and cognitive ability, transracial adoption, racial admixture, regression, related life-history traits, human origins research, and hypothesized environmental variables. The new evidence reviewed here points to some genetic component in Black–White differences in mean IQ. The implication for public policy is that the discrimination model (i.e., Black–White differences in socially valued outcomes will be equal barring discrimination) must be tempered by a distributional model (i.e., Black–White outcomes reflect underlying group characteristics). Section 1: Background Throughout the history of psychology, no question has been so persistent or so resistant to resolution as that of the relative roles of nature and nurture in causing individual and group differences in cognitive ability (Degler, 1991;
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In the citing paper
“This estimate of between-group heritability is consistent with Rushton and Jensen's [9] hereditarian model, according to which 50%-80% of the African-/European-American cognitive difference is due to genetic differences.”
From Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“However, the above-average mean IQ of even severely malnourished East Asian infants adopted into White European homes is more consistent with those infants having a genetic than a cultural advantage over their White European peers.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Rushton and Jensen's (2005) hereditarian hypothesis is that Black-White differences in general intelligence (IQ, or the general mental ability factor, g ) are 'substantially' genetic in origin, which they quantify as 50% genetic and 50% environmental.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“By undermining culture-only explanations of racial inequality, the 'provisional truth' of Rushton and Jensen's (2005) hereditarian hypothesis thereby undermines the moral legitimacy of all rationales for racial equalization that posit White misbehavior as its cause.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“The following major facts from Rushton and Jensen's (2005) Sections 3-6 and 10-12 have been replicated many times, and all with independent sources of data. All are consistent with hereditarian theory but contradict culture-only theory:”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“So far, the three-way race pattern for IQ/ g differences has been replicated with reaction/inspection time and brain size, both of which are highly heritable and correlated with g , as well as with a large collection of purely physical attributes (e.g., twinning).”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Evidence contradicting the culture-only theory's prediction that group differences in cognitive ability should, in essence, track group differences in identifiable cultural practices and socioeconomic advantage (Section 12).”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“The most g -loaded tests predict school and job performance best, and they predict performance equally well for Blacks and Whites in both the United States and South Africa.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Natural variation in environments likewise fails to alter the common developmental processes by which abilities are assembled in different races.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Rushton and Jensen (2005) make no recommendations for specific policies and correctly argue that the hereditarian hypothesis implies none in particular.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Worldwide Black-White-East Asian differences in IQ (Section 3), reaction time (Section 4), and brain size, with Whites having the intermediate scores (Section 6);”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“As the studies of malnourished East Asian adoptees illustrate, extreme deprivation of the sort that humans have always had to contend with (e.g., starvation, infectious disease) seldom permanently impairs cognitive ability to any substantial degree once conditions are rectified.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“The most direct individual tests of genetic versus environmental effects on mental ability-transracial adoption (Section 7), racial admixture (Section 8), and behavior genetic modeling of mean group differences (Section 5)-have either been uncommon or fraught with ambiguity.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Small (.2) and moderate (.4) correlations of IQ, respectively, with skull size and in vivo brain volume (Section 6);”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“In summary, Rushton and Jensen (2005) have presented a compelling case that their 50%-50% hereditarian hypothesis is more plausible than the cultureonly hypothesis.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Worldwide Black-White-East Asian mean differences in a large suite of biological variables (e.g., twinning, gestation time, sex ratio at birth) and social variables (e.g., law abidingness, marital stability), with the three races always in the same rank order (Section 10);”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“As Rushton and Jensen (2005) suggest, g theory can predict fairly accurately how large the racial disparities in achievement will be in different settings, depending on their demands for g and the IQ distributions of the groups involved.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“This commonality in cognitive architecture is indicated, for instance, by cross-race identity of g factors and input-output achievement covariance matrices (Section 5). This commonality also contradicts predictions that different cultures create different intelligences.”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“A genetic divergence (quantitative, not qualitative) of world population (i.e., racial) groups during evolution (Section 11); and”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“The g factor is highly heritable within races and also has replicated metabolic, electrical, and structural correlates in the brain, most of them also known to be heritable (these studies are mostly with Whites).”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“The rising heritability of IQ with age (within races) and the virtual disappearance by adolescence of any shared environmental effects on IQ (e.g., parental income, education, child-rearing practices; Section 5);”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“A moderately high correlation (usually .6-.7) of different IQ subtests' g loadings, not only with the magnitude of Black-White-East Asian mean differences on those subtests (Section 6) but also with measures of those subtests' rootedness in biological and genetic processes (e.g., heritability; Section 4);”
From What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true? (2005) · cites this paper as Rushton & Jensen, 2005
In the citing paper
“Our findings are also inconsistent with the hypothesis discussed in some prior work (e.g., Rushton and Jensen 2005) that racial disparities may be due to differences in cognitive ability, as there is no biological reason that racial differences in cognitive ability would vary by gender.”
From Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: an Intergenerational Perspective* (2020) · cites this paper as Rushton and Jensen 2005
In the citing paper
“First, the prior literature suggests no ex ante biological reason that racial differences in cognitive ability would vary by gender (Rushton and Jensen 2005).”
From Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: an Intergenerational Perspective* (2020) · cites this paper as Rushton and Jensen 2005
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Cited by
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Intelligence: New findings and theoretical developments
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Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: an Intergenerational Perspective*
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Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Venue
- Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
- Published
- 2005-06
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 235-294
- ISSN
- 1076-8971 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1528
- OpenAlex
- W2110295154
- Cited by
- 457
- References
- 255
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 35
- FWCI
- 33.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2006-07-10)
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology Public Policy and Law (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Race, Genetics, and Society
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Keywords
- heritability of intelligence, transracial adoption, racial mixing, brain size and intelligence, general intelligence, human origins, nature versus nurture, discrimination model, distributional models, public policy
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