BOOK REVIEWS

same rules that it manifests elsewhere, working its magic by way of the genotype, Willow, titwillow, titwillow! not the phenotype. Unless we are all to Steve Blinkhorn turn suddenly Lamarckian, there is no reason to suppose that each generation will not continue to produce a good pro­ The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. By Richard J. portion of its most able individuals from Herrnstein and Charles Murray. The Free Press: 1994. Pp. 845. $30, £25. less able parents, or that able, high­ Measuring the Mind: Educational Psychology in England, c. 1860-1990. By Adrian achieving parents will not continue to find Wooldridge. Cambridge University Press: 1994. Pp. 448.£45, $69.95. some of their offspring a disappointment Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective. By J. Philippe Rushton. in the intellectual stakes. Transaction: 1994. Pp. 334. $34.95. Herrnstein and Murray do devote a whole page to this argument, which they 'Is it weakness of intellect, birdie?' I cried, elite that is its clearest symptom. Leonard tackle under the rubric of regression to 'Or a rather tough wonn in your little inside?' Darwin's The Need for Eugenic Reform the mean. Regression to the mean, they With a shake of his poor little head he replied, comes to mind as belonging to the same explain, is a statistical phenomenon, not a 'Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!' intellectual blood line, along with the biological phenomenon. The IQs of chil­ W S. Gilbert, The Mikado (1885) rather less restrained writings of Ray­ dren regress, on average, to the mean of WATCH out for the bandwagon, hold tight mond Cattell in the 1930s, although it has the group to which they belong. Groups to for a bumpy ride and take a long spoon to be said that Herrnstein and Murray which such children may belong include with you. Intelligence testing is Blacks, Whites and Latinos. making a bid for intellectual .. ~.... - Where, we may ask, do such respectability again, and the com­ groups come from? Are they pany is mixed. The Bell Cu11Je has merely statistical groups exhibiting been heralded by an efficient pub­ statistical phenomena? Then let us lic relations campaign that has define them out of existence, for to cheerfully misrepresented its do otherwise is to assume their object, to the extent that I found it importance. Are they biological a much better book than I had groups exhibiting biological phe­ been led to expect. Give a book a nomena? Then the regression is bad name and perhaps sales will real. Or are they groups defined on soar. Its thesis is twofold: Ameri­ a complex biological and social his­ can society has developed in such a tory, distilled into categories for way that a self-perpetuating intel­ the convenience of social statisti­ lectual elite now dominates certain cians? Then we must take account occupations, threatening social of their origins in considering the cohesion and throwing the lot of measures we use. the less favoured into sharp relief; In fact the groups Herrnstein the driving force behind this strati­ and Murray should be interested fication is none other than intelli­ in, given their primary thesis, are gence as conceived in traditional the cohort of the most able, con­ IQ terms. The first part of the sidered with respect to their thesis is, in fact, independent of origins, and the children of the the second, but each reinforces the most able considered with respect flaws of the other. to their destinations in society. I It is worth saying at the outset do not doubt for a moment that that this is no red-necked rant, black Americans now have pro­ although no doubt the red-necked portionately fewer high-achieving ranters of the world will think it a Pieter Camper's 1792 study of racial types. Taken from offspring than white Americans, godsend. The Bell Cu11Je assembles Nature's Body: Sexual Politics and the Making of Modern but they have some and there is evidence that educational institu- Science by Londa Schiebinger (Pandora, £15.99). every reason to suppose that their tions and certain occupations have in the present a better argued and better docu­ achievements are as real as the whites'. space of living memory become more mented case. There is a history of a narrowing of the selective and more specialized in the The case is, nonetheless, fundamentally gap between mean black and white IQs in range of people recruited, and that IQ, and irredeemably flawed. The more con­ North America, not perhaps a smooth rather than socioeconomic status for vinced you are of the hereditarian position history, but I know of no reason in princi­ instance, is the variable that captures this with regard to IQ, of the genetic basis of ple why it should not continue. shift. The effect of this change has been to individual psychological differences and of So far I have played Herrnstein and introduce an unprecedented degree of the virtues of intelligence tests as revealing Murray's game of alluding in an undiffer­ segregation - physical, social and intel­ underlying native differences in cognitive entiated sort of way to IQ. This goes very lectual -into American society. The evi­ capacity, the less credence you will give to much against the grain. So long as they dence is presented in a rather cool and the notion that a self-perpetuating cogni­ are concerned to identify in broad terms unspectacular form, neatly documented tive elite has emerged in society. And the what drives the social segregation they with multivariate statistical analyses of a more convinced you are that a self-perpet­ believe they have identified, it is tolerable conventional kind reduced to a clear and uating cognitive elite has emerged, the less enough. But when they switch horses and comprehensible graphical format. credence you will give to the hereditarian start interpreting more detailed research So the Something Must Be Done position with regard to IQ. on intelligence into social mechanisms school of social pessimism has acquired a For if heredity plays a large part in the and finding reasons why research con­ new sourcebook containing a litany of determination of intelligence, then one ducted with other ends in view should be woes to be addressed by the very cognitive expects it to operate according to the taken as having implications for the order- NATURE · VOL 372 · 1 DECEMBER 1994 417 BOOK REVIEWS

ing of society, it is time to call a halt. A pacity through no fault of their own, and This is the first book by an outsider that I quick canter around the varieties of there is little point in trying to raise the have read that captures the flavour and theory underpinning the notion of intelli­ IQs of weaker brethren. As a professional the dynamics of the arguments between gence is to be found in the introduction, psychometrician, I find this suggestion traditionalists and radicals in the shaping but it does not inform the book proper. extraordinarily myopic: biology not just as of educational theory and practice, the For instance, scholastic aptitude test destiny but as doom. Intelligence exists influence of psychological thinking in (SAT) scores are not IQs, although they only in its expressions, and these expres­ turning the focus onto the child and its correlate well with IQs in homogeneous sions are conditioned by many things. needs, and the political decisions that populations. The distinction between We, and by that I mean you as part of shaped the education of generations. mental tests and scholastic tests was made any proposed cognitive elite, live in a built Wooldridge has succeeded in entering clearly and firmly in the first quarter of intellectual environment as surely as in a the minds of his dramatis personae and this century by Cyril Burt, and was the built physical environment. The symbols, exploring their activities in the proper his­ focus of his campaigns for reform in the metaphors and systems of relations that torical context. That this should seem sur­ constitute that environment con­ prising is a reflection mostly on the dition the way we think about abysmal grasp of what was going on on the intelligence. When 'environment' part of other authors with an axe to grind. is contrasted with 'heredity' it is Failure to appreciate the context, origins too easy to suppose that all it and purposes of the mental-measurement means is modern home comforts, movement between, say, 1900 and 1940 in decent nutrition and a reasonable Great Britain is at the root of a great deal number of years of schooling. But of nonsense, including some of the non­ environment also has to cover sense in The Bell Cu!Ve. induction into the world of the Those who view IQ testing, selection in dominant culture and access to its education and differentiation of educa­ ways. There is no way of building tional provision as essentially right-wing an intelligence test without mak­ pro-Establishment measures are in for a ing assumptions as to what is rude shock. The eleven-plus examination common culture in the target taken by children in England and Wales at populations, and all tests access the age of ten or eleven for selection of intelligence by way of acquired suitable candidates for grammar schools skills. The only reason people are was one of the most important engines of inclined to attribute the position social mobility - introduced as it was in of American blacks to race rather the aftermath of a war which itself helped than to generations of relative dismantle class barriers - and opened a deprivation is that racial identity door of opportunity for many. At the very is worn on the face, not under lay­ least it demonstrated that reserves of real ers of clothing. ability were to be found among the poor, To quote an earlier author: "To the ill-educated and the deprived. "Europe Supported by Africa and America" by hereditary differences of race, sex How well that lesson has been learned Blake, an allegory of colonial relations from and social class I have no space to is open to doubt. Access to better-quality Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition allude. The main conclusion that schools in the state sector is rationed by against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796). Taken from Nature's Body (see p. 417). The US can be drawn from experimental house prices and catchment areas, and edition was reviewed in Nature 366, 387 (1993). work is, I think, the following: access to higher education, although innate group-differences exist; wider, comes with a price tag that English educational system. but they are small. Training and tradition squeezes the not-quite-poor. This is the In fact Herrnstein and Murray kidnap account for the more conspicuous. The real bell-curve nightmare: the stemming Spearman's notion ofg and merrily ignore inborn mental differences between class of recruitment of the able offspring of the the care with which he sought to define and class, between nation and nation, and less well-off into the upper reaches of its nature. They take g to be the general between women and men, taken on the education and business. factor, or the first unrotated principal average and in the gross, are swamped by Of course, the eleven-plus selection component, of any collection of tests that the far wider differences among the indi­ scheme was fairly seriously flawed, not happen to be used in the studies they draw vidual members that make up any single least in that some education authorities on. At other times, particular tests are group." So wrote Burt in 1923 in his presi­ placed the cut-off for grammar-school taken as markers for g regardless of dential address to the psychology section entry to match the availability of places, whether they have been shown to be so in of the British Association for the with results that would be comical if they the groups under investigation. But how­ Advancement of Science. were not so deplorably short-sighted when ever well they may correlate, and often Burt and his influence on English provision for the sexes was separate and they correlate very highly, they are not educational policy hold centre stage in unequal. Any system of cut-offs applied in identical and to treat them as identical Measuring the Mind, a gem of a book that the upper mid-range of a distribution is begs the question. ought to be required reading for all those likely to misallocate some significant pro­ To the casual reader, if any book with who pontificate on his work, on the rise of portion of individuals, given the imperfect more than 800 pages ever gets casual the IQ test in England or on the ossified precision of the tests. The dilemma readers, or to those who form their opin­ class system they are both supposed to remains: how to provide optimal oppor­ ions from secondhand reports, the most have reinforced. It tells the story of the tunity throughout the ability range while striking conclusion is the suggestion that social experiments that radical and pro­ keeping schools reasonably sized and remedial programmes of one kind or gressive thinkers such as Burt inspired, sensibly located. another to aid the less fortunate groups in and of which I for one was a beneficiary. If Measuring the Mind has the mark of The Bell Cu!Ve's scheme of things are a The author writes as an historian and his intellectual distinction, Race, Evolution waste of resources. People come to have work has the mark of real intellectual dis­ and Behavior is an intellectual jumble sale more or less in the way of cognitive ca tinction, if not of zealous proof-reading. posing as an haute couture collection. It is 418 NATURE · VOL 372 · 1 DECEMBER 1994 BOOK REVIEWS a frank attempt to rehabilitate the concept the species- "A is more closely related to of race as a primary descriptive category Buried treasures B than to C". The second is to find evolu­ explaining and integrating differences in tionary relationships, which funda­ Keith Stewart Thomson everything from IQ to the angular elev­ mentally means the biblical "A begat B, ation of the erect penis. It proceeds by who begat C". Both sorts of information skimming the surface of countless studies Systematics and the Fossil Record: have been thought, at various times, to be of grab groups, and what is to be found on Documenting Evolutionary Patterns. By essential to analysis of a whole range of that surface is not always cream. Andrew W. Smith. Blackwell Scientific: subjects - biogeographical relationships, The broad drift of Rushton's argument 1994. Pp. 223. £19.95 (pbk). for example. Cladistics, however, is capa­ is that the Caucasoid and Mongoloid ble of analysing only the first of these two. races of man have evolved against harsher IT is now almost 30 years since Hennig's It determines 'sister-group' relationships environmental pressure than the Negroid, cladistic methods of systematic analysis but is logically incapable of determining leading to a typical ordering of racial char­ burst on the scene, bringing both turmoil 'ancestor-descendant' relationships. In acteristics related to the relative emphasis and order to a field, and replacing gestalt the branching diagrams that form the on r (gamete production, mating behav­ with logic. Cladistics is based on a decep­ stock-in-trade of cladistics, none of the iour and high reproductive rates) or K tively simple proposition- that in look­ nodes is named. So, ironically, what is (parental care, resource acquisition, kin ing for order in biological (or other) called phylogenetic systematics produces provisioning and social complexity) repro­ diversity one should group together only not what we used to call 'phylogenies' but, ductive strategies. Guess at which end the those species that share uniquely derived rather, metaphylogenies ('patterns', for blacks come? features. 'Similarity' (the old way of look­ convenience). The supposed relationship between ing at things) must therefore be rooted in Historically, evolutionary analysis and cranial capacity and IQ gets quite an air­ true phylogenetic connection, not conver­ particularly palaeontology have been a ing. First Rushton sets out to show that gence or the sharing of retained primitive mixture of analysis and narrative: logic Caucasoids and Mongoloids have bigger characters. The rigour of analysis forces and story-telling. Partly under the influ­ heads than Negroids. Next he claims that both the quantity and quality of data. It ence of cladistics and the quality of data it the evidence shows that Caucasoids and requires comparability of datasets. produces, palaeontology has moved away Mongoloids do better on standard psycho­ As a result of this approach, order and from the narrative mode. But two contro­ metric tests than Negroids. Then one is pattern are now emerging from even the versial problems remain: how can one in invited to the conclusion that blacks are most intractable groups of organisms. (It practice combine the sorts of data that less intelligent because they have smaller is not by chance that Hennig was an ento­ palaeontology produces with those from heads. The fact that women have smaller mologist.) But an odd result has devel­ recent organisms? And, in principle, is heads than men is brushed aside: perhaps oped. Simply speaking, there have been palaeontology even necessary to the now­ we should correct for body size; or per­ two main reasons for engaging in system­ misnamed phylogenetic systematics, or haps the excess neurons men have are atic studies of any group. The first is to simply a distraction at best? related to the spatial and mathematical find the pattern of relationships among Smith's book is not only a superb thinking at which men excel. The temptation is to undertake a demolition job on Rushton's approach to the analysis of statistical data: there is plenty of scope, and it would be great fun, but I am sure there are plenty of others who can do it just as well as I. Much more insidious is the uncritical, not to say unthinking, credence Rushton and others BABY bouncer - a lend to inferences from standard test juvenile Australian scores. According to some of the data he red kangaroo. On presents, around half the population of leaving the pouch, a Africa are sufficiently mentally subnormal young kangaroo will to need supervision or care. It is the same stay close to its mistake that Hermstein and Murray make mother, continuing to in The Bell Curve, attributing measure­ nurse until it is more ment properties to tests beyond what has than an year old. been or could be shown, and not recogniz­ Taken from Mitsuaki ing the extent to which their content - lwago's Kangaroos, a including so-called culture-fair or magnificent collection culture-free tests - reflects our built of colour pictures by intellectual environment. an award-winning photographer whose Race, Evolution, and Behavior does a work has appeared in major disservice to the serious study of the National Geographic biological basis of behaviour and left me and Ute magazines. shuddering. It is time sociobiologists took Chronicle Books, $35 a long hard look .at the standards they (hbk), $19.95 (pbk). adopt in evaluating psychometric evidence that suits their enterprise. And I should know: I take a size 8 in hats. D

Steve Blinkhorn is at Psychometric Research and Development Ltd, Brew• master House, The Maltings, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 3HT, UK. NATURE · VOL 372 · 1 DECEMBER 1994 419