Rereading 'Biogenetics of Race and Class' 50 Years Later

Twin Research and Human Genetics

Volume 21 Number 4 pp. 302–305 C The Author(s) 2018 doi:10.1017/thg.2018.31

Rereading ‘Biogenetics of Race and Class’ 50 Years Later

Eric Turkheimer Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

In 1968, long before the publication of Stephen J. Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man, Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve, or Arthur Jensen’s Bias in Mental Testing, Irving Gottesman published a book chapter that addressed head-on the issues that would define the relationship between the genetics of social behavior and large-scale social theory for the next 50 years. That he could do so with his characteristic scholarly thoroughness and scientific tough-mindedness without once lapsing into regressive hereditarianism isa testimony to the scope of his scientific knowledge and the generosity of his intellectual spirit.

Keywords: race, IQ, social class, behavior genetics, reaction range

In 1968, Irving Gottesman contributed a chapter titled ‘Bio- what archaic, with its references to Caucasians and Ne- genetics of Race and Class’ to the volume Social Class, Race groes, but the outlook was actually forward-looking and in- and Psychological Development,editedbyMartinDeutsch, formed; except for some population genetic data that ob- IrwinKatz,andArthurJensen.Todaythechapter’stitle viously did not yet exist, much of it could have been writ- sounds ominously old-fashioned, like something from the ten yesterday. Gottesman begins by rejecting the outdated workofCyrilBurt.Burtwasstillaliveatthetime,represent- ‘typological approach’ of Caucasians, Mongoloids, and so ing the grand if retrograde tradition of biological theorizing on, in favor of a view of a ‘population concept’ according about human psychological development dating to the 19th to which racial groupings are expedient constructions built century and Francis Galton. Stephen J. Gould’s The Mis- upon fluid evolutionary and ancestral realities. (The mod- measure of Man (1981) was still more than a decade away; ernchestnutaboutraceasabiologicalorsocialconstruct TheBellCurve(Herrnstein & Murray, 1994)isclosertothe hadnotyetbeenformulated.)Hecitesthepragmaticview present day than it was to 1968; Jensen himself had not yet of Mayr (1963): published any of his major works. Irv was 38 at the time. Biologically it is immaterial how many subspecies and One picks up the chapter today with a certain amount races of man one wants to recognize. The essential of trepidation. It had perhaps not yet become clear how point is to recognize the genetic and biological con- much was at stake in writing about the relationships among tinuity of all these gene pools, localized in time and the three biopsychosocial constructs of the title. The fourth space, and to recognize the biological meaning of their theme of the chapter, individual differences in human intel- adaptations and specializations. (p. 15) ligence, raised those stakes even further. One could imag- Gottesman then turns to the question ‘Who is the Ne- ine a young genetic theorist wanting to prove his biogenetic gro American?’ His answer to the question involves quan- bona fides, and in so doing throw in his lot with the illib- tification of admixture in the years following enslavement, eral conclusions of the great but dated thinkers like Burt and the implications of admixture for the determination of whom intellectual history had already started to leave be- physical characteristics like skin color and sickle cell ane- hind. Conversely, one could imagine him making his al- mia. One could wish that his answer had focused more liance with the progressive theorists like Gould and Richard strongly on the answer, ‘Negro Americans are former slaves’ Lewontin, who rejected the basic biogenetic facts even as they becoming obvious, lest they be put to work in the in- terest of racism, eugenics, or social Darwinism. Gottesman started his chapter with one of the great ques- received 15 April 2018; accepted 30 April 2018 tions any writer about the biology of humankind must face: address for correspondence: Eric Turkheimer, Department the scientific status of the linguistic construct of ‘race’. Like of Psychology, PO Box 400400, University of Virginia, Char- much of the rest of chapter, his language here sounds some- lottesville, VA 22904-4400. E-mail: [email protected]

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(he refers to Africans as having been imported to North know the mean of the distribution so much as the range — America), but having been given the assignment of thinking how much the expression of identical genotypes could differ about Black and White Americans genetically, he sticks to — and Gottesman shows that the answer can easily be up to the task. He ridicules any attempt to use socially identified 20 points. The very biogenetics of IQ demonstrate beyond race, the ‘one drop rule’ or skin color as a method of inves- reasonable doubt that the malleability of intellectual capac- tigating biological hypotheses about humans. He uses the ityismorethanenoughtoaccountforthegroupdifference. dataavailableatthetimetoreachanestimateofabout12% In the next section, Gottesman fleshes out this idea to admixtureinAmericanBlacksthatholdsupreasonablywell develop the notion of a reaction range, which turned out to today, and his discussion of genetic drift versus selection as be one of his signature contributions to the theory of behav- sources of genetic variability looks prescient given contem- ior genetics. His illustration of the concept, reproduced here porary work (Novembre & Barton, 2018). as Figure 1, has become iconic. Remarkably, the divergence Gottesman then turns to the core of the chapter, ‘Genetic of the genotypic traces from left to right, which represent Aspects of Race Differences in Intellectual Performance’.To increases in genetic variance in more facilitative environ- a remarkable extent, all of the modern aspects of this zom- ments, anticipated the Scarr–Rowe interaction, the discov- bieofadebate,whichhasbedeviledbehaviorgeneticssince ery of which Gottesman contributed to some 35 years later its inception, were already in place. Gottesman concedes the (Turkheimer et al., 2003). observed difference in measured IQ scores (Jensen had not A modern behavior geneticist with progressive inclina- yet popularized g as a way of talking about intelligence) and tions might arrive at the last section of the chapter ‘Genetic estimates it at 10 to 30 points. He emphasizes that the cru- Aspects of Social Class Differences’,anticipating a satisfying cial issue involves what is causing what: prebuttal to the bell curve, but that (hypothetical, of course) reader will in some ways be disappointed. Gottesman was It should be obvious that IQ tests do not directly mea- loyalasalwaystothebroadlygenetichypothesis,andalways sure innate gene-determined intellectual capacity but too committed to the data to opt for easy politicized consis- do measure current intellectual performance as de- finedbyaparticularcultureoratleastitspsychologists. tency. His authority on the subject is none other than Cyril Burt: Modern, g-oriented theorists of intelligence might cavil with the implication that intelligence is a somewhat arbi- Sir Cyril Burt, an eminent English psychologist, has trary construction of culture-bound psychologists, but that made intensive analysis and a spirited defense of the is not the important point. Instead, what is crucial is that idea that class differences in intelligence are largely due to genetic variation … It should be possible to exam- even an IQ measure that is carefully defined psychometri- ine the merits and degrees of validity of such posi- callyisnotameasureof‘intellectualcapacity’asdetermined tions without subscribing to social Darwinism or the bygenesoranythingelse;itisameasureofintellectualfunc- sickness of race and class prejudice. (p. 35, references tioning, in the present tense. omitted) The question of what causes the difference is the only one that matters, and Gottesman argues that on this question Gottesman begins his discussion with Burt’s (1961)fa- the genetic data have little to say. The basis of his case is mous analysis of intelligence and occupational status of elegant and still relevant. The fact that genetic differences fathers and children in Britain. These data show (unsurpris- among people are correlated with phenotypic (i.e., intellec- ingly, today) that occupational status of the parents is sub- tual) differences says nothing about the potential malleabil- stantially related to their own intelligence, and also to the ityofthephenotype,aswaswidelyacceptedthenandstillis intelligence of their children, although the latter relation- today. The important question, then, is about the range of ship is noticeably attenuated. Thus, in Gottesman’s words, phenotypic expression that is causally possible, conditional ‘Itmustfollowthatifthechildren…aretohavethesame on a genotype. In human beings for whom randomized ex- distribution of IQs when they grow up as the adults, a large perimentation is impossible, the issue is almost impossi- number will have to change to a social class different from ble to answer definitively, which ought to be sufficient rea- their fathers’ (p. 37). So, even assuming that social class is sontoavoidspeculationaboutinnatebehavioraldifferences caused by intelligence (rather than the other way around, between groups of human beings. which is hard to establish even under a genetic hypothe- Actually, there is a way to get an estimate of phenotypic sis) and intelligence is in turn caused by genes (a too-literal variability for fixed genotypes: differences between identi- interpretation of the heritability of IQ, as would not be re- cal twins. The distribution of absolute MZ differences in alized until much later), the most immediate genetic as- IQ,Gottesmansuggests,isanestimateofhowmuchvari- pectofsocialclassisgenerationalmobility.Thus,Gottes- ability one would expect given a completely fixed genotype. mandoesarriveatarebuttalofthe(asyetunimagined) (In fact, it is almost certainly an under-estimate, because it bell curve: under an informed set of biogenetic assump- islimitedtotherestrictedrangeofenvironmentstowhich tions, the genetics of intelligence will not produce a geneti- the twin pairs were actually exposed.) One does not want to cally determined elite. Indeed, the inherent continuity and

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FIGURE 1 Scheme of the reaction range (RR∗) concept showing the interaction of heredity and environment (Gottesman, 1963).

randomness of polygenic transmission undermines the aspects of human behavior; the equally implacable abhor- very notion of ‘class’. rence of racism and genetic determinism. Gottesman’s ca- Finally, Gottesman considers race and class together. reer spanned the most crucial period of modern behavior Isn’t it a contradiction to say that racial differences in intelli- genetics, beginning with the dawning realization that genes gence are environmental, but social class differences signifi- are involved in all human variability, replete with the so- cantly genetic? No, and the difference is precisely that social cial, and moral dilemmas that realization entailed. He was classisfluid,whereasrace,inanyframeshorterthanevo- the first major figure in behavior genetics to unambiguously lutionary time, is fixed by its social construction. Siblings reject the reactionary social theories of Cyril Burt and his do not sort themselves into different races on the basis of ilk while remaining fully in contact with scientific reality. theirintelligence,butthatisexactlywhattheydoforsocial (As opposed to someone like his contemporary Jerry class. Hirsch, a president of the Behavior Genetics Association and winner of its Dobzhansky Award, whose distaste for For general intelligence, then, the selection pressures the reactionary politics of the old hereditarians led him to from one geographical race to another have either not abandon the field wholesale). Gottesman’s long career then been sufficiently different or have not yet been in ef- lasted until the next great crisis in behavior genetics, when fect long enough to lead to significant differences in the availability of human DNA first frustrated and then the genetic basis for this character …. Within arace or other Mendelian population that has occupational transformed an enterprise that had by then become an es- diversity and provides for social mobility, large dif- tablished part of mainstream social science. That transfor- ferences in general intelligence between noncontigu- mation, ironically, has now rekindled the old social ques- ous strata may have an appreciable genetic component. tions that one might have hoped would finally be resolved. (p. 41, emphasis in original) We now face those challenges without Irving Gottesman to showtheway;onecanonlyhopeweareuptothetask. Gottesman closes with a consideration of the possibility of dysgenic forces acting on human intelligence, a concern of the Burt era that he rejects, and which we do not have to References consider in detail here. Burt, C. (1961). Intelligence and social mobility. British Journal In Biogenetics of Race and Class,weseeanearlyver- of Statistical Psychology, 14, 3–24. sion of Irving I. Gottesman at his best: the deep atten- Gottesman, I. I. (1963). Genetic aspects of intelligent behav- tion to empirical detail that characterized his great books ior. In N. Ellis (Ed.), Handbook of mental deficiency: Psycho- about schizophrenia; the unblinking commitment to the logical theory and research (pp. 253–296). New York, NY: role of genetics in even the most complex and politicized McGraw Hill.

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Gottesman, I. I. (1968). The biogenetics of race and class. In Mayr, E. (1963). Animal species and evolution.Cambridge, M. Deutsch, I. Katz & A. R. Jensen (Eds.), Social class and MA: Harvard University Press. psychological development (pp. 11–51). New York, NY: Holt, Novembre, J., & Barton, N. H. (2018). Tread lightly inter- Rinehart and Wilson. preting polygenic tests of selection. Genetics, 208, 1351– Gould, S. J. (1981). The mismeasure of man.NewYork,NY: 1355. WW Norton & Company. Turkheimer, E., Haley, A., Waldron, M., D’Onofrio, B., & Herrnstein, R., & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence Gottesman, I. I. (2003). Socioeconomic status modifies her- and class structure in American life.NewYork,NY:Free itability of IQ in young children. Psychological Science, 14, Press. 623–628.

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