Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve

The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray set off a hail storm of controversy about the relationships between IQ, genetics, and various social outcomes, including welfare dependency, crime, and ear nings. Much of the public reaction to the book was polemical and did n ot focus on the details of the science and in particular on the validi ty of the statistical arguments that underlie the book's conclusions. In this volume, a group of statisticians and social scientists have as sembled a scientific response to The Bell Curve. The sixteen chapters begin by presenting an overview of the scientific and statistical issu es and summarize the material in Herrnstein and Murray's book. Then se parate chapters by various experts deal with more focused issues, incl uding reanalyses of data relied upon by Herrnstein and Murray. The fin al chapters consider some of the implications of the work described in the book for American public policy and scientific research.