I agree that single studies aren't very valuable (though note that I linked you a meta-analysis of all studies done after 1975 and they all basically agree). I hoped the BBC article would reinforce my claim that this is a broad consensus among people in the field.
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Similar example is lead-crime hypothesis. Proposes biological basis of crime - and used it to support banning lead pollution, after which crime dropped. Probably among most important interventions for helping poor in all of human history.
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The examples of biodeterminism being used against poor tend to be weaker than generally believed - eg "Social Darwinism" was less a coherent philosophy than something other people accused their enemies of - see eg https://historyofeconomics.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/is-social-darwinism-a-myth/ … .
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On the other hand, lots of neglected use of sociodeterminism to hurt poor, eg programs to take Aboriginal children away from their parents to be raised by whites, on the grounds that it was immoral to expose them to all the social problems of Aboriginal society.
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The same "if you believe in biology, then you must hate the poor" arguments were used to oppose theory of evolution when it came out. After a while everyone just agreed that you could believe in biology and think evolution was important without hating the poor.
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If you think racism is under every rock, maybe it seems like you have to destroy Science as collateral damage in fighting it. As I've written about before, every single poll about racism shows it to be around as popular as belief in reptilian shapeshifters, maybe 1% or 2% more
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Out of interest - how likely do you think it is that there's a biological link between race and IQ? Like, what's the percentage chance? I've always wondered what your answer to this question would be.
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You've complimented Charles Murray before and I vaguely remember you writing about the idea that Ashkenazi Jews might have some kind of genetic disease that makes them smarter, but I'm still not totally sure what your position is.
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I assume you think scientists should be able to research the question without people calling them racist, but I've always been interested to know if you personally think there's anything to it.
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