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The IQ argument: race, intelligence, and education,
Book by Eysenck, H. J
- GenresPsychologyEducation
155 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Hans Jürgen Eysenck
158 books70 followers= Hans J. Eysenck = H.J. Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck (/ˈaɪzɛŋk/; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. At the time of his death, Eysenck was the living psychologist most frequently cited in science journals
Hans Jürgen Eysenck (/ˈaɪzɛŋk/; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. At the time of his death, Eysenck was the living psychologist most frequently cited in science journals
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 7, 2019
Worth reading still after many years.
February 11, 2024
This book is extremely interesting on at least three counts: its content, its historical importance, and its publishing history. Unfortunately, it’s is also very difficult to get hold of, and the reasons are unedifying.
The author
Hans Eysenck was one of the most important and influential psychologists of the 20th century, being at the time of his retirement the most-cited social scientist in the World. He was especially known for advocating “the highest degree of scientific rigour in the design of psychological experiments and [being] very critical of much loose thinking current at present under the guise of ‘psychology’” (from the cover of a Pelican book).
In the course of his career he produced several pioneering books demystifying psychology for the general public: in particular a seminal trilogy (later expanded to a quartet) for Penguin. He was an exceptionally lucid and entertaining writer, and the books sold millions of copies and were translated into several other languages. The quartet comprises:
Uses and Abuses of Psychology
Sense and Nonsense in Psychology
Fact and Fiction in Psychology
Psychology Is about People
1971’s Race, Intelligence and Education (published in the US with the less incendiary title of The IQ Argument), was the book that changed him practically overnight from one of Britain’s most respected psychologists to its most vilified.
The Controversy
RI&E was written “because of the considerable uproar caused by the publication, in 1969, of an invited article by Arthur Jensen in the Harvard Educational Review (1, pp 21-123), in which he emphasized the role of genetic factors in intelligence [...].
“[Jensen] and his family received threats that bombs would be planted in their house; he was personally attacked, his lectures broken up, his invited contributions to scientific conferences shouted down, reviewers misrepresented what he said, lied about the facts, and made him out to be a racist and a fascist. [...]
“All I did was to collect the relevant facts, and put them together, leaving it to the reader to judge. [...]
“Perhaps I should have been warned by the fate that befell Arthur Jensen. Perhaps I was optimistic in thinking that England was sufficiently unlike America to make reasonable discussion of fundamental problems possible. Clearly I was naive in thinking that emotional certainty could be touched by scientific evidence and rational argument. When the book appeared the roof fell in.” (3, pp 18-19)
“When my book The IQ Argument appeared in the U.S. the S.D.S. (oddly named ‘Students for a Democratic Society’) threatened wholesalers and retailers with arson and violence if they stocked or sold it, and as a consequence it was practically impossible to obtain the book in the United States. Newspapers refused to review it [...]” (3, p 52)
What was it about the book, then, that produced all this hostility? What assertions are so horrifying, that not merely must they be denied, people must be prevented even from reading and considering them? This question, given the author’s eminence and (previous) popularity should make RI&E of some interest (at least) to anyone with the most cursory interest in the subject.
The book
In fact, RI&E is as eminently readable, logical and rigorous as the author’s previous works. If there is any factual error in it, I have been unable to discover it. Indeed, it’s a better summary of the available evidence (for the average reader) than Jensen’s own work, which tends to be somewhat technical.
The contents are as follows:
Introduction
1. The Jensenist Heresy
2. What is race?
3. What is intelligence?
4. The intelligence of American negroes
5. Changing human nature
Epilogue: The social responsibility of science
Further reading
Editions
The British edition was published not by Pelican, but by Maurice Temple Smith, for reasons I have been unable to discover for certain. Like its American sibling (and annoyingly), it lacks an index, which leads me to deduct a star; but it has the further peculiarity that it contains several photographs that have little or no discernible relation to the text.
The American edition contains an additional preface emphasising two further points:
1. No conceivable facts could justify segregation, and
2. Good will alone is not enough; efforts to remedy disparities must be made on the basis of facts and not wishful thinking:
“If the reader does not like some of the facts that emerge, I hope against hope that he will not blame me for their existence.”
(Wishful thinking in itself, of course, Shoot the Messenger being standard policy).
Add to this the fact that my British edition is falling apart and the American one is not, and I would say the latter is the better buy, other things being equal.
Conclusion
Of course, you may consider the issue unimportant; a view I’ve seen most articulately expressed in a 1976 article by Chomsky (4, pp. 199-200). But millions of dollars are being spent on compensatory education programmes in many countries, and their success or failure depends on the issues discussed here.
Whatever your views, then, if you were interested enough in the issue to read Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man, then you should also read this; there are few better summmaries (of the evidence to that point, at least) accessible to the layman.
References
1) Jensen, A.R. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? Harvard Educational Review, 39. Republished in
2) Jensen, A.R. et al. (1969). Environment, Heredity, & Intelligence. Harvard Reprint Series No 2 (ISBN 0-916690-02-4)
3) Essay by Eysenck in Pearson (Ed.), (1997, 2nd edition). Race, Intelligence, and Bias in Academe. Washington: Scott-Townsend (ISBN 1-878465-23-6)
4) Chomsky, Noam (1987). The Chomsky Reader. New York: Pantheon (ISBN 0-394-75173-6)
The author
Hans Eysenck was one of the most important and influential psychologists of the 20th century, being at the time of his retirement the most-cited social scientist in the World. He was especially known for advocating “the highest degree of scientific rigour in the design of psychological experiments and [being] very critical of much loose thinking current at present under the guise of ‘psychology’” (from the cover of a Pelican book).
In the course of his career he produced several pioneering books demystifying psychology for the general public: in particular a seminal trilogy (later expanded to a quartet) for Penguin. He was an exceptionally lucid and entertaining writer, and the books sold millions of copies and were translated into several other languages. The quartet comprises:
Uses and Abuses of Psychology
Sense and Nonsense in Psychology
Fact and Fiction in Psychology
Psychology Is about People
1971’s Race, Intelligence and Education (published in the US with the less incendiary title of The IQ Argument), was the book that changed him practically overnight from one of Britain’s most respected psychologists to its most vilified.
The Controversy
RI&E was written “because of the considerable uproar caused by the publication, in 1969, of an invited article by Arthur Jensen in the Harvard Educational Review (1, pp 21-123), in which he emphasized the role of genetic factors in intelligence [...].
“[Jensen] and his family received threats that bombs would be planted in their house; he was personally attacked, his lectures broken up, his invited contributions to scientific conferences shouted down, reviewers misrepresented what he said, lied about the facts, and made him out to be a racist and a fascist. [...]
“All I did was to collect the relevant facts, and put them together, leaving it to the reader to judge. [...]
“Perhaps I should have been warned by the fate that befell Arthur Jensen. Perhaps I was optimistic in thinking that England was sufficiently unlike America to make reasonable discussion of fundamental problems possible. Clearly I was naive in thinking that emotional certainty could be touched by scientific evidence and rational argument. When the book appeared the roof fell in.” (3, pp 18-19)
“When my book The IQ Argument appeared in the U.S. the S.D.S. (oddly named ‘Students for a Democratic Society’) threatened wholesalers and retailers with arson and violence if they stocked or sold it, and as a consequence it was practically impossible to obtain the book in the United States. Newspapers refused to review it [...]” (3, p 52)
What was it about the book, then, that produced all this hostility? What assertions are so horrifying, that not merely must they be denied, people must be prevented even from reading and considering them? This question, given the author’s eminence and (previous) popularity should make RI&E of some interest (at least) to anyone with the most cursory interest in the subject.
The book
In fact, RI&E is as eminently readable, logical and rigorous as the author’s previous works. If there is any factual error in it, I have been unable to discover it. Indeed, it’s a better summary of the available evidence (for the average reader) than Jensen’s own work, which tends to be somewhat technical.
The contents are as follows:
Introduction
1. The Jensenist Heresy
2. What is race?
3. What is intelligence?
4. The intelligence of American negroes
5. Changing human nature
Epilogue: The social responsibility of science
Further reading
Editions
The British edition was published not by Pelican, but by Maurice Temple Smith, for reasons I have been unable to discover for certain. Like its American sibling (and annoyingly), it lacks an index, which leads me to deduct a star; but it has the further peculiarity that it contains several photographs that have little or no discernible relation to the text.
The American edition contains an additional preface emphasising two further points:
1. No conceivable facts could justify segregation, and
2. Good will alone is not enough; efforts to remedy disparities must be made on the basis of facts and not wishful thinking:
“If the reader does not like some of the facts that emerge, I hope against hope that he will not blame me for their existence.”
(Wishful thinking in itself, of course, Shoot the Messenger being standard policy).
Add to this the fact that my British edition is falling apart and the American one is not, and I would say the latter is the better buy, other things being equal.
Conclusion
Of course, you may consider the issue unimportant; a view I’ve seen most articulately expressed in a 1976 article by Chomsky (4, pp. 199-200). But millions of dollars are being spent on compensatory education programmes in many countries, and their success or failure depends on the issues discussed here.
Whatever your views, then, if you were interested enough in the issue to read Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man, then you should also read this; there are few better summmaries (of the evidence to that point, at least) accessible to the layman.
References
1) Jensen, A.R. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement? Harvard Educational Review, 39. Republished in
2) Jensen, A.R. et al. (1969). Environment, Heredity, & Intelligence. Harvard Reprint Series No 2 (ISBN 0-916690-02-4)
3) Essay by Eysenck in Pearson (Ed.), (1997, 2nd edition). Race, Intelligence, and Bias in Academe. Washington: Scott-Townsend (ISBN 1-878465-23-6)
4) Chomsky, Noam (1987). The Chomsky Reader. New York: Pantheon (ISBN 0-394-75173-6)
November 2, 2025
AN "EARLY" BOOK ON IQ DIFFERENCES BY A FAMED PSYCHOLOGIST
Eysenck said in the Preface to this 1971 book, "This book aims to present the relevant facts, with as little interpretation as possible; only knowledge of these facts makes it possible to come to any sort of rational conclusion. I approached writing this book with much hesitation, and not a little aversion. Having always been out on the radical wing in my political opinions, and having taken it as axiomatic that there could not be any genetically determined differences between races, it caused me much emotional stress to delve into the scientific literature which seemed to suggest very strongly that I might be wrong." (Pg. ii)
He suggests, "The fact that [Arthur Jensen's] position has been interpreted as a racist one may thus in part be his own fault. A psychologist should perhaps be particularly aware of the likely social consequences of his actions. This is particularly true ... where the great and grievous injustices which white people have over the centuries done to black people would seem to require more than simple justice now... It is probably the absence of such evidence of humane and socially responsible considerations in Jensen's book which is in part responsible for the reception it has received." (Pg. 29-30)
He admits, "something very interesting has taken place. We now have regression to the mean; the children of our higher professional fathers have a mean IQ of only 121, that is, they have regressed half way to the mean of the whole population, which is of course 100. Similarly, children of the unskilled parents have an IQ of 93; they have regressed upwards and roughly half way towards the population mean. This regression toward the mean is a phenomenon, well known in genetics, and characteristic of traits markedly influenced by genetic causes. Environment would favor the children of the higher professional fathers, and disfavor those of unskilled working-class fathers, tending to make the difference between them even greater than that observed between their fathers. Clearly this is NOT what happens." (Pg. 63-64)
Significantly, after noting that Asians do as well or better than whites on tests such as those involving abstract reasoning, he says, "One might advance the argument that perhaps racially orientals are superior to whites on IQ performance; I shall refrain from pursuing this point!" (Pg. 116)
This early work may be of interest to those studying the historical background of the IQ controversy.
Eysenck said in the Preface to this 1971 book, "This book aims to present the relevant facts, with as little interpretation as possible; only knowledge of these facts makes it possible to come to any sort of rational conclusion. I approached writing this book with much hesitation, and not a little aversion. Having always been out on the radical wing in my political opinions, and having taken it as axiomatic that there could not be any genetically determined differences between races, it caused me much emotional stress to delve into the scientific literature which seemed to suggest very strongly that I might be wrong." (Pg. ii)
He suggests, "The fact that [Arthur Jensen's] position has been interpreted as a racist one may thus in part be his own fault. A psychologist should perhaps be particularly aware of the likely social consequences of his actions. This is particularly true ... where the great and grievous injustices which white people have over the centuries done to black people would seem to require more than simple justice now... It is probably the absence of such evidence of humane and socially responsible considerations in Jensen's book which is in part responsible for the reception it has received." (Pg. 29-30)
He admits, "something very interesting has taken place. We now have regression to the mean; the children of our higher professional fathers have a mean IQ of only 121, that is, they have regressed half way to the mean of the whole population, which is of course 100. Similarly, children of the unskilled parents have an IQ of 93; they have regressed upwards and roughly half way towards the population mean. This regression toward the mean is a phenomenon, well known in genetics, and characteristic of traits markedly influenced by genetic causes. Environment would favor the children of the higher professional fathers, and disfavor those of unskilled working-class fathers, tending to make the difference between them even greater than that observed between their fathers. Clearly this is NOT what happens." (Pg. 63-64)
Significantly, after noting that Asians do as well or better than whites on tests such as those involving abstract reasoning, he says, "One might advance the argument that perhaps racially orientals are superior to whites on IQ performance; I shall refrain from pursuing this point!" (Pg. 116)
This early work may be of interest to those studying the historical background of the IQ controversy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews