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Whoops. Looks as if the "IQ is mostly genetic" studies are hopelessly contaminated by sample bias.
David Kirp on Heredity and IQ Once Again...In the New York Times magazine: After the Bell Curve - New York Times: Then along came Eric Turkheimer.... In combing through the research, he noticed that the twins being studied had middle-class backgrounds.... Together with several colleagues, Turkheimer searched for data on twins from a wider range of families. He found what he needed in a sample from the 1970s of more than 50,000 American infants, many from poor families, who had taken I.Q. tests at age 7. In a widely-discussed 2003 article, he found that, as anticipated, virtually all the variation in I.Q. scores for twins in the... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
Whatever IQ measures.
And it's true the "genetic science" involved is soft and fuzzy. Mostly new studies of the literature, which is in itself often questionable. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
I read somewhere that there is more genetic diversity in a litter of puppies than in the entire human race. I admit that this is a nice glib phrase that is probably meaningless, but it conveys a truth that humans simply cannot be divided into race.
I believe Heydrich had a similar problem with the Jews during WWII. keep to the Fen Causeway
From the NYT Mag article quoted in extenso by Brad DeLong:
A later study of French youngsters adopted between the ages of 4 and 6 shows the continuing interplay of nature and nurture. Those children had little going for them. Their I.Q.s averaged 77, putting them near retardation. Most were abused or neglected as infants.... Nine years later, they retook the I.Q. tests.... The amount they improved was directly related to the adopting family's status. Children adopted by farmers and laborers had average I.Q. scores of 85.5; those placed with middle-class families had average scores of 92. The average I.Q. scores of youngsters placed in well-to-do homes climbed more than 20 points, to 98.... Taken together, these studies show that the issue has changed: it is no longer a matter of whether the environment matters but when and how it matters. And poverty, quite clearly, is an important part of the answer. (bolding mine)
