December 7th, 2006

Flynn the fool

Hanging his hat on the Eyferth study



Ideology can make a fool out of otherwise creditable scientists. The way that the remarkable temperature stability of the 20th century (according to the U.N. only .6 of one degree rise over the entire 20th century) can be portrayed as an era of global warming is ample proof of that.

And James Flynn is another example of that. He does generally good science and knows heaps about IQ research but when it comes to interpreting scientific findings which clash with his faith he goes bananas. He is a fervent Leftist -- with all the faith in being able to "mould" people into some sort of ideal man that usually goes with that faith. And genetic influences have a nasty unalterable character that clashes with that faith.

So what does he do when faced with an unremitting torrent of research findings ("New Evidence Race-IQ Gap Remains; Findings Could Undermine Affirmative Action Policies") that show a consistent black/white gap in average IQ of around 15 points? He points to just ONE study (The Eyferth study) which shows no significant gap. And that study must be just about the most irrelevant one in the literature. He points to a study which shows that the illegitimate children of black GI's in Germany are no dumber than the illegitimate children of white GI's in Germany.

I don't know how to put this politely, but, as far as I can see, all that that result shows is that German women don't go to bed with dumb blacks. They only go to bed with the brighter ones. And the U.S. army of the 40s and 50s was a good place to find the brighter ones. Blacks had to be at least as bright as whites to get into the U.S. army of the 40s and 50s. Ever since 1917, the U.S. army has accepted only those recruits who pass an IQ test at a standard level. And there have always been SOME blacks who pass. So Flynn bases his faith in the unreality of black/white IQ differences on a sample which has been deliberately equalized in terms of IQ! What a fool! I can think of no other term for him that fits.

You can find detailed accounts of Flynn's follies in the matter here and here. In his most recent posts, Chris Brand also points out the limitations of the study Flynn relies on. I have commented previously in the academic literature on explanations for his own findings that Flynn does not consider. See here and here.

Related:

Black/White IQ gap still large: "Despite widespread claims that the gap is closing between Blacks and Whites in educational achievement and intelligence test scores, new research shows the 15-point IQ difference is as large today as it was 100 years ago. A study published in the October 2006 issue of Psychological Science showed the same Black-White IQ difference in large standardization samples for four major IQ tests. The researchers reported on the Wonderlic Personnel Test, the Kaufmann Assessment Battery for Children, the Woodcock-Johnson test, and the Differential Ability Scale, which all combined to show a Black gain of less than 1 IQ point over the last 30 years. The study's authors were veteran IQ researchers J. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario and Arthur R. Jensen of the University of California at Berkeley... Rushton also said the results could undermine affirmative action policies as the US Supreme Court's 2003 decision on the University of Michigan only being permitted affirmative-action on the assumption that Black-White test scores were converging. That assumption has been shown to be untrue."



ADDENDUM:

Because the link to Chris Brand's comments is not direct, I thought I might reproduce the whole of those comments below:

BLACK-WHITE IQ GAP DECREASING?

The American Enterprise Institute hosted a fine scholarly debate between its own Bell-authoring Charles Murray and political philosopher-turned-psychometrician James Flynn* who had maintained since the 1980's that IQ was rising and that Blacks would surely soon somehow benefit from an extra score rise of their own.

No victor seemed to be declared in the media - though commentators** did note critically Flynn's heavy dependence on the Eyferth-originating study of (illegitimate) children of Black US servicemen growing up in Germany (for the apparent near-equality of these half-Black children with Whites was easily explicable by the US military not accepting personnel of under IQ 90 and by German girls in post-Hitler days being unlikely to have had sex with Blacks unless the Black soldier himself was extra-presentable and well-monied).




Go to John Ray's Main academic menu
Go to Menu of longer writings
Go to John Ray's basic home page
Go to John Ray's pictorial Home Page
Go to Selected pictures from John Ray's blogs