The dark truth behind the right’s IQ obsession | The New Statesman

US right-wingers are obsessed with IQ, from Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs to politicians like Donald Trump. Quinn Slobodian explains why the cult of IQ reinforces racist and sexist ideology - and where it came from.

IQ fetishism on the US right has a history that goes back a century, to eugenicists and those in favour of restrictions on immigration. Its more recent revival can be dated to the 1990s, when culture-war campaigns against affirmative action (or positive discrimination) and civil rights legislation hitched themselves to the rising stars of neuroscience and genomics.

Historian and author Quinn Slobodian speaks to our global affairs editor Katie Stallard about the rise of the new tech right.

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[jasonedwards]

Maybe establish your premise before you make your argument?

[happychappy]

It'll never work in the UK; the Establishment is maintained despite intellect, despite morality.😢

[wyzzman]

IQ without EQ(emotional quotient)doesn't mean anything. Intelligence without empathy is dangerous. We can see that every day

[alexgregory]

I feel like this could have been so much better. The criticism seems to be ad hominem rather than direct refutes. For example, at 15:00, you say they say they think men have a higher average IQ than women. That isn't true, the average is the same, but the standard deviation for men's IQs is larger (well, according to their research). That would suggest the ratio of men to women increases as you get to the extremes, i.e. more men with higher IQs than women, but the exact opposite as well, more men with lower IQs than women. I don't feel like there was any substance in this and if this is a piece that is meant to pull someone out the rabbit hole, I think you missed the mark.

[blueodum]

These tech bros never talk about the financial and educational advantages that they have benefited from. I wonder why.

[oliverhickman]

Re the bell curve and IQ, the consveration here seems to focus on whether the ideas are unpalatable or not, not whether or not they are true.

[blueodum]

The concept of meritocracy is much older than the 1950s - it is the very basis of Plato's Republic.

[fferrando]

The IQ test was created by 2 French psychologists, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon to help identify kids struggling in school and give them a more individualized help. Unfortunately, a Stanford University professor, Lewis M. Terms completely misunderstood the objective of the test and created its modern "version" pushed by idiots. Intelligence and brain spasticity are too complex to measure.

[matthewleitch]

We in the UK living in a society where many things we need to do (to get a job, comply with the law and official procedures, pay taxes, etc) are complicated. Many websites that are trying to sell me things feel like an IQ test that I'm not doing well at. I have above average cognitive ability and just about cope, but it's tough and frustrating. I cannot really imagine how confusing it must be for many, many people in the UK. Too much of life has become too complicated. I don't understand why or what to do about it, but it's a problem.

[tomnorman]

Love the channel. but maybe the interviewer give a bit of push back...isn't scientific method a-moral, is it not useful to categorise people on some level (job interviews etc.), are all people in tech idiot uber for skateboard boys?

[dougnyc]

It's wrong to think that IQ is the one and only measure of ones worth but, that said, there is a very robust and sound body of academic research demonstrating positive correlations between IQ and various measures of socio-economic outcomes. These are strong correlations but like most complicated subjects, the causal relationships are difficult to fully establish. This becomes especially difficult when the subject of race enters the picture (there was one chapter in The Bell Curve on those correlations) because it is, rightly, an emotionally charged subject. Putting aside race, there is plenty of research demonstrating that there is a genetic component to IQ - twin studies/ adoption studies for example that attempt to separate genetic from cultural contributions. This is not "fringe" research and I think it's worthwhile to systematically and responsibly study what drives socio-economic outcomes in the hope that policy could use this to improve outcomes for all.

[georgesdelatour]

Assume for a moment that the thing you don’t want to be true is true: that cognitive ability is unevenly distributed, and isn’t easily modified. What political consequences would follow from that?

To me it would mean that the people who are at the top of society are mostly there not because of their own efforts, but because they won the genetic lottery. And those at the bottom are mostly there not because of their own indolence, but because they didn’t. It’s a really good argument for compressing income disparities through high redistributive taxation. It’s not any kind of argument for Nazism.

[marksandsmith]

Dummies should be in charge...?
We have that in UK already.

[scottanderson]

Can I just point out that Jimmy Saville was a member of MENSA...a rather limited test of a persons merit I would think.

[euanthomas]

The idea that an entity as complex as a brain, said by some to be the most complex object known in the universe, can be characterized in any regard by a single number is ludicrous - an example of an obsession with single number merit functions (one-numberitis) taken to extremes.

[sambooth]

I don’t see how any of this IQ nonsense relates to what the vast majority of people believe a meritocracy is or should be. Having said that, I also don’t think it is controversial to say that the cognitive traits/behaviour (including intelligence) of someone’s parents is a strong indicator for theirs. Just as is the case with height and practicality every biological trait.

[ajwright]

As someone from the left with similar opinions on IQ to those on the tech-right, I think Mr Slobodian is missing at least some of the point:

1) some people are more intelligent than others,
2) that trait is genetic,
3) I strongly disagree that the racial bell curves are significantly different - however even if they were, they are bell-curves, meaning that there's a non-zero probability that the most intelligent person on Earth is from the "race" (ridiculous word), with the lowest average IQ, and equally if you want the top, say, 5% that's going to be in the long tails of all ethnic groups anyway.
4) if you (as a nation or society) automate the jobs that are "simple" enough for the median human to be outperformed by the best AI (and why _wouldn't_ you?), what should the median human (and the 49% that are less talented) do?
5) If you don't automate what would be the effect on that society's competitiveness compared to some other, competing society that does?

And lots of others...

[rosslogie]

IQ tests and the results are on solid ground scientifically, what's immoral is how many people particularly in the United states seek to use them. My mother is a social worker (speech therapist) who works with children who have learning difficulties. One young boy was referred to her by his teachers as being "slow" but in reality he had a serious speech inpediment along with being naturally introverted, he was aware that his speech was very poor and become self conscious about it and the whole thing was a vicious cycle.

It was an IQ test that let my mother and the other social workers know that the young boy didn't have any serious cognitive disabilities since the IQ test didn't ask him to answer questions verbally. They were able to direct his treatment in the right direction and he's now doing incredibly well.

Another example is a guy who scored around 75, social workers would use that information to make sure he get's into the right type of job along with whatever additional help he needed.

[helmutzollner]

That is just a ressurgence of Social Darwinism. The rise of fascism in the industrialized north is based in the iseology of Social Darwinism.

What i would like to know is where is is coming from in post millenium society.

[godsgod]

I have a high IQ and suffer from it. You wouldn't want a high IQ as you basically have to witness stupidity constantly and not question it, or try to offer basic improvements.