The political scientist Charles Murray claimed that, by 2025, the genetics of intelligence would be basically understood. We are still far from achieving that goal, the psychologist Eric Turkheimer writes. theatln.tc/avNxlpdi
Murray co-wrote “The Bell Curve” in 1994, when “scientists’ best understanding of how genetics influenced human behavior was based on differences and similarities among family members, especially twins,” Turkheimer writes. The authors took the position that a person’s intelligence is substantially determined by genetics. “Most controversially,” Turkheimer continues, the authors “entertain the possibility that socioeconomic and educational differences among racial groups could be explained by differences in their IQ scores, and that these differences are at least partially attributable to genetic differences among the groups.”
After Murray doubled down on his old arguments in 2017 and Turkheimer opposed them, the two bet on whether we would basically understand IQ genetically by 2025. But today, “we do not remotely understand what Murray hoped we would,” Turkheimer argues.
The genetic or brain mechanisms that cause some people to be more intelligent than others remain unknown. “The more we have learned about the specifics of DNA associated with intelligence, the further away that goal has receded,” Turkheimer writes.
The Atlantic
The political scientist Charles Murray claimed that, by 2025, the genetics of intelligence would be basically understood. We are still far from achieving that goal, the psychologist Eric Turkheimer writes. theatln.tc/avNxlpdi
Murray co-wrote “The Bell Curve” in 1994, when “scientists’ best understanding of how genetics influenced human behavior was based on differences and similarities among family members, especially twins,” Turkheimer writes. The authors took the position that a person’s intelligence is substantially determined by genetics. “Most controversially,” Turkheimer continues, the authors “entertain the possibility that socioeconomic and educational differences among racial groups could be explained by differences in their IQ scores, and that these differences are at least partially attributable to genetic differences among the groups.”
After Murray doubled down on his old arguments in 2017 and Turkheimer opposed them, the two bet on whether we would basically understand IQ genetically by 2025. But today, “we do not remotely understand what Murray hoped we would,” Turkheimer argues.
The genetic or brain mechanisms that cause some people to be more intelligent than others remain unknown. “The more we have learned about the specifics of DNA associated with intelligence, the further away that goal has receded,” Turkheimer writes.
🎨: Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic
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