5) The Nature of Dysgenesis

• First, before going into any genetics arguments, we should note that "White" and "Black" are fairly mixed ethnic groups making comparisons hard (Hacker), although there are sufficient numbers of genetic differences (such as type B blood, the sickle cell gene) to make this refutation weak (Flynn).

• The idea that intelligence is decreasing because the less intelligent are having more children was actually proposed by Galton as early as 1865. While you might not like Herrnstein and Murray, the idea didn't start with them.

• Flynn notes that correlations of IQ scores and SES are not changing as Herrnstein and Murray would predict, and even if they did it could be due to a number of additional factors besides genetics. He notes that affirmative action efforts to equalize environments, so that even the worst is still pretty good, is unrelated to genes and IQ, and even if there was a 10 point genetic gap, it would not spell the ending of society like Herrnstein and Murray argue.

• Lynn (1998) makes two interesting arguments. First, he notes that the idea that children from larger families have lower IQs doesn't hold up in other cultures. He cites a study of families in Hong King, as well as a study of Vietnamese refugees in the US. Larger family size was associated with high IQs and more education.

• Second, Lynn (1998) He argues that Herrnstein and Murray were right about the dysgenesis effect, about lower IQ people having more children that higher IQ people. He offers that we in America appear to have lost about 5 IQ points in the last 100 years…. Of course, scores would have increased by 30 points (3 points every 10 years according to Flynn) during this time, maybe even 35 points to compensate for the dysgenic trend, so our best estimates of a dysgenic effects would seem to show it to be weak.

• Sternberg points out that while IQ scores have not gone down, achievement test scores and the like have. The SAT was actually renormed to compensate for this. While some argue this shows a clear decrease in intelligence (since achievement and intelligence are hard to separate), other point out the real decline is not in the low scorers scoring lower, but rather that there are fewer high scorers in the 600 and 700.
  
  He attributes this to

  1. less attention given to the high scoring kids (the critical thinking kind of attention, not the chance to memorize more useless information kind of attention),
  2. "dumbed down" text books (he cites a study showing textbooks are about three grades lower today than they were 30 years ago), and
  3. we accept lower quality performance in schools.
  
  Gardner offers this:
  "It is a curious fact that Americans, while critical of schools in general, usually feel that their own local schools are of good quality. And they believe that if students are not doing well, it is because these students lack academic talent. This viewpoint differs dramatically from that encountered in Japan, where poor work performances are customarily attributed to lack of effort and work; where schools are considered of tremendous importance; and where criticism of the national scholastic effort is as constant as are efforts to improve the education of all students."
  Gardner, The Unschooled Mind, pg 257.