Race and intelligence/Intro

Race and intelligence are broad terms with many meanings that are often used to describe and measure human beings. The concept of a relation between race and intelligence has been a topic of much speculation especially since the 19th century &mdash; a time when the scientific community was transfixed on the concept of race and focused on finding an explanation for the apparent superiority of Western society in comparison to other societies. The topic is controversial and related conceptually eugenics and racial superiority.

Much of the contemporary debate focuses on the nature, causes, and importance of racial and ethnic differences in intelligence test scores and other measures of cognitive ability. Current mainstream science, sociology, medicine, and ethics have largely stopped supporting research which carries certain assumptions, namely:


 * ''that the genetics has some correlation with race
 * ''that intelligence has some correlation with genetics
 * ''that testing differences can be significantly attributed to genetic factors rather than to environmental factors.

The hereditarian hypothesis is that the black-white IQ gap is primarily genetic, while the environmental hypothesis is that it is primarily caused by environmental factors. The mainstream scientific view is that their is no conclusive evidence as of yet that can settle the debate. The topic, the controversy, and the research itself are largely focused on how the results of sociological data should be interpreted, and how the conclusions of such research are interpreted by the public and by policy makers. Moreover, research that focuses on environmental causes also has resulted in heated debates about exactly how environmental factors cause gaps in average test scores. Specifically, the implication that some cultural environments may result in low intelligence has been great source of controversy.