Leon Kamin

Leon J. Kamin (born December 29, 1927 in Taunton, Massachusetts) is an American psychologist. Kamin became sceptical of the claims of Cyril Burt regarding the heritability of IQ, and published his findings in a 1974 book The Science and Politics of IQ. He co-authored the controversial book Not in Our Genes with Dick Lewontin and Steven Rose.

Kamin is known in some circles for his position that the heritability of IQ could be zero (Mackintosh, 1998).

He is honorary professor of psychology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Kamin's initial notoriety in psychology came from his research and documentation of the "blocking effect" which is one of the hallmark effects in the study of associative learning in humans and animals.