Michael_Gibb t1_iu7zryr wrote
It makes sense that his research would be viewed as morally suspect. In order for his research to have any solid basis, his studies would have to to control for all possible non-racial factors that could affect the results. The problem with trying to do that though, is that most racial groups tend to stick within their own communities or geography, which are impossible to control for, and will invariably skew the results. It will make it look like there is a genetic component, even though the same data can equally point to an environmental origin for group differences in intelligence.
The geographic distribution of racial communities, and the likely shared environmental experiences of individuals within those communities, will give the impression of racial differences in intelligence. For a researcher to them conclude from such data that there's a genetic origin for group differences in intelligence, is controversial. Never mind that in all likelihood it will be an unfounded conclusion due to the body of research strongly indicating education being a strong determining factor in intelligence.
Of course, this research ignores the fact that race is a social construct. It isn't genetic.
ClimateCare7676 t1_iu883ka wrote
Yeah. I don't understand how intelligence can be accurately measured across ethnicities (considering that most ethnicities aren't monolithic and isolated) in the current limitations of social inequality, barriers in access to education and workforce, recovery from colonisation, racism, gender prejudice and so on. I don't know how can you possibly account for all of that. A very intelligent and capable woman from post-colonial country with practical skills might score much lower in IQ tests than a less intelligent and less capable university student from a wealthy country who has done IQ tests before, and it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with inequality.
They will have to account for racism and gender bias even in the context of wealthy countries. If a very intelligent person is systematically discriminated, told that they are less intelligent, experience racial or gender prejudice in education and workforce or even outright harassment, have low expectations and little representation to inspire them, it can become a self fulfilling prophecy of how well they perform. And somehow account for the Indigenous knowledge, too, when it's been only in the recent decades that some Indigenous skills (like more efficient land management techniques) started getting proper attention.
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