What Do You Think About the Controversial Book the Bell Curve?
Question by Penelope1: what do you think about the controversial book the Bell Curve?
I need specifics
Best answer:
Answer by ??? ?ø??ø? ????? ???
Never read that book, but i hope i can read it soon.
Answer by Mr. Smartypants
The Bell Curve is a book that talks about intelligence, and how intelligence is a better predictor of success than socioeconomic status or even education. Smarter people, the book says, have less problems with addiction, unwed pregnancy, committing crimes, etc. etc.
The controversial part supposedly uses statistics to show that black people are not as intelligent as white people on average. Real statisticians have attacked the book’s methods, saying that it uses statistics wrong to prove something that isn’t true. I used to do statistics, and there’s a famous book that was written many years ago named “How to Lie with Statistics”. I haven’t read The Bell Curve but I suspect it uses some of these techniques. Real science shows no difference in intelligence between black people and white people.
The book made a big splash when it first came out in the early 1990s, but I believe it’s now considered by most people to be discredited.
How do I feel about it? Well, if you assume blacks have less intelligence, this justifies giving them less opportunity, and so predictably they won’t do as well. Even if blacks were less intelligent on average, individual blacks could be very bright, so systematically excluding them from colleges or jobs is not fair. Each person should be considered as an individual, on his own merits. I also believe that real intelligence is very difficult to measure, especially across lines of ethnic background, and it can’t necessarily be reduced to one single number, like an IQ.
What do you think? Answer below!
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