African-American Whites East Asians

The Bell Curve argues that intelligence is measurable across groups, highly heritable, and a strong predictor of life outcomes like socioeconomic status. It analyzes IQ test data from a large US study and finds those with lower IQs are more likely to experience adverse life events like unemployment, poverty, out of wedlock births, and incarceration. The authors recommend eliminating welfare policies that encourage childbirth among poorer communities with lower average IQs and reducing immigration to prevent a decline in America's average national IQ.

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African-American Whites East Asians

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he Bell Curve, published in 1994, was written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray to explain

the variations in intelligence in American society, warn of some consequences of that variation, and
propose social policies for mitigating the worst of the consequences. Many of the arguments put
forth by the authors are controversial, ranging from the relationships between low measured
intelligence and anti-social behavior, to a genetic component of the low observed test scores
for African-American (compared to whites and East Asians). The book was heavily publicized as it
was released, just after the death of Herrnstein. In the first several months of its release, 400,000
copies of the book were sold around the world. Hundreds of reviews and commentaries were written
about the book soon after its publication. The Bell Curve argues that:
1. Intelligence exists and is accurately measurable across racial, language, and national
boundaries.
2. Intelligence is one of, if not the most, important factors correlated to economic, social, and
overall success in the United States, and its importance is increasing.
3. Intelligence is largely (40% to 80%) heritable.
4. No one has so far been able to manipulate IQ to a significant degree through changes in
environmental factorsexcept for child adoptionand in the light of these failures, future
successful manipulations are unlikely.
5. The United States has been in denial of these facts. A better public understanding of the
nature of intelligence and its social correlates is necessary to guide future policy decisions.
The book's argument is based on the authors' analysis of data compiled in the National Longitudinal
Study of Youth (NLSY), a study conducted by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of
Labor Statistics tracking thousands of Americans starting in the 1980s. All participants in the NLSY
took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a battery of ten tests taken by all who
apply for entry into the armed services. (Some had taken an IQ test in high school, and the median
correlation of the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores and those IQ test scores was .81).
Participants were later evaluated for social and economic outcomes. In general, IQ/AFQT scores
were a better predictor of life outcomes than social class background. Similarly, after statistically
controlling for differences in IQ, many outcome differences between racial-ethnic groups
disappeared.
Economic and social correlates of IQ

<75

75-90

90-110

110-125

>125

US population distribution

Married by age 30

Out of labor force more than 1 month out of year

(men)

Unemployed more than 1 month out of year (men)

Divorced in 5 years

% of children w/ IQ in bottom decile (mothers)

Had an illegitimate baby (mothers)

Lives in poverty

Ever incarcerated (men)

Chronic welfare recipient (mothers)

High school dropout

0.4

Scored "Yes" on "Middle Class Values Index"[c 1]

Values are the percentage of each IQ sub-population, among non-Hispanic whites only, fitting
each descriptor. Herrnstein & Murray (1994) pp. 171, 158, 163, 174, 230, 180, 132, 194, 247-248,
194, 146, 264 respectively.

Jump up^ According to Murray and Herrnstein (pp. 26364), the "Middle Class Values Index"
was intended "to identify among the NLSY population, in their young adulthood when the index was
scored, those people who are getting along with their lives in ways that fit the middle-class
stereotype." To score "Yes" on the index, a NLSY subject had to meet all four of the following criteria:

Received at least a high-school diploma

Never interviewed while incarcerated

Still married to one's first spouse

Men only: In the labor force, even if not employed

Women only: Never gave birth outside of marriage

Excluded from the analysis were never-married individuals who satisfied all other components of the
index, and men who were not in the labor force in 1989 or 1990 due to disability or still being in
school.

Policy recommendations[edit]
The book argued the average genetic IQ of the United States is declining owing, to the tendency of
the more intelligent to have fewer children than the less intelligent, the generation length to be
shorter for the less intelligent, and the large-scale immigration to the United States of those with low
intelligence. Discussing a possible future political outcome of an intellectually stratified society, the
authors stated that they "fear that a new kind of conservatism is becoming the dominant ideology of
the affluent not in the social tradition of an Edmund Burke or in the economic tradition of an Adam
Smith but 'conservatism' along Latin American lines, where to be conservative has often meant
doing whatever is necessary to preserve the mansions on the hills from the menace of the slums
below."[1] Moreover, they fear that increasing welfare will create a "custodial state" in "a high-tech and
more lavish version of the Indian reservation for some substantial minority of the nation's
population." They also predict increasing totalitarianism: "It is difficult to imagine the United States
preserving its heritage of individualism, equal rights before the law, free people running their own
lives, once it is accepted that a significant part of the population must be made permanent wards of
the states."[2]
Herrnstein and Murray recommended the elimination of welfare policies that encourage poor women
to have babies:
We can imagine no recommendation for using the government to manipulate fertility that does not
have dangers. But this highlights the problem: The United States already has policies that
inadvertently social-engineer who has babies, and it is encouraging the wrong women. "If the United
States did as much to encourage high-IQ women to have babies as it now does to encourage low-IQ
women, it would rightly be described as engaging in aggressive manipulation of fertility." The
technically precise description of America's fertility policy is that it subsidizes births among poor
women, who are also disproportionately at the low end of the intelligence distribution. We urge
generally that these policies, represented by the extensive network of cash and services for lowincome women who have babies, be ended. The government should stop subsidizing births to
anyone rich or poor. The other generic recommendation, as close to harmless as any government
program we can imagine, is to make it easy for women to make good on their prior decision not to
get pregnant by making available birth control mechanisms that are increasingly flexible, foolproof,
inexpensive, and safe.[3]
The book also argued for reducing immigration into the U.S. which was argued to lower the average
national IQ. It also recommended against policies of affirmative action.

Relation between IQ and earnings in the U.S.IQ<75759090110110125>125Age

182,0005,0008,0008,0003,000Age 263,00010,00016,00020,00021,000Age
325,00012,40020,00027,00036,000Values are the average earnings (1993 US Dollars) of each IQ
sub-population.[44]