Comment by somenameforme
19 days ago
This might have been a viable argument a decade ago because these rules were implicit and not explicit. But as of 2022 they've become explicit. [1] IQ is distributed dramatically differently in different groups, which makes it difficult to meaningfully study in the US because, as Nature now puts it, "Although academic freedom is fundamental, it is not unbounded... Science has for too long been complicit in perpetuating structural inequalities and discrimination in society..."
This is why meaningful studies on IQ are basically dead in the US and similarly why we were one of last countries to confirm the absolutely critical reversal of the Flynn Effect. I think the political tide started to turn really hard after the decades long Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study ended up definitively proving the opposite of what it intended. [2]
[1] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01443-2
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Transracial_Adoption...
You should tell that to all the researchers publishing work in this field!
Most working in the field in the US are doing so only due to an effort to undermine it, not study it. Otherwise - they aren't getting published, at least not by the traditionally prestigious journals. Here [1] is a search in reverse chronological order from Nature for studies with the terms IQ and intelligence. The exact demarcation mark is difficult to find, but I do think 1996 is a reasonable indicator. In any case the difference is plainly visible.
I particularly like their trend of publishing editorials with ledes like, "We are leading Nature on a journey to help decolonize research and forge a path towards restorative justice and reconciliation." How can that not make you cringe? People are going to look back at this as the equal but opposite of phrenology. Or perhaps we've had our own Al-Ghazali [2] moment and people will look back at this era as an inflection point in science shifting from one culture to another.
[1] - https://www.nature.com/search?q=iq+intelligence&journal=natu...
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali
So the problem isn't that the science is being done, it's that the results are challenging conclusions you've already drawn? At least we're clear on what the issue is. The work I'm talking about has nothing about "decolonization" in it, but lots on GWAS and population stratification statistics.
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