The Global Bell Curve
Encyclopedia
The Global Bell Curve: Race, IQ, and Inequality Worldwide is a book by Professor Richard Lynn
, published by Washington Summit Publishers
, June 2008. As its title implies, it builds upon the best-selling 1994 book The Bell Curve
, by Richard Herrnstein
and Charles Murray
, which presents extensive data suggesting that, in the United States, intelligence
is a better predictor of socio-economic status (including earnings, employment, family size and involvement in crime) than are other commonly quoted factors.
The purpose of Professor Lynn in this book is examine how far this thesis holds for other multiracial societies. It follows Lynn's 2006 book IQ and Global Inequality
(with Tatu Vanhanen
), and his other books on social inequalities and their causes. While Lynn and Vanhanen (2006)
focus on differences in the development and wealth of nations, The Global Bell Curve finds consistent evidence of race-based social hierarchies in its selected countries and regions.
(IQ) and socio-economic status that The Bell Curve found in the US are also present in other parts of the world.
Lynn finds that such hierarchies are widespread. They are demonstrated in Africa
, Australia
, Brazil
, Britain
, Canada
, the Caribbean
, Latin America
, the Netherlands
, and New Zealand
. Worldwide, East Asians (Chinese
, Japanese
and Koreans) and Ashkenazi Jews
have the highest mean IQs and socio-economic positions, followed by Europeans. The Australian Aborigines and sub-Saharan Africans occupy the lowest positions in the observed social hierarchies. Intermediate positions are occupied by the Amerindians, South Asians from the Indian subcontinent, the Maori in New Zealand
, and the mixed race peoples of South Africa
, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The same pattern is found for many other social and lifestyle variables such as educational levels, income
, health
, accident
s, crime
, marriage
, fertility
, and mortality
. Cranial capacity
, unemployment
, and mental retardation
also vary similarly.
The consistent hierarchies of IQ and achievement reported in Lynn's synthesis
can be summarized as follows:
Lynn gives many examples of these hierarchies and their history. For example, in Brazil, it is Japanese who are today at the top. Originally, they were brought in after the end of slavery as indentured laborers
to work on the plantations. Today, the Japanese outscore whites and other racial groups on IQ tests, have higher income, and are over-represented in university places. They are less than 1% of the total population but comprise 17% of the students at the elite University of Sao Paulo.
In Caribbean
nations, such as Cuba
, Trinidad
, and Guyana
, it was instead Chinese and South Asians who came to work as plantation laborers. Today, Chinese are at the top with South Asians being placed between whites and blacks. There are also small groups of ethnic Chinese elsewhere such as in Mexico
, Argentina
, Australia
, and Hawaii
, where they consistently do well.
South Asians in Africa, Britain, and Australia average intermediate to whites and blacks in IQ scores, educational achievement, and economic success. Afro-Caribbeans in the UK score similarly on IQ tests to US blacks.
J. Philippe Rushton
in a review writes "The results are remarkably consistent over time, place, and situation, irrespective of the original status of the people, or the language, history, and political organization of the country concerned."
theories assert that those with power maintain their dominance by discriminating against subordinate races. However, notes Lynn, Japanese, Chinese and Jewish immigrants all suffered from discrimination, yet rose above the other communities in Brazil, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. Cultural value theorists argue for factors such as work ethic
, "achievement syndrome" and an ability to delay gratification
. Human capital
theories argue that groups secure dominant positions through investments in education. This may be true, agrees Lynn, but why do only a few racial groups elect to do this?
Lynn considers that each of these theories may have some merits in particular circumstances, but argues that, overall, they do not properly explain the consistent worldwide racial hierarchies that have developed today. Cultural values cannot be measured, and therefore have no predictive value. Colonialism
ended fifty years ago: is it still a credible force? Continuing, widespread, systematic discrimination is implausible, especially in regions such as Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where the most successful groups like the Chinese are only small minorities. The standard theories also fail to explain why East Asians and European Jews arrive as impoverished minorities yet within two or three generations proceed to join the elites.
Lynn argues that racial differences in IQ map directly to all of these worldwide social hierarchies. He also notes that an explanation based on differences in IQ explain why mixed-race populations consistently fall between their parent populations, in terms of social problems and achievements.
Richard Lynn
Richard Lynn is a British Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Ulster who is known for his views on racial and ethnic differences. Lynn argues that there are hereditary differences in intelligence based on race and sex....
, published by Washington Summit Publishers
Washington Summit Publishers
Washington Summit Publishers produces and sells books in the categories of anthropology, evolution, genetics, psychology, philosophy, and current events....
, June 2008. As its title implies, it builds upon the best-selling 1994 book The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...
, by Richard Herrnstein
Richard Herrnstein
Richard J. Herrnstein was an American researcher in animal learning in the Skinnerian tradition. He was one of the founders of quantitative analysis of behavior....
and Charles Murray
Charles Murray (author)
Charles Alan Murray is an American libertarian political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC...
, which presents extensive data suggesting that, in the United States, intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
is a better predictor of socio-economic status (including earnings, employment, family size and involvement in crime) than are other commonly quoted factors.
The purpose of Professor Lynn in this book is examine how far this thesis holds for other multiracial societies. It follows Lynn's 2006 book IQ and Global Inequality
IQ and Global Inequality
IQ and Global Inequality is a 2006 book by psychologist Richard Lynn and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen. IQ and Global Inequality is follow-up to their 2002 book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, an expansion of the argument that international differences in current economic development are due in...
(with Tatu Vanhanen
Tatu Vanhanen
Tatu Vanhanen is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Tampere in Tampere, Finland...
), and his other books on social inequalities and their causes. While Lynn and Vanhanen (2006)
IQ and Global Inequality
IQ and Global Inequality is a 2006 book by psychologist Richard Lynn and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen. IQ and Global Inequality is follow-up to their 2002 book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, an expansion of the argument that international differences in current economic development are due in...
focus on differences in the development and wealth of nations, The Global Bell Curve finds consistent evidence of race-based social hierarchies in its selected countries and regions.
Racial hierarchies
The book examines whether the same types of racial hierarchies in intelligence quotientIntelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
(IQ) and socio-economic status that The Bell Curve found in the US are also present in other parts of the world.
Lynn finds that such hierarchies are widespread. They are demonstrated in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Worldwide, East Asians (Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
, Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
and Koreans) and Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
have the highest mean IQs and socio-economic positions, followed by Europeans. The Australian Aborigines and sub-Saharan Africans occupy the lowest positions in the observed social hierarchies. Intermediate positions are occupied by the Amerindians, South Asians from the Indian subcontinent, the Maori in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and the mixed race peoples of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The same pattern is found for many other social and lifestyle variables such as educational levels, income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
, health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, accident
Accident
An accident or mishap is an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance, often with lack of intention or necessity. It implies a generally negative outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its...
s, crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
, and mortality
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. Cranial capacity
Cranial capacity
Cranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cc...
, unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, and mental retardation
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
also vary similarly.
The consistent hierarchies of IQ and achievement reported in Lynn's synthesis
Systematic review
A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question. Systematic reviews of high-quality randomized controlled trials are crucial to evidence-based medicine...
can be summarized as follows:
- East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) (Average IQ of 105)
- Europeans (Average IQ 100)
- South East Asians (Average IQ 87)
- North Africans (Average IQ of 84)
- Sub-Saharan Africans (Average IQ of 67–80)
- Australian Aborigines (Average IQ of 62)
Lynn gives many examples of these hierarchies and their history. For example, in Brazil, it is Japanese who are today at the top. Originally, they were brought in after the end of slavery as indentured laborers
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
to work on the plantations. Today, the Japanese outscore whites and other racial groups on IQ tests, have higher income, and are over-represented in university places. They are less than 1% of the total population but comprise 17% of the students at the elite University of Sao Paulo.
In Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
nations, such as Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, and Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, it was instead Chinese and South Asians who came to work as plantation laborers. Today, Chinese are at the top with South Asians being placed between whites and blacks. There are also small groups of ethnic Chinese elsewhere such as in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where they consistently do well.
South Asians in Africa, Britain, and Australia average intermediate to whites and blacks in IQ scores, educational achievement, and economic success. Afro-Caribbeans in the UK score similarly on IQ tests to US blacks.
J. Philippe Rushton
J. Philippe Rushton
Jean Philippe Rushton is a Canadian psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario who is most widely known for his work on racial group differences, such as research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and the application of r/K selection theory to humans in his book Race,...
in a review writes "The results are remarkably consistent over time, place, and situation, irrespective of the original status of the people, or the language, history, and political organization of the country concerned."
Explanations
Lynn writes that there are several theories regarding such differences. Structuralism and discriminationDiscrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
theories assert that those with power maintain their dominance by discriminating against subordinate races. However, notes Lynn, Japanese, Chinese and Jewish immigrants all suffered from discrimination, yet rose above the other communities in Brazil, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. Cultural value theorists argue for factors such as work ethic
Work ethic
Work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. An example would be the Protestant work ethic...
, "achievement syndrome" and an ability to delay gratification
Deferred gratification
Deferred gratification and delayed gratification denote a person’s ability to wait in order to obtain something that he or she wants. This intellectual attribute is also called impulse control, will power, self control, and “low” time preference, in economics...
. Human capital
Human capital
Human capitalis the stock of competencies, knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. It is the attributes gained by a worker through education and experience...
theories argue that groups secure dominant positions through investments in education. This may be true, agrees Lynn, but why do only a few racial groups elect to do this?
Lynn considers that each of these theories may have some merits in particular circumstances, but argues that, overall, they do not properly explain the consistent worldwide racial hierarchies that have developed today. Cultural values cannot be measured, and therefore have no predictive value. Colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
ended fifty years ago: is it still a credible force? Continuing, widespread, systematic discrimination is implausible, especially in regions such as Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where the most successful groups like the Chinese are only small minorities. The standard theories also fail to explain why East Asians and European Jews arrive as impoverished minorities yet within two or three generations proceed to join the elites.
Lynn argues that racial differences in IQ map directly to all of these worldwide social hierarchies. He also notes that an explanation based on differences in IQ explain why mixed-race populations consistently fall between their parent populations, in terms of social problems and achievements.
See also
- Dominant minorityDominant minorityA dominant minority, also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants, is a group that has overwhelming political, economic or cultural dominance in a country or region despite representing a small fraction of the overall population...
- Model minorityModel minorityModel minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. It is most commonly used to label one ethnic minority higher achieving than another ethnic minority...
- World on FireWorld on FireWorld On Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability is a 2002 book published by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua...
- William H. TuckerWilliam H. TuckerWilliam H. Tucker is a professor of psychology at Rutgers University and the author of several books critical of race science.Tucker received his bachelor's degree from Bates College in 1967, and his master's and doctorate from Princeton University...