Portrait of a Race "Scientist"

Here's a takedown of "race realist" J. Philippe Rushton that ought to cause the more intelligent of the aficionados of this quackery a few dyspeptic nights.

The history of science teaches us that many ambitious racists attempted to manufacture scientific evidence for their beliefs. Sooner or later, theft, charlatan style methodology (e.g., the use of skull circumference measurement by Nazi "scientists" during the World War II) and logical inconsistencies resulted in their rejection by the scientific community. A contemporary example of this trend is the work of J. Philippe Rushton. He recently wrote a large number of repetitive articles in which he revived the old-fashioned Nazi method of skull circumference measurement and claimed that Blacks are genetically less intelligent, endowed with smaller brains, oversexed, and more prone to crime and mental disease than Whites. Only some of the numerous methodological flaws in his work are discussed in the present article.

Although Rushton (1988, 1990a, 1991) implied that Blacks are consistently found to have smaller brains than Whites, some of the studies listed in his reviews actually show opposite trends: North American Blacks were superior to American Whites in brain weight (see Tobias, 1970, p. 6:1355 g vs. 1301 g) or were found to have cranial capacities favorably comparable to the average for various samples of Caucasians (see Herskovits, 1930) and number of excess neurons larger than many groups of Caucasoids, for example, the English and the French (see Tobias, 1970, p. 9). In general, skulls from people in countries with poverty and infant malnutrition are smaller regardless of race. This trend is apparent even in Rushton's (1990b) tabularly summary of Herskovits' s review: Caucasoids from Cairo had far smaller crania than North American Negroes (see more details in Cernovsky, 1992). In this respect, Rushton (1990a, 1990b, 1990c) also repeatedly misrepresented findings by Beals, Smith, and Dodd (1984) on cranial capacity. Rushton implied that Beals et al. presented large-scale evidence for racial inferiority of the Blacks with respect to cranial size. De facto, extensive statistical analyses by Beals et al. showed that cranial size varies primarily with climatic zones (e.g., distance from the equator), not race. According to Beals et al., the correlations of brain size to race are spurious: smaller crania are found in warmer climates, irrespective of race.

And, although Rushton misleadingly reported Tobias's (1970) and Herskovits' s (1930) surveys of cranial data as confirming his theory, their data are more consistent with the model presented by Beals et al. As already mentioned, in their reviews, cranial size and number of excess neurons of North American Blacks compared favorably to those of Caucasoids. It is only by pooling their data with data for Negroids from countries in hot climatic zones (notorious for famine and infant malnutrition) that Rushton obtained an illusory support for his postulates.

Rushton's (1988, Table 1) use of brain and cranial size as indicators of intelligence in humans is statistically absurd: Rushton's (1990a) own data showed that brain size and intelligence, in Homo sapiens, are only weakly related (average Pearson r = .18) and the highest correlations reported by Rushton were only .35, implying only 12.3 % of shared variance (see critique by Cernovsky, 1991). In the past decades, even some persons with extremely small cerebral cortices were found by Lorber to have IQs in the superior range (> 120) and performed well in academic settings (Lewin, 1980). Rushton's pseudoscientific writings perpetuate lay public's misconceptions and promote racism.

Rushton (1990a, 1990c, 1991) also misrepresents the evidence for racial differences in brain/body size ratio. For example, Herskovits's (1930) data suggest that there is no consistent Black/ White difference with respect to stature or crania. And, with respect to Rushton's claim about the relationships of the brain/body size ratio to intelligence, this conceptual framework is suitable for some species of animals but not necessarily for the restricted range of data. The comparison of gender differences on three different brain/body indices by Ho, Roessman, Straumfjord, and Monroe (1980) led to inconsistent results (see their tabularly summaries on p. 644). Further empirical data in this field are necessary: Authoritarian statements "about the reality of racial differences," based on conveniently selected trends in the data, do not qualify as a scientific contribution.

Contrary to Rushton's speculations on race and crime, skin color would be a poor predictor of crime rate due to low base rates and very large intragroup variance. His own data (summaries of Interpol statistics, Rushton, 1990c, 1995) can be reinterpreted as showing that relying on race as an indicator of crime leads to 99.8% of false positives (Cernovsky & Litman, 1993a). The average correlations between race and crime are too low and inconsistent to support genetic racial speculations and, in fact, might point to the opposite direction than Rushton postulated (see higher crime rates in Whites than in Blacks in Interpol data analyses, Cernovsky & Litman, 1993b).

[...]

n a similar vein, some of Rushton's references to scientific literature with respects to racial differences in sexual characteristics turned out to be references to a nonscientific semipornographic book and to an article in the Penthouse Forum (see a review in Weizmann, Wiener, Wiesenthal, & Ziegler, 1991). Rushton's claims that fertility rates are higher in Blacks disharmonize with well-known high figures for some Caucasoids such as North American Hutterites (a group of Swiss- German ancestry, see a review in Weizmann et al., 1990, 1991). Rushton' s claims about racial differences with respect to brain, intelligence, crime, sexuality, and fertility (and also twinning rates; see Lynn, 1989a, 1989b; Weizmann et al., 1991) are based on an extremely biased and inadequate review of literature.

Erroneously relying on data based on hospital admission rates, Rushton (1988) concluded that mental disease is more frequent in Blacks than Whites. Members of the lower socioeconomic class are overrepresented in official hospital admission statistics because the private and more confidential treatment resources are not accessible to them. More adequate epidemiological studies by Robins et al. (1984) based on random sampling show no significant link of lifetime prevalence to race except for simple phobias. There were no significant differences with respect to major psychiatric illness or substance abuse (see a more detailed criticism of Rushton's assumptions in this area in Zuckerman & Brody, 1988).

[...]

In summary, although Rushton's writings and public speeches instill the vision of Blacks as small-brained, oversexed criminals who multiply at a fast rate and are afflicted with mental disease, his views are neither based on a bona fide scientific review of literature nor on contemporary scientific methodology. His dogma of bioevolutionary inferiority of Negroids is not supported by empirical evidence. Acceptance of similar theories should not be based on racist prejudice but on objective standards, that is, conceptual and logical consistency and integrity, quality of methods and data, and an analysis of disconfirmatory trends. Rushton's racial theory does not meet any of these standards. (emphasis added)

Hmm, now which "race realist" blogger have we seen painting just such a picture as that in the highlighted passage? Is it any wonder I don't hesitate to call those who peddle this rubbish idiots, Nazis or (most likely) both? Only a bigoted moron would ever buy into the garbage peddled by Rushton, Lynn and all the other race-fixated quacks who lie within the orbit of the Pioneer Fund. Unfortunately, the web bares out that there's no shortage of such idiots in the world, each one of whom thinks himself a member of humanity's intellectual elite. Kruger and Dunning were right after all.

Comments

[spectator]

charlatan style methodology (e.g., the use of skull circumference measurement by Nazi "scientists" during the World War II)

what did you think of that recent article showing that franz boas had also falsified info on skull circumference in the opposite direction. it is too bad that there are so many liars in science :( :(

use of brain and cranial size as indicators of intelligence in humans is statistically absurd

as a spectator in the wars between you and mr. "godless" i was wondering what your take was on this article of his

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/002366.html

he quotes a paper from nature that says

# MRI-based studies estimate a moderate correlation between brain size and intelligence of 0.40 to 0.51
# g was significantly linked to differences in the volume of frontal grey matter, which were determined primarily by genetic factors... the volume of frontal grey matter had additional predictive validity for g even after the predictive effect of total brain volume was factored out

[Abiola Lapite]

"what did you think of that recent article showing that franz boas had also falsified info on skull circumference in the opposite direction."

Even if it were true, of what relevance is it to me? Unlike certain quacks, I've never made any claims about what skull circumference must be, let alone using Boas' data.

"as a spectator in the wars between you and mr. "godless" i was wondering what your take was on this article of his"

Here are my thoughts:

1 - Brain size and skull size are not one and the same thing.

2 - Even on the assumption they were, a single study showing a correlation of 0.4 to 0.5 would not in itself suffice to wipe out all the other studies showing much, much lower correlations.

3 - Even on the assumption that it actually did hold up within "races", it wouldn't tell you anything about the relationship between them, and twin studies, by definition, are between people of the same "race."

In short, the post you link to is a typical snow job by that quack, yet another in his long list of attempts to blind the rubes with superfluous detail.

[Mrs Tilton]

I don't know, Abiola. After all, Rushton has done important work to show that black men are, emm, more impressively equipped than white men, and can also (I believe he carried out his research on this point in a shopping mall) ejaculate farther.

I am in no position to verify Rushton's findings (nor, to be sure, much interested in doing so). But surely his, ahem, seminal investigations merit their place in the pantheon of science, if only for their entertainment value.

On a more serious note, I would suggest that hearing somebody cite Rushton as evidence for their views is a good signal that is time to stop listening to them.

[Joseph Hertzlinger]

It's only a matter of time before Rushton's line of research is called "fake but accurate."

[Abiola Lapite]

"Fake But Accurate" - An inspired choice of words, and exactly the attitude displayed by those who lean on this rubbish. To borrow another phrase, if Rushton's work tells "essential truths", what does it matter if contains the odd lie or two?

[Frank McGahon]

"Fake but Accurate": the thread which connects Andrew Gilligan, Greg Dyke, Lynn & Vanhanen, Rushton and the Killian Memos!

[spectator]

hello again,

-i have just read the article, it comes from Vol. 25, Journal of Black Studies, 07-01-1995, pp 672.

Is the "Journal of Black Studies" a peer reviewed scientific journal?

-the artical from nature has more than one mri and brain voluem study. most are dated after 1995. do you knwo if mr. cernosvky has a recent critique.

-another thing, this is aother thing the mr. "godless" talsk about a lot.

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/000808.html

Check out the atlas' website. You can listen to the full interview here. GNXP readers can pick up a mild HBD angle at around 2 minutes & 40 seconds, when the interviewer asks about the contrasts in the multi-nation survey, Dr. John Maziotta responds that there are "...differences between Asian brains and European brains...brains in Asian populations tend to be spherical...European brains tend to be more elongated...this must be some aspect of evolution and how the genetics of the brain determine its shape and structure...." My initial thought was that Europeans are more dolichocephalic and Asians are more bachycephalic, long-headed vs. short-headed, but this seems like too simple of an answer.

Do you know if Professor Maziotta is also involved with racist or right-wing activity.

i think you have done good work by criticizing the racists because i think all research on race and intelligence should illegal. the arguments against mr. "godless" should be made which is why i am asking you because i do not know this area but we should also have laws to stop people from making racist comments and doing racist research.

race and intelligence research is racist by default as mr cernovsky has shown and should be illegal. do you agree.

[Berni Allen]

I have read through many pappers and books which make repeated attempts to exposes J. Phillippe Rushton's work for the nonesence and bigotry it endorses, including many Gentic studies. However, none have done quit as good of a job as you have..

"From a 21 year old Layman".. Good Stuff!

[tyroneslothrop]

Dear Spectator,

What article "recently" showed that Boas falsified data? Here is a 2003 article from American Anthropologist showing that Boas did not falsify anything and that, indeed, he was right:

http://gravlee.org/gravleeetal03a.pdf

And here is a discussion about Sparks and Jantz work:

http://gravlee.org/gravlee03b.pdf

If you have Anthrosource you should be able to get the Sparks and Jantz paper as well. However, it should be clear that Sparks and Jantz did not claim that Boas falsified any data and indeed in their piece in AA concede much.