The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life Read online

  THE BELL CURVE

  Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

  RICHARD J. HERRNSTEIN

  Simon & Schuster

  The Bell Curve Phenomenon

  “The Bell Curve’s implications will be as profound for the beginning of the new century as Michael Harrington’s discovery of ‘the other America’ was for the final part of the old. Richard Herrnstein’s bequest to us is a work of great value. Charles Murray’s contribution goes on.”

  —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Commentary

  “[The authors] have been cast as racists and elitists and The Bell Curve has been dismissed as pseudoscience…. The book’s message cannot be dismissed so easily. Herrnstein and Murray have written one of the most provocative social science books published in many years…. This is a superbly written and exceedingly well documented book.”

  —Prof. Thomas J. Bouchard, Contemporary Psychology

  “The Bell Curve is a comprehensive treatment of its subject, never mean-spirited or gloating. It gives a fair hearing to those who dissent scientifically from its propositions—in fact, it bends over backward to be fair…. Among the dozens of hostile articles that have thus far appeared, none has successfully refuted any of its science.”

  —Christopher Caldwell, American Spectator

  “Mr. Murray and Mr. Herrnstein write that ‘for the last 30 years, the concept of intelligence has been a pariah in the world of ideas,’ and that the time has come to rehabilitate rational discourse on the subject. It is hard to imagine a democratic society doing otherwise.”

  —Malcolme W. Browne, The New York Times Book Review

  “Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray might not feel at home with Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Lani Guinier, but they should…. They have all [made] brave attempts to force a national debate on urgent matters that will not go away. And they have met the same fate. Once again, academia and the mass media are straining every muscle to suppress debate.”

  —Prof. Eugene D. Genovese, National Review

  “The first reactions to The Bell Curve were expressions of public outrage. In the second round of reaction, some commentators suggested that Herrnstein and Murray were merely bringing up facts that were well known in the scientific community, but perhaps best not discussed in public. A Papua New Guinea language has a term for this, Mokita. It means ‘truth that we all know, but agree not to talk about.’ … There are fascinating questions here for those interested in the interactions between sociology, economics, anthropology and cognitive science. We do not have the answers yet. We may need them soon, for policy makers who rely on Mokita are flying blind.”

  —Prof. Earl Hunt, American Scientist

  “From beginning to end, it is apparent that Herrnstein and Murray are eminently reasonable, responsible, civilized and compassionate human beings. Throughout their work opposing arguments and schools of thought are assiduously canvassed. Readers are alerted over and over again to contrary views and differing interpretations of the evidence presented. The expository chapters are written without jargon. The prose is exceptionally lucid, often elegant; far from being a boring, heavy-footed tome, the book is a good read from start to finish.”

  —Prof. E. L. Patullo, Society

  “This is one of the most sober, responsible, thorough and thoughtful books to be published in years. I don’t happen to agree with everything in it, but that is beside the point.”

  —Thomas Sowell, author of Race and Culture: A World View

  FREE PRESS PAPERBACKS

  A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, N.Y. 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1994 by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  First Free Press Paperback Edition 1996

  FREE PRESS PAPERBACK and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Herrnstein, Richard J.

  The bell curve: intelligence and class structure in American life/ Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray.—1st Free Press paperback ed.

  p. cm.—(A Free Press paperbacks book)

  Originally published: New York: Free Press, © 1994.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-6848-2429-1

  ISBN-10: 0-684-82429-9

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4391-3491-7

  1. Intellect. 2. Nature and nurture. 3. Intelligence levels—United States. 4. Intelligence levels—Social aspects—United States. 5. Educational psychology. I. Murray, Charles A.

  II. Title.

  [BF431.H398 1996]

  305.9′082—dc20 95-42934

  CIP

  Afterword copyright © 1995 by Charles Murray, adapted from Commentary; used by permission. All rights reserved.

  For JULIA, MAX, JAMES, NARISARA, SARAWAN, ANNA, AND BENNETT

  We wrote with your world in our thoughts

  There is a most absurd and audacious Method of reasoning avowed by some Bigots and Enthusiasts, and through Fear assented to by some wiser and better Men; it is this. They argue against a fair Discussion of popular Prejudices, because, say they, tho’ they would be found without any reasonable Support, yet the Discovery might be productive of the most dangerous Consequences. Absurd and blasphemous Notion! As if all Happiness was not connected with the Practice of Virtue, which necessarily depends upon the Knowledge of Truth.

  EDMUND BURKE A Vindication of Natural Society

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Tables

  A Note to the Reader

  Preface

  Acknowledgments

  INTRODUCTION

  PART I. THE EMERGENCE OF A COGNITIVE ELITE

  1 Cognitive Class and Education, 1900-1990

  2 Cognitive Partitioning by Occupation

  3 The Economic Pressure to Partition

  4 Steeper Ladders, Narrower Gates

  PART II. COGNITIVE CLASSES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

  5 Poverty

  6 Schooling

  7 Unemployment, Idleness, and Injury

  8 Family Matters

  9 Welfare Dependency

  10 Parenting

  11 Crime

  12 Civility and Citizenship

  PART III. THE NATIONAL CONTEXT

  13 Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability

  14 Ethnic Inequalities in Relation to IQ

  15 The Demography of Intelligence

  16 Social Behavior and the Prevalence of Low Cognitive Ability

  PART IV. LIVING TOGETHER

  17 Raising Cognitive Ability

  18 The Leveling of American Education

  19 Affirmative Action in Higher Education

  20 Affirmative Action in the Workplace

  21 The Way We Are Headed

  22 A Place for Everyone

  AFTERWORD

  APPENDIXES

  1 Statistics for People Who Are Sure They Can’t Learn Statistics

  2 Technical Issues Regarding the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

  3 Technical Issues Regarding the Armed Forces Qualification Test as a Measure of IQ

  4 Regression Analyses from Part II

  5 Supplemental Material for Chapter 13

  6 Regression Analyses from Chapter 1
4

  7 The Evolution of Affirmative Action in the Workplace

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  List of Illustrations

  In the twentieth century, the prevalence of the college degree goes from one in fifty to a third of the population

  At mid-century, America abruptly becomes more efficient in getting the top students to college

  Between the 1920s and the 1960s, college attendance becomes much more closely pegged to IQ

  Cognitive sorting continues from the time that students enter college to the time they get a degree

  Cognitive stratification in colleges by 1961

  Americans with and without a college education as of 1930

  Americans with and without a college education as of 1990

  The top IQ decile becomes rapidly more concentrated in high-IQ professions from 1940 onward

  In fifty years, the education of the typical CEO increases from high school to graduate school

  The variation among individuals that lies behind a significant correlation coefficient

  The advantages of hiring by test score

  Engineers’ salaries as an example of how intelligence became more valuable in the 1950s

  The high-IQ occupations also are well-paid occupations

  Defining the cognitive classes

  Dramatic progress against poverty from World War II through the 1960s, stagnation since then

  The comparative roles of IQ and parental SES in determining whether young white adults are below the poverty line

  In the white high school sample, high IQ makes a difference in avoiding poverty; in the college sample, hardly anyone was poor

  The role of the mother’s IQ in determining which white children are poor

  The role of the mother’s socioeconomic background in determining which white children are poor

  In the first half of the century, the high school diploma becomes the norm

  In predicting which white youths will never complete a high school education, IQ is more important than SES

  For temporary dropouts, the importance of SES increases sharply

  For white youths, being smart is more important than being privileged in getting a college degree

  Since mid-century, teenage boys not in school are increasingly not employed either

  IQ and socioeconomic background have opposite effects on leaving the labor force among white men

  High IQ lowers the probability of a month-long spell of unemployment among white men, while socioeconomic background has no effect

  In the early 1970s, the marriage rate began a prolonged decline for no immediately apparent reason

  High IQ raises the probability of marriage for the white high school sample, while high socioeconomic background lowers it

  The divorce revolution

  IQ and socioeconomic background have opposite effects on the likelihood of an early divorce among young whites

  The illegitimacy revolution

  IQ has a large effect on white illegitimate births independent of the mother’s socioeconomic background

  IQ is a more powerful predictor of illegitimacy among poor white women than among white women as a whole

  The welfare revolution

  Even after poverty and marital status are taken into account, IQ played a substantial role in determining whether white women go on welfare

  Socioeconomic background and IQ are both important in determining whether white women become chronic welfare recipients

  A white mother’s IQ has a significant role in determining whether her baby is underweight while her socioeconomic background does not

  A white mother’s IQ and socioeconomic background each has a large independent effect on her child’s chances of spending the first three years of life in poverty

  A white mother’s IQ is more important than her socioeconomic background in predicting the worst home environments

  Both a white mother’s IQ and socioeconomic background have moderate relationships with developmental problems in the child

  A white mother’s IQ dominates the importance of socioeconomic background in determining the child’s IQ

  The boom in violent crime after the 1950s

  On two diverse measures of crime, the importance of IQ dominates socioeconomic background for white men

  Cognitive ability and the Middle Class Values index

  Overview of studies of reporting black-white differences in cognitive test scores, 1918-1990

  The black and white IQ distributions in the NLSY, Version I

  The black and white IQ distributions in the NLSY, Version II

  Black IQ scores go up with socioeconomic status, but the black-white difference does not shrink

  After controlling for IQ, the probability of graduating from college is about the same for whites and Latinos, higher for blacks

  After controlling for IQ, blacks and Latinos have substantially higher probabilities than whites of being in a high-IQ occupation

  After controlling for IQ, ethnic wage differentials shrink from thousands to a few hundred dollars

  Controlling for IQ cuts the poverty differential by 77 percent for blacks and 74 percent for Latinos

  After controlling for IQ, the ethnic discrepancy in male unemployment shrinks by more than half for blacks and disappears for Latinos

  Controlling for IQ explains little of the large black-white difference in marriage rates

  Controlling for IQ narrows the Latino-white difference in illegitimacy but leaves a large gap between blacks and whites

  Controlling for IQ cuts the gap in black-white welfare rates by half and the Latino-white gap by 84 percent

  Even among poor mothers, controlling for IQ does not diminish the black-white disparity in welfare recipiency

  Controlling for IQ cuts the black-white disparity in low-birth-weight babies by half

  Controlling for IQ reduces the discrepancy between minority and white children living in poverty by more than 80 percent

  Controlling for IQ cuts the ethnic disparity in home environments by half for blacks and more than 60 percent for Latinos

  Controlling for IQ more than eliminates overall ethnic differences in the developmental indexes

  Based on national norms, high percentages of minority children remain in the bottom decile of IQ after controlling for the mother’s IQ

  Controlling for IQ cuts the black-white difference in incarceration by almost three-quarters

  The MCV Index, before and after controlling for IQ

  The higher the education, the fewer the babies

  Fertility falls as educational level rises in similar fashion for black, white, and Latino women

  The swing in social problems that can result from small shifts in the mean IQ of a population

  Forty-eight percent of the poor in 1989 came from the bottom 20 percent in intelligence

  Two-thirds of high school dropouts came from the bottom 20 percent in intelligence

  Seventeen percent of the men who worked year-round in 1989 were in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Sixty-four percent of able-bodied men who did not work in 1989 were in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Twenty-nine percent of able-bodied men who were temporarily out of work in 1989 were in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Sixty-two percent of men ever interviewed in jail or prison came from the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Forty-five percent of women who ever received welfare were in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Fifty-seven percent of chronic welfare recipients were in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Fifty-two percent of illegitimate children were born to mothers in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Thirty-one percent of children living with divorced or separated mothers had mothers with IQs in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Forty-five percent of low-birth-weight babies had mot
hers in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence

  Fifty-six percent of all children from the bottom decile in home environment were born to mothers in the bottom 20 percent of intelligence