[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Gifted Children

[Shaun Hately]

> I wrote:
> > > 
> > > I think it is probably very difficult to take an objective view of 
> > > intelligence testing if your experience is that it has been 
> >>abused  in this manner.
> 
> Shaun said:
> > Yes - but Gould was a scientist. And more specifically, he was 
> >a specialist in  (among other things) the history of science. As 
> >such, he had a responsibility to be  objective.
> > 
> > There have been other objective and balanced works on these 
> >ssues that exposed  all the same practices that Gould did. But 
> >they did it without ignoring evidence, and 
> > without misrepresenting studies. Gould did both of those 
> >things in 'Mismeasure of  Man'.
> 
> Objectivity and balance are of limited use against propaganda, 
> unfortunately. My understanding is The Mismeasure of Man 
> (1999) was written to counter the influence of books like 
> Hernstein and Murray's The Bell Curve (1996) , which I have 
> read, and didn't find to be a work of scientific detachment, to say 
> the least. 

The Mismeasure of Man certainly wasn't written to counter the influence of 'The Bell 
Curve' - not unless Gould was a time traveller (-8 'The Mismeasure of Man' was 
published in 1981 - it has been republished since, twice, I believe.

'The Bell Curve' certainly isn't a credible scientific work either - but if anything it was 
written to counter Gould's bias rather than vice versa. Fighting bias with bias is 
never justified, in my opinion.

> I see that The Bell Curve is outselling TMoM at Amazon  
> to this day,  sales rank 12,408 over 19,379.  Fighting fire with fire 
> is debatable, but the point is, there's a fire to be fought. Blaming 
> Gould for the controversy around intelligence testing instead of 
> the  people trying to use it for social engineering  seems a bit 
> like shooting the messenger.

Gould was not merely a messenger. Gould chose to produce a biased work by 
refusing to consider or even acknowledge any research that did not support his 
position.  Well over 400 studies of intelligence between 1920 and 1980. 
Approximately a dozen of these contain serious and significant prejudice. These are 
the only ones Gould used in his book. He took 3% of the study and claimed it was 
representative of the other 97% as well. It wasn't.

It's actually very similar to what Hernstein and Murray did in the Bell Curve - they 
chose to use only those studies that supported their position and claimed that they 
were indicative of all work done in the area of intelligence analysis - which they 
were not.

Now, if Gould's work, was the only piece of work that addressed the fact that 
intelligence testing has been misused at times, it would have more value. But there 
have been other critiques - numerous other critiques - which showed this without 
displaying and promoting the authors bias.

Gould isn't just a messenger - he's deliberately spun the message for his political 
ends. And he did not do so in a honest fashion - he ignored any data that did not 
meet his prejudices.

And, BTW, Mismeasure of Man has sold about 8 times as many copies as the Bell 
Curve - it's been around a lot longer.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in
common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter
the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen
to be one of the facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who:
The Face of Evil | Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia