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<p>On average, there is a 15 IQ points gap between whites and blacks. Is there a scientific consensus on whether this gap is explained by nature/genetics, nurture/environment, or both?</p>

<p>This NYT article refers to a quote from Dr Francis Collins saying that most experts on intelligence “<em>consider any black-white differences in I.Q. testing to arise primarily from environmental, not genetic, differences.</em>”</p>

<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/science/watson-dna-genetics-race.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/science/watson-dna-genetics-race.html</a></p>

<p>Is that true, or is he being politically correct?</p>

<p>The article also mentions James Watson's unchanged views that the gap is explained mostly by genetics. It refers to his infamous comment on black people's intelligence being the same as whites:
“<em>people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.</em>”</p>

<p>After looking at the bell curves, I am afraid I would never look at a black/african person the same again. I never thought that science would teach me to be racist.</p>

<hr>

<p>Edit: My thread may share the same 'topic' with others, but it is not a duplicate. I am asking more specific questions with regards to the scientific consensus on the matter, and whether Dr Collins statement in the NYT article is true. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-08T22:44:14.210Z
Also https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20630/how-do-psychologists-ensure-they-are-measuring-innate-intelligence-and-not-just https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20652/iq-gap-by-race-truth-or-myth
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-08T22:44:50.837Z
And https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/17486/what-does-it-mean-for-there-to-be-more-variance-within-groups-than-between-group
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-09T03:32:04.737Z
I strongly encourage you to read all the answers for the many other questions on this topic that I linked and try to form your own view of the evidence. I'd probably rephrase Collins' statement to be something closer to "black-white differences in IQ can be explained by environmental differences". There's no "arise primarily from" here - when race is confounded by environment the differences are not statistically separable. However, it is *definitely* irresponsible to take this ambiguity and make claims about racial superiority, and that's the crux of Collins' statement.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-09T07:37:49.520Z
The problem with your question is how do we define consensus. Then NYT cited some contrary opinions. I'm not sure there is a poll of scientists/experts on this. Actually, I may be wrong about that https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804158/
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-09T13:36:32.673Z
The scientific consensus is that environmental impact especially inequality, differences in educational access, discrimination, etc etc is the main cause of the discrepancy. Believing IQ is genetic contributes to racism.
Poidah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-11T00:38:53.703Z
I'm coming into this discussion late. It's a very controversial topic, for good reason. But from a purely objective perspective, I don't this question is a duplicate of the other two. I think one existing question is asking about whether racial differences in IQ are reduced by knowledge-free tests and the other question is quite focused on the claims of a specific BBC article.
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-11T02:38:09.213Z
This article "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was published in 1994 and signed by 52 "experts" in the field: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.366.7808&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Not sure if much has changed since then.
mhmhsh
<iq><genetics><nature-nurture>
Is there a scientific consensus on the cause of IQ gap by race?
mhmhsh
# Is there a scientific consensus on the cause of IQ gap by race?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-08)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/mUmj0.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/mUmj0.png)

On average, there is a 15 IQ points gap between whites and blacks. Is there a scientific consensus on whether this gap is explained by nature/genetics, nurture/environment, or both?

This NYT article refers to a quote from Dr Francis Collins saying that most experts on intelligence “*consider any black-white differences in I.Q. testing to arise primarily from environmental, not genetic, differences.*”

<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/science/watson-dna-genetics-race.html>

Is that true, or is he being politically correct?

The article also mentions James Watson's unchanged views that the gap is explained mostly by genetics. It refers to his infamous comment on black people's intelligence being the same as whites:
“*people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.*”

After looking at the bell curves, I am afraid I would never look at a black/african person the same again. I never thought that science would teach me to be racist.

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Edit: My thread may share the same 'topic' with others, but it is not a duplicate. I am asking more specific questions with regards to the scientific consensus on the matter, and whether Dr Collins statement in the NYT article is true.

**Tags:** iq, genetics, nature-nurture

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Also https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20630/how-do-psychologists-ensure-they-are-measuring-innate-intelligence-and-not-just https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20652/iq-gap-by-race-truth-or-myth  
> **username_1**: And https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/17486/what-does-it-mean-for-there-to-be-more-variance-within-groups-than-between-group  
> **username_1**: I strongly encourage you to read all the answers for the many other questions on this topic that I linked and try to form your own view of the evidence. I'd probably rephrase Collins' statement to be something closer to "black-white differences in IQ can be explained by environmental differences". There's no "arise primarily from" here - when race is confounded by environment the differences are not statistically separable. However, it is *definitely* irresponsible to take this ambiguity and make claims about racial superiority, and that's the crux of Collins' statement.  
> **username_2**: The problem with your question is how do we define consensus. Then NYT cited some contrary opinions. I'm not sure there is a poll of scientists/experts on this. Actually, I may be wrong about that https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804158/  
> **username_3**: The scientific consensus is that environmental impact especially inequality, differences in educational access, discrimination, etc etc is the main cause of the discrepancy. Believing IQ is genetic contributes to racism.  
> **username_4**: I'm coming into this discussion late. It's a very controversial topic, for good reason. But from a purely objective perspective, I don't this question is a duplicate of the other two. I think one existing question is asking about whether racial differences in IQ are reduced by knowledge-free tests and the other question is quite focused on the claims of a specific BBC article.  
> **username_0**: This article "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was published in 1994 and signed by 52 "experts" in the field: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.366.7808&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Not sure if much has changed since then.  

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## 0 answers

