Why Sam Harris is Wrong About Race, Genes and IQ
Channel: Science versus Propaganda
Date: 2019-10-04

In which we explore some introductory genetics and learn from Sam Harris’s mistakes.

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Footnote 1: Although Harris doesn’t explicitly state that the racial difference is (partly) genetic in this introduction, that is the implication that runs throughout the interview. He explicitly says so in the follow-up interview with Ezra Klein.

“[Charles Murray’s] simply suggested that there’s good reason to believe that genes and environment both play a part. That is a safe assumption for basically everything we care about physically and mentally. That is as safe an assumption in behavioral genetics as can be made. … We don’t know how much, I’m not saying that we know that the differences between various groups in IQ is all genetic, or even mostly genetic. But it’s certainly prudent to assume that genes are involved for basically every difference we’re going to find.”


Sam Harris Podcast and response:

Sam Harris interviews Charles Murray in “Forbidden Knowledge”: https://samharris.org/podcasts/forbidden-knowledge/

“Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ”, Eric Turkheimer, Kathryn Paige Harden & Richard E. Nisbett 2017,  https://www.vox.com/the-big- idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech

“There’s still no good reason to believe black-white IQ differences are due to genes”, Eric Turkheimer, Kathryn Paige Harden & Richard E. Nisbett 2017,  https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/6/15/15797120/race-black-white-iq-response-critics

The Sam Harris & Ezra Klein debate: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/9/17210248/sam-harris-ezra-klein-charles-murray-transcript-podcast

Further Reading:

The Murray Fallacy and the Heritability of Bias, Nathan Harvey 2018, https://medium.com/@n.k.h.73908513321516/the-murray-fallacy-and-the-heritability-of-bias-c20c2381fe27

“Why genetic IQ differences between 'races' are unlikely”, Kevin Mitchell 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/may/02/why-genetic-iq-differences-between-races-are-unlikely

Heredity, environment, and race differences in IQ: A commentary on Rushton and Jensen (2005), Richard Nisbett 2005, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.11.2.302

“Not In Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature”, Steven Rose, Richard Lewontin & Leon J. Kamin 1990

g, a Statistical Myth, Cosma Rohilla Shalizi 2007, http://bactra.org/weblog/523.html

“Individual and Group Differences in Adoption Studies of IQ”, Eric Turkheimer 1991, http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/(70)%20Turkheimer%20(1991).pdf

“Origin of Race Differences in Intelligence is Not a Scientific Question”, Eric Turkheimer 2017, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0b0f/1fe5d6d804b84672243f35e8e525f57b0609.pdf

“Heritability and Malleability in Individuals and Groups”, Eric Turkheimer 2018, http://www.geneticshumanagency.org/gha/heritability-and-malleability-in-individuals-and-groups/

“Why Marital Status is Heritable”, Eric Turkheimer 2018, http://www.geneticshumanagency.org/gha/why-marital-status-is-heritable/

“She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity”, Carl Zimmer 2018, https://carlzimmer.com/books/she-has-her-mothers-laugh/