The Bell Curve
Introduction
The Bell Curve is the work of, Charles Murray a political scientist and Richard J. Herrnstein a psychologist. In their book, these two argue that human intelligence is influenced by factors such as genetics and environmental factor. They debate that people with poor genetics live in poor areas, attend poor schools, and become poor in life while those who are born with intelligence as part of their genetics live in conducive areas and good neighborhoods, attends good schools and become rich later in life. This definition has been said to be biased but that is not the case since research conducted proofs that intelligence is associated with genetics and environment.
In their work, they associate poverty with people of low intelligence since they do not go beyond and try to eradicate poverty. Low grades in schools are associated with low intelligence, students with low intelligence have a high chance of dropping out of school and a low chance of even attaining a college degree. People with low intelligence are always associated with unemployment and idleness and a high percentage of themselves end up involving themselves in crime. Marriages build by these people mostly end up with divorce, some people do not even get married and end up with children from wedlock. Children born of these people tend to be more dependent on other people. These people tend not to care about the politics of their nation and often fail to vote (Conley, & Domingue, 2016). This conclusion drawn from many pieces of researches proves that these two had no intentions of being biased in their work.
Herrnstein and Murray can be said to be more truthful than biased. People with high intelligence associate with each other. Looking at the society we live in, high school graduates with high intelligence are graduating and going to top colleges where they interact and form relationships with each other, and then later start working at top jobs offered to people with high intelligence. These top jobs help them to afford to live in luxurious estates. These people later give birth to children with intelligence similar to theirs. These children follow in the footsteps of their parents and continue that cycle. Looking back in history sons and daughters of intelligent men became intelligent. An example is the greatest composer Johnathan Sebastian Bach, his son Wilhelm Friedmann rose to be a great composer just like his father (Ragin, & Fiss, 2017). This child born to a great intelligent composer becomes a great composer too, this is explained by the fact that he inherited the genetics of his father and also because he was raised in an environment of a composer. This is evidence enough that intelligence is inherited genetically and is also influenced by the environment.
Intelligence just like any other factors is determined by the genetics and environment. Research conducted on the genes that influence intelligence found out that quite a large number of genes are involved, each gene making its own contribution to an individual’s level of intelligence. Intelligence is something that can easily be influenced by the environment surrounding an individual. Taking an example of a child who is raised by good parents, given a good education and raised in a good neighborhood free of crime, the child has high chances of being intelligent since the environmental factors surrounding the child are conducive (Bartholomew, 2004). This is proof that genetics and environment play a major role in determining the intelligence of an individual.
In society, people of the same social class associate themselves with each other. People of high intelligence associate themselves with people with the same intelligence. These intelligent people build their own communities where they grow each other. They build a society with good schools where their children attend and associate with each other. The people with low intelligence also form their own societies, unlike the societies of those with high intelligence these societies are filled with poor people, crime is the order of the day in these societies, they have schools where their children attend, these schools are poorly equipped (Devlin, 1997). The environment that surrounds the low intelligent children affects their intelligence much further. It is pure truth that the environment has effects on intelligence and the authors had no intention of being biased towards the communities of the poor.
Conclusion
The Bell Curve is the work of two authors who set out to explain that the level of an individual’s IQ is determined by the genes they inherit from their parents and the environment that surrounds them. According to them, people of high intelligent become productive in society while those with low intelligent tend to become poor people in society. The environment is a major factor that affects intelligence, children whom their parents are living in a poor neighborhood attend poor schools and becomes poor later in life while children whom their parents are living in a rich neighborhood attend good schools and becomes a productive people later in life. People with high intelligence tend to live in the same communities while people with low intelligence tend to live in the same communities. The work of these two authors cannot be referred to as biased since the facts that they were arguing out can clearly be seen in today’s society.
References
Devlin, B. (1997). Intelligence, genes, and success: Scientists respond to The Bell Curve. New York: Springer.
Bartholomew, D. J. (2004). Measuring intelligence: Facts and fallacies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
An Introduction to Hernstein & Murray’s The Bell Curve – A Macat Psychology Analysis”. Retrieved from; https://youtu.be/T67Uvx46s4o
Conley, D., & Domingue, B. (2016). The Bell Curve Revisited: Testing Controversial Hypotheses with Molecular Genetic Data. Sociological science, 3, 520–539. doi:10.15195/v3.a23
Ragin, C. C., & Fiss, P. C. (2017). Intersectional inequality: Race, class, test scores, and poverty. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago press.
