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| During ] the ] had difficulty training low-] military recruits; this led Congress to ban enlistment by those with an IQ below 80. | During ] the ] had difficulty training low-] military recruits; this led Congress to ban enlistment by those with an IQ below 80. | ||
| The term fell out of use after eugenic thought lost popularity in the 1930s, and when used again by the ] ] in his controversial advocacy of |
The term fell out of use after eugenic thought lost popularity in the 1930s, and when used again by the ] ] in his controversial advocacy of eugenics it received bad press. | ||
| ''Dysgenics: Genetic deterioration in modern populations'' is also the title of a controversial ] book by the psychologist ], in which he argued that intelligence in Western nations had been decreasing due to dysgenics and conjectures that China may overtake the West due to continued deterioration of intelligence in the Western nations, especially the USA. | ''Dysgenics: Genetic deterioration in modern populations'' is also the title of a controversial ] book by the psychologist ], in which he argued that intelligence in Western nations had been decreasing due to dysgenics and conjectures that China may overtake the West due to continued deterioration of intelligence in the Western nations, especially the USA. | ||
Revision as of 05:26, 21 March 2006
Dysgenics is the evolutionary weakening of an organism relative to its environment, often due to relaxation of natural selection or the occurrence of negative selection. This can happen when negative mutations occur without ramification to the organism and accumulate in the species.
In biology, "dysgenesis" refers to faulty or abnormal organ or development — in such cases the organ is then said to be dysgenic.
Dysgenics in humans
The term first came into use as an opposite of eugenics, a social philosophy advocating improvement of human hereditary qualities, often by social programs or government intervention.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "dysgenic" was first used as an adjective as early as 1915 to describe the "dysgenic effect" of World War I. Amongst eugenicists of this time period, war was initially thought to have a eugenic effect, as it killed off the less fit men of a population. During WWI, however, it became quickly clear that even the fit men were as likely to die from modern warfare as anyone else, and war was seen as killing off only the physically fit male members of the population whilst the disabled stayed safely at home.
During World War II the United States had difficulty training low-IQ military recruits; this led Congress to ban enlistment by those with an IQ below 80.
The term fell out of use after eugenic thought lost popularity in the 1930s, and when used again by the Nobel laureate William Shockley in his controversial advocacy of eugenics it received bad press.
Dysgenics: Genetic deterioration in modern populations is also the title of a controversial 1996 book by the psychologist Richard Lynn, in which he argued that intelligence in Western nations had been decreasing due to dysgenics and conjectures that China may overtake the West due to continued deterioration of intelligence in the Western nations, especially the USA.
This used to be contrasted with the Flynn effect, the steady increase of IQ in Asian and Western nations during the 20th century. Current research shows that the Flynn effect might have already ended around 1990 in several European nations.
References
James F. Crow. 1997. The high spontaneous mutation rate: Is it a health risk? Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 8380-8386.
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