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Dysgenics

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In population genetics, dysgenics is a term describing the progressive evolutionary "weakening" or genetic deterioration of a population of organisms relative to their environment, often due to relaxation of natural selection or the occurrence of negative selection. The antonym of dysgenic is eugenic (see also eugenics).

On the basis of numerous studies carried out over the past few decades, genotypic IQ is estimated to be declining at a rate between 0.57 and 1.6 points per generation throughout the United States (and possibly faster throughout the African-American subpopulation). Note that during this time, phenotypic IQ has been rising due to the Flynn Effect.

Scientific Investigation

See also: Heritability of IQ

The scientific community has focused most on declining intelligence throughout the first world; demographic studies indicate that, in affluent nations, women with higher IQs and better education have much lower reproductive rates than women with lower IQs and less education. Because IQ and education are both known to have high additive heritability, these reproductive trends have led to concern regarding the future of intelligence in these nations.

Early Research

Some of the first studies into the subject were carried out on individuals living before the advent of IQ testing, in the late 19th century; researchers checked for dysgenic trends by looking at the fertility of men listed in WHO's WHO, these individuals being presumably of high intelligence. These men, taken as a whole, had few children, implying the existence of a dysgenic trend.

But more rigorous studies carried out on those alive during the Second World War returned more optimistic results suggesting a slight eugenic trend, or at least the absence of dysgenesis with respect to intelligence. The findings from these investigations were consistent enough for Osborn and Bajema, writing as late as 1972, to conclude that fertility patterns were eugenic, and that "the reproductive trend toward an increase in the frequency of genes associated with higher IQ... will probably continue in the foreseeable future in the United States and will be found also in other industrial welfare-state democracies." But reviewers considered the findings premature, claiming that the samples were nationally unrepresentative, generally being confined to whites born between 1910 and 1940 in the Great Lakes States. Other researchers also began to report a dysgenic decline in the 1960s after two decades of neutral or eugenic fertility.

In 1982, Daniel Vining sought to address these issues in a large study on the fertility of over 10,000 individuals throughout the United States, who were then aged 25 to 34. The average fertility in his study was correlated at -0.86 with IQ for white women and -0.96 for black women, which Vining claimed to indicate a drop in the genotypic average IQ of 1.6 points per generation for the white population, and 2.4 points per generation for the black population. in considering these results along with those from earlier researchers, Vining wrote that "in periods of rising birth rates, persons with higher intelligence tend to have fertility equal to, if not exceeding, that of the population as a whole," but, "The recent decline in fertility thus seems to have restored the dysgenic trend observed for a comparable period of falling fertility between 1850 and 1940."

To address the concern that the fertility of this sample could not be considered complete, Vining carried out a follow-up study for the same sample 18 years later, reporting "the same negative relationship is found between IQ and fertility," although "the overall decline in mean IQ implied by these data is less".

Later research

Regardless of the methodology employed, later research has generally supported that of Vining.

In 1988 study, Retherford and Sewell found the now well known inverse relationship between IQ and fertility, noting that if children had, on average, the same IQ as their parents, IQ would decline by .81 points per generation. Taking .71 for the additive heritability of IQ as given by Jinks & Fulker, they calculated a dysgenic decline of .57 IQ points per generation.

In 2004 Richard Lynn and Marian Van Court attempted a straightforward replication of Vining's work. Their study returned similar results, with the genotypic decline measuring at 0.9 IQ points per generation for the total sample and 0.75 IQ points for whites only. It should be noted that Richard Lynn and Van Court are controversial figures; Van Court has written for Occidental Quarterly, "a magazine that espouses white nationalism" and Lynn has been criticized by other scholars for distorting and misrepresenting data on previous occasions although other scholars have favorably reviewed Lynn's work on dysgenics.

Another way of checking the negative relationship between IQ and fertility is to consider the relationship which educational attainment has to fertility, since education is known to be a reasonable proxy for IQ, correlating with IQ at .55; in a 1999 study examining the relationship between IQ and education in a large national sample, David Rowe and others found not only that achieved education had a high heritability (.68) and that half of the variance in education was explained by an underlying genetic component shared by IQ, education, and SES. One study investigating fertility and education carried out in 1991 found that high school dropouts in America had the most children (2.5 on average), with high school graduates having fewer children, and college graduates having the fewest children (1.56 on average).

Among a sample of women using a reliable form of birth control, success rates were related to IQ, with the percentages of high, medium and low IQ women having unwanted births during a three-year interval being 3%, 8% and 11%, respectively. Another study found that after an unwanted pregnancy has occurred, higher IQ couples are more likely to obtain abortions ; and unmarried teenage girls who become pregnant are found to be more likely to carry their babies to term if they are doing poorly in school. Conversely, while desired family size is apparently the same for women of all IQ levels, highly educated women are found to be more likely to say that they desire more children than they have, indicating a "deficit fertility" in the highly intelligent. In her review of reproductive trends in the United States, Van Court argues that "each factor - from initially employing some form of contraception, to successful implementation of the method, to termination of an accidental pregnancy when it occurs - involves selection against intelligence."

Although much of the research into intelligence and fertility has been sadly restricted to individuals within a single nation (most of them living within the United States), Steven Shatz has recently extended the research into dysgenics internationally; he finds that "There is a strong tendency for countries with lower national IQ scores to have higher fertility rates and for countries with higher national IQ scores to have lower fertility rates."

The Flynn Effect

The most important contraindication to dysgenic declines in IQ has been that IQ scores themselves have not been falling, but rising, in a secular trend which is known as the Flynn Effect. If it is true that the genes underlying IQ have been shifting, it is reasonable to expect that IQ throughout the population should also shift in the same direction, yet the reverse has clearly occurred. However, as pointed out by Retherford & Sewell, genotypic intelligence may fall even while phenotypic intelligence rises because of environmental effects (e.g. better schooling, nutrition, television, and so on). The Flynn Effect has increased IQ scores as much as 15 points throughout the first world, but some researchers claim that this trend now shows signs of reversal, which, if true, would be consistent with the reported dysgenic declines to IQ becoming visible when the environmental mask of the Flynn Effect is removed. See the section on the possible end of the Flynn Effect for further information.

History of the term

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 by David Starr Jordan to describe the "dysgenic effect" of World War I. He believed that 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 while the disabled stayed safely at home.

In the 1930s, Julian Huxley, who later became the first director of UNESCO, was concerned by dysgenics and described eugenics as "of all outlets for altruism, that which is most comprehensive, and of longest range".

In 1963, Weyl and Possony asserted that comparatively small differences in average intelligence can become very large differences in the very high I.Q. ranges. A decline in average psychometric intelligence of only a few points will mean a much smaller population of gifted individuals.

In his 1965 article "Roman Culture and Dysgenic Lead Poisoning" Colum Gillfallen argued that lead used by Romans in plumbing and cooking utensils poisoned the water and food of the Roman elite, causing the decline of the Roman Empire. In 1985, the Gillfallen paper was refuted by Needleman and Needleman. They agree that lead poisoning from cooking utensils was potentially hazardous. However, measurements of lead from bones of Romans and other peoples provide no evidence that the fertility of the Roman elite was adversely affected.

William Shockley (a Nobel laureate in Physics) used the term in his controversial advocacy of eugenics from the mid 1960s through the 1980s; he and his theories were unfavorably portrayed in the press. Shockley argued that "the future of the population was threatened because people with low IQs had more children than those with high IQs," and his theories "became increasingly controversial and race-based".

Robert K. Graham in 1998 argued that genocide and class warfare, in cases ranging from the French Revolution to the present, have had a dysgenic effect through the killing of the more intelligent by the less intelligent, and "might well incline humanity toward a more primitive, more brutish level of evolutionary achievement."

In music, film and literature

  • H. G. Wells' 1895 novel, The Time Machine, describes a future world where humanity has degenerated into two distinct branches who have their roots in the class distinctions of Wells' day. Both have sub-human intelligence and other putative dysgenic traits.
  • Cyril M. Kornbluth's short story "The Marching Morons" is an example of dysgenic fiction.
  • T. J. Bass's novels Half Past Human and The Godwhale describe humanity becoming cooperative and "low-maintenance" to the detriment of all other traits.
  • The 1998 song "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger finds lighthearted humor in dysgenics with the lines "Been around the world and found/That only stupid people are breeding/The cretins cloning and feeding/And I don't even own a tv"
  • The 2003 song "The Idiots Are Taking Over" by NOFX suggests that the effects of dysgenics are already evident.
  • Mike Judge's 2006 film Idiocracy is a comedy about a future where dysgenics has contributed to mass stupidity.
  • The 2007 music video of Korn's song "Evolution" discusses the topic of dysgenics.

See also

References

Cited

  1. Rowe, David C. (1999). "Herrnstein's Syllogism: Genetic and Shared Environmental Influences on IQ, Education, and Income". Intelligence. 26(4): 405–423. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. Neisser, Ulric; et al. (1996). "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns". American Psychologist. 51(2): 77–101. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. Huntington, E., & Whitney, L. The Builders of America. New York: Morrow, 1927.
  4. Kirk, Dudley. "The fertility of a gifted group: A study of the number of children of men in WHO'S WHO." In The Nature and Transmission of the Genetic and Cultural Characteristics of Human Populations. New York: Milbank Memorial Fund, 1957, pp.78-98.
  5. Osborn, F. (1972). "The eugenic hypothesis". Social Biology. 19: 337–345. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. Osborne, R. (1975). "Fertility, IQ and school achievement". Psychological Reports. 37: 1067–1073.
  7. Cattell, R. B. (1974). "Differential fertility and normal selection for IQ: Some required conditions in their investigation". Social Biology. 21: 168–177.
  8. Kirk, Dudley (1969). "The genetic implications of family planning". Journal of Medical Education. 44 (supplement 2): 80–83.
  9. Vining, Daniel (1982). "On the possibility of the reemergence of a dysgenic trend with respect to intelligence in American fertility differentials". Intelligence. 6 (3): 241–264.
  10. Vining, Daniel (1995). "On the possibility of the reemergence of a dysgenic trend with respect to intelligence in American fertility differentials: an update". Personality and Individual Differences. 19 (2): 259–263.
  11. Jinks, J. L., & Fulker, D. W. (1970). Comparison of the biometrical, genetical, MAVA and classical approaches to the analysis of human behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 73, 311−349.
  12. Retherford, R. D., & Sewell, W. H. (1988). "Intelligence and family size reconsidered." Social Biology, 35, 1−40.
  13. Lynn, Richard (2004). "New evidence of dysgenic fertility for intelligence in the United States". Intelligence. 32 (2). Ablex Pub.: p. 193. ISSN 0160-2896. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  14. Andrew Murr. Dating the White Way. Newsweek, August 9, 2004.
  15. Kamin, Leon (1995). "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life". Scientific American. 272. Lynn's distortions and misrepresentations of the data constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  16. ACADEMIC NAZISM Steve Rosenthal, Department of Sociology, Hampton University, Hampton VA
  17. Black Intellectual Genocide: An Essay Review of IQ of Wealth of Nations by Girma Berhanu, Gotberg University, Sweden
  18. Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, reviewed by John C. Loehlin. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1999. ]
  19. Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, reviewed by Daniel R. Vining, Jr. Population Studies, 1998. ]
  20. Neisser, Ulric; et al. (1996). "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns". American Psychologist. 51(2): 77–101. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  21. Rowe, David C. (1999). "Herrnstein's Syllogism: Genetic and Shared Environmental Influences on IQ, Education, and Income". Intelligence. 26(4): 405–423. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. Bachu, Amara. 1991. Fertility of American Women: June 1990. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Report Series P-20, No. 454. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  23. Urdry, Richard (1978). "Differential fertility by intelligence: the role of birth planning". Social Biology. 25: 10–14.
  24. Cohen, Joel (1971). "Legal abortions, socioeconomic status and measured intelligence in the United States". Social Biology. 18(1): 55–63.
  25. Olson, Lucy (1980). "Social and psychological correlates of pregnancy resolution among adolescent women: a review". American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 50(3): 432–445.
  26. Vining, Daniel (1982). "On the possibility of the reemergence of a dysgenic trend with respect to intelligence in American fertility differentials". Intelligence. 6 (3): 241–264.
  27. Weller, Robert H. (1974). "Excess and deficit fertility in the United States". Social Biology. 21 (l): 77–87.
  28. Van Court, Marian (1983). "Unwanted Births And Dysgenic Reproduction In The United States". Eugenics Bulletin.
  29. Shatz, Steven (2008). Intelligence. 36 (2): 109–111. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. Retherford, R. D., & Sewell, W. H. (1988). "Intelligence and family size reconsidered." Social Biology, 35, 1−40.
  31. Teasdale, Thomas (2008). "Secular declines in cognitive test scores: A reversal of the Flynn Effect". Intelligence. 36 (2). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  32. Lynn, Richard (2008). "The decline of the world's IQ". Intelligence. 36 (2). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  33. Jordan, David Starr (2003 (Reprint)). War and the Breed: The Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations. Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1-4102-0900-8. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. McNish, Ian "David Starr Jordan on the Dysgenic effects of dysfunctional culture," Mankind Quarterly. Washington: Fall 2002.Vol.43, Iss. 1; pg. 81
  35. Huxley, Julian (1936). "Eugenics and Society". Eugenics Review. 28 (1): 24. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  36. Huxley, Julian (1936). "Eugenics and Society". Eugenics Review. 28 (1): 11. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  37. Weyl, N. & Possony, S. T: The Geography of Intellect, 1963, s. 154
  38. Gillfallen, S. Colum (1965, Jan-Mar). "Roman Culture and Dysgenic Lead Poisoning". The Mankind Quarterly. 5 (3): pp. 131-148. ISSN 0025-2344. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. Needleman, Lionel (1985). "Lead Poisoning and the Decline of the Roman Aristocracy". Classical Views. 4 (1): pp. 63-94. ISSN 0012-9356. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  40. Grout (October 10 2006). "Lead Poisoning and Rome". Encyclopaedia Romana. James. Retrieved 2006-04-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. "William Shockley 1910 - 1989". A Science Odyssey People and Discoveries. PBS online. 1998. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
  42. Graham, Robert K. "Devolution by revolution: Selective genocide ensuing from the French and Russian revolutions," Mankind Quarterly. Washington: Fall 1998.Vol.39, Iss. 1; pg. 71

General

  • Galor, Oded and Omer Moav: Natural selection and the origin of economic growth. Quarterly Review of Economics 117 (2002) 1133-1191.
  • Hamilton, W. D. (2000) A review of Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations. Annals of Human Genetics 64 (4), 363-374. doi: 10.1046/ j.1469-1809.2000.6440363.
  • Shockley on Eugenics and Race: The Application of Science to the Solution of Human Problems Scott-Townsend, 1992

External references

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