The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (136 page)

2
In the following sources, one can find varying estimates of the magnitude of predictive validity of intelligence tests and varying opinions about whether the tests are a net benefit to society, but they unanimously accept the conclusion that no bias against blacks in educational or occupational prediction has been found: Breland, 1979; Grouse and Trusheim 1988; Hartigan and Wigdor 1989; Hunter and Schmidt 1990; Jensen 1980; Klitgaard 1985; Reynolds and Brown 1984; Schmidt 1988.

3
For a discussion of the sources of error and their relevance to meta-analyses of occupational outcomes in particular, see Hunter and Schmidt 1990. For a more general discussion, including educational outcomes, see Jensen 1980.

4
Jensen 1984b, p. 523.

5
Occasionally, one may find a study that finds differential predictive validity for one ethnic group or another for a particular test—e.g., the K-ABC test for Latinos and non-Latino whites (Valencia and Rankin 1988). But even for Latinos, validity generalization has generally been confirmed (e.g., Reynolds and Gutkin 1980; Valdez and Valdez 1983).

6
Jensen 1980, Table 10.4.

7
Breland 1979, Table 3b.

8
Ibid.

9
Hartigan and Wigdor 1989, Table 9.5.

10
Ibid., pp. 181-182.

11
The example given here is a special case of a more general phenomenon: As long as the product of the regression coefficient (which is assumed not to differ for the groups) and the mean difference between groups in the predictor is smaller than the mean difference in the outcome, there will be overprediction for the lower-scoring group.

12
For a review of the literature through the early 1980s, see Jensen 1985, also discussed in Chapter 13. For studies since then, see Braden 1989; Jensen 1992, 1993b. The single contrary study extant is Gustafsson 1992.

13
McGurk 1951. Also in 1951, Kenneth Eells’s doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago showed that test item difficulty did not vary much across white ethnics of different types, thereby failing to support the intuition that cultural factors are dominant (Eells et al. 1951). See Jensen 1980, Chap. 11, for more on McGurk’s and Eells’s work and on other early studies of test item bias.

14
For a review of the literature through the late 1970s, see Jensen 1980, Chap. 11. For studies since 1980, see Bart et al. 1986; Ross-Reynolds and Reschly 1983; Sandoval et al. 1983; Jensen and McGurk 1987; Cook 1987; Koh, Abbatiello, and Mcloughlin 1984; Reschly and Ross-Reynolds 1982; Mishra 1983. All found no item differences, or differences that explained only a fraction of the differences in group scores. Are there any exceptions? We identified one such study for blacks (Montie and Fagan 1988), based on 3-year-olds. There may very well be other studies of similar size (the sample in Montie and Fagan was 86) that are lurking in the literature, but we know of no studies using large-scale representative samples that establish item bias against blacks. Some studies of Latinos have found evidence of bias, mostly associated with Spanish and English language characteristics. See Valencia and Rankin 1988; Whitworth and Chrisman 1987, Munford and Munoz 1980. But the factor structure of the test results has generally been found to be the same for Latino and non-Latinos (e.g., see Mishra 1981).

15
See Jensen 1980, Table 11.12. Also see Miele 1979.

16
Scheuneman 1987.

17
For a literature review, see Jensen 1980, Chap. 12.

18
Dyer 1970.

19
For studies specifically dealing with differential racial effects of coaching and practice through the late 1970s, see Baughman and Dahlstrom 1968; Costello 1970; Dubin, Osburn, and Winick 1969; Jensen 1980. For studies bearing on the issue since 1980 (but not addressing it as directly as the earlier ones), see Powers 1987; Terrell and Terrell 1983; Johnson and Wallace 1989; Cole 1987.

20
For literature reviews, see Sattler and Gwynne 1982; Jensen 1980.

21
For a literature review, see Jensen 1980, Chap. 12.

22
For a literature review, see Jensen 1980, Chap. 12.

23
Jensen 1980, Chap. 12. See also note 14 regarding item bias for Latinos.

24
Jensen 1980, Chap. 12.

25
Quay 1971, 1972, 1974.

26
Farrell 1983 and the attached responses.

27
Johnson et al. 1984; Frederiksen 1986; Johnson 1988; Kerr et al. 1986; Madhere 1989; Scheuneman 1987; White et al. 1988

28
Rock et al. 1985 details the changes between the two administrations, concluding that “the cautious position would be that neither administration had an advantage. A less cautious conclusion is that the 1980 subjects probably had some small advantage” (p. 18).

29
Based on the white standard deviation for 1980, the first year that standard deviations by race were published.

30
Congressional Budget Office, 1986, Fig. E-3.

31
Contrary to popular belief, on the proposition whether brain size is correlated with IQ, the evidence strongly favors the pros over the cons, even after correcting for stature. A sampling of contemporary positions in this mini-controversy is Cain and Vanderwolf 1990; Gould 1978, 1981; Lynn 1989; Michael 1988; Passingham 1982; Rushton 1990d, in press; Valen 1974. Brain size is, however, not necessarily wholly determined by the genes; it could also be associated with nutrition or general health.

32
The Rushton controversy has unfolded in a rapidly expanding scholarly literature. Some of the papers, pro and con, are Cain and Vanderwolf 1990; Lynn 1989b; Roberts and Gabor 1990; Rushton 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d, 1991a, 1991b; Rushton and Bogaert, 1978,1988; Silverman 1990; Weitzmann et al. 1990; Zuckerman and Brody 1988. For further substantiation of some of the race differences that Rushton invokes, see Ellis and Nyborg 1992; Lynn 1990c; Mangold and Powell-Griner 1991; Rowe, Rodgers, and Meseck-Bushey 1988; Valen 1974.

33
Almost as all-encompassing a thesis as Rushton’s is Richard Lynn’s account of the evolution of racial differences in intelligence in terms of the ancestral migrations of groups of early hominids from the relatively benign environments of Africa to the harsher and more demanding Eurasian latitudes (Lynn 1991c), where they branched into the Caucasoids and Mongoloids. Such theories were not uncommon among anthropologists and biologists of a generation or two ago (e.g., Darlington 1969). As the biological outlook on human behavior became controversial, this kind of theorizing has almost vanished. The modern version relies much more on psychological measurements of contemporary populations than the earlier version.

Appendix 7

1
For a comprehensive discussion, see Epstein 1992.

2
Any one of these court cases may involve heroic efforts: “Some courts have expressed concern at the spectacle of trials lasting for weeks, following years of discovery, and involving a multitude of statistical and other experts and seemingly endless testimony about the credentials of a single [job] candidate.” Bartholet 1982, p. 1002.

3
Quoted in Patterson 1989, p. 87.

4
Patterson 1989.

5
Patterson 1989.

6
401 U.S. 424 (1971).

7
Lynch 1991; Murray 1984; Patterson 1989.

8
For a clear account, see Patterson 1989.

9
401 U.S. 432.

10
Ibid.

11
There is good evidence that the Duke Power Co. had no discriminatory intent in using the test or the educational credential; it was using the same criteria at a time when it was frankly pursuing a race-segregationist hiring policy. This earlier conduct gives credence to its claim that it wanted to improve its employees’ intellectual level.

12
Some legal scholars criticize the Court for not having interpreted the Constitution itself, in the Fourteenth Amendment, as providing protection against disparate impact (e.g., Tribe 1988).

13
Ironically, the particular wording in the relevant part of Title VII was an accommodation to one of the act’s most uneasy opponents, Senator John Tower of Texas, who was concerned that the law not be used in precisely the manner that, in Griggs, the court ruled that it should be used (Wilson 1972).

14
For an excellent discussion, see Espstein 1992, whose reading of the record strongly confirms ours. Epstein makes the point that had the Congress known in 1964 what interpretation the Court was to place on Title VII in Griggs, it “would have gone down to thundering defeat” (p. 197). From the legislative record, that appears to us to be a fair assessment.

15
Quoted in Wilson 1972, pp. 854ff.

16
Quotes attributed to S. Rep. 92-415, 92d Cong., 1st sess. 5 (1971), the report of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, in Patterson 1989.

17
Wilson 1972.

18
Bartholet 1982, p. 958.

19
422 U.S. 405 (1975).

20
Our discussion here has drawn on Braun 1992.

21
Courts other than the Supreme Court have imposed on the employer itself the burden of seeking less discriminatory alternatives (Patterson, 1989).

22
For references to the relevant government documents, see Patterson 1989.

23
For a similar conclusion, and some detail to back it up, see Potter 1986.

24
490 U.S. 642 (1989).

25
490 U.S. 659.

26
Cathcart and Snyderman 1992.

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