THE MISMEASURE OF MANclearly an entity than intelligence, and probably more subject to
definite and specifiable hereditary influence. Yet here, where his
case for innateness was better, Burt tested all the environmental
influences—some rather farfetched—that he could devise, and
finally declared the subject too complex for resolution.
BURT'S POLITICAL USE OF INNATENESS
Burt extended his belief in the innateness of individual intelli-
gence to only one aspect of average differences between groups.
He did not feel (1912) that races varied much in inherited intelli-
gence, and he argued (1921, p. 197) that the different behaviors of
boys and girls can be traced largely to parental treatment. But dif-
ferences in social class, the wit of the successful and dullness of the
poor, are reflections of inherited ability. If race is America's pri-
mary social problem, then class has been Britain's corresponding
concern.
In his watershed* paper (1943) on "ability and income," Burt
concludes that "the wide inequality in personal income is largely,
though not entirely, an indirect effect of the wide inequality in
innate intelligence." The data "do not support the view (still held
by many educational and social reformers) that the apparent ine-
quality in intelligence of children and adults is in the main an indi-
rect consequence of inequality in economic conditions" (1943, p.
141).
Burt often denied that he wished to limit opportunities for
achievement by regarding tests as measures of innate intelligence.
He argued, on the contrary, that tests could identify those few
individuals in the lower classes whose high innate intelligence
would not otherwise be recognized under a veneer of environmen-
tal disadvantage. For "among nations, success in the struggle for
survival is bound to depend more and more on the achievements
of a small handful of individuals who are endowed by nature with
outstanding gifts of ability and character" (1959, p. 31). These peo-
ple must be identified and nurtured to compensate for "the com-
parative ineptitude of the general public" (1959, p. 31). They must
be encouraged and rewarded, for the rise and fall of a nation does
not depend upon genes peculiar to an entire race, but upon
•Hearnshaw (1979) suspects that this paper marks Burt's first use of fraudulent
data.