Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

PINNING DOWN POTENTIAL 19

Th e worrying way in which the hyperbole has penetrated the public
mind, however, is illustrated in the Hastings Center Report (September–
October 2015). It is a well- meaning publication that discusses ethical
matters in areas of science. Th e journal issue in question considers ethi-
cal dilemmas in the area of ge ne tics and intelligence. It does this based
on the assumptions that (a) IQ is a mea sure of intelligence, (b) we know
what intelligence is, (c) genes for intelligence have been found (albeit with
tiny eff ects), and (d) we can use that knowledge for therapeutic purposes.
None of these assumptions is true. So there is no dilemma. Yet authors
of the report, somehow, prefer to believe that there is.
Unfortunately, gene hunting has also created an aura of “real science”
in a discipline conspicuously short of it, and a wide range of psycholo-
gists are scampering to join in. Th ose who urge caution are condemned
as “science deniers.”^21 Others refrain from criticism with some trepida-
tion about funding and careers. Th is, too, suggests something afoot other
than pure science.

THE GENE BUBBLE BURSTING

Th e truth is that the trail is now littered with unsuccessful attempts

to identify such genes. In proj ect aft er expensive proj ect, no associations

have materialized, or a marginal “fi nding” has not been replicated in re-

peat investigations. To date, no gene or SNP has been reliably associated

with the normal range of human cognitive ability (let alone shown to

actually cause diff erences in it).

Studies grow bigger and bigger, dozens of them now combining into

ever- more- expensive consortia, and papers get published with indecent

haste in a few journals. But still they come up with null or minuscule

results, with correlations interpreted as causes, almost invariably not

replicated in follow-up studies.

Even those fi rmly of the faith have been expressing their disappoint-

ment. Erik Turkheimer was prominent among those trumpeting the

forthcoming revolution in the discovery of genes for IQ. More recently,

he has realized how, “to the great surprise of almost every one, the mo-

lecular ge ne tic proj ect has found ered on the... shoals of developmental

This content downloaded from 139.184.14.159 on Tue, 17 Oct 2017 13:51:16 UTC