The "Bell Curve" from the perspective of research on social structure and personality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5843709 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Melvin L Kohn (Johns Hopkins University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 397-411 |
| Publication date | 1996-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Forum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0884-8971 • E-ISSN: 1573-7861 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1007/bf02408375 |
| OpenAlex | W2028052366 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 19 |
In his pithy review, Stephen Jay Gould (1994:139) said that Bell Curve, with its claims and supposed documentation that race and class differences are largely caused by genetic factors and are therefore essentially immutable, contains no new arguments and presents no compelling data to support its anachronistic social Darwinism, so I can only conclude that its success in winning attention must reflect the depressing temper of our time-a historical moment of unprecedented ungenerosity, when a mood for slashing social programs can be powerfully abetted by an argument that beneficiaries cannot be helped, owing to inborn cognitive limits expressed as low I.Q. scores. I agree that The Bell Curve presents no compelling evidence, nor even any new arguments. Everything that Herrnstein and Murray claim has long since been refuted. I would add, parenthetically, that the most penetrating and systematic refutation was made by Gould himself, in The Mismeasure of Man (1981). And I would certainly agree that on its intellectual merits this book does not deserve the attention it has received. But I nevertheless think it would be a mistake for sociologists to simply dismiss it as not worthy of our attention. Not only does the book provide a rationale for pernicious social policies, not only is it profoundly racist, but it constitutes an intellectual challenge to sociology: It reinterprets nearly all the phenomena
Anachronism · Argument (complex analysis · Mistake · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Work and personality
The bell curve
Class and conformity
Becoming Modern
The Bell Curve
Contemporary Sociology
Class, Occupation, and Orientation
Educational Self-Direction and Personality
Continuity of Learning-Generalization
Job Conditions and Personality
The Reciprocal Effects of the Substantive Complexity of Work and Intellectual Flexibility
The Ecological Approach in Social Psychiatry
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2002 - 2022 (21) |
| Highly cited | No |