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Race and Intelligence Argument Response
For this assignment, watch the film in module resource link or below.
- 35 minutes minutes in to the film Race and Intelligence: Science’s Last Taboo, the narrator has an interview with Jay Rushton, a psychologist who still argues that there is a biological hierarchy in intelligence. Using your knowledge from this week, our week on the human brain, and the article “Why Genes Don’t Count (For Racial Differences in Health)
explain why he is wrong. (His arguments suggest that you can identify race from skeletons and DNA, and that white and east Asian women produce larger brained babies). Why is brain size not relevant?
- Discuss how modernization is impacting “intelligence” across the world using the information presented in the film Race and Intelligence: Science’s Last Taboo (Links to an external site.) last 15 minutes of the film.
Race and Intelligence Argument Response Answer
Considering the gradual yet significant increase in the average brain size of hominins during the course of their evolution, from the primarily arboreal Paranthropus bosei (400-500 cc) to the innovative and modern Homo sapiens (1500 cc), it can be tempting to believe that brain size is strongly associated with intelligence. This belief has, in fact, been the center of J. Rushton’s argument that the differences in the sizes between Black and White and East Asia brains greatly influence their general intelligence.