A response to Charles Murray

An article in today’s Washington Post cites recent research on the heritability of IQ. Here is the bottom line:

“Genes do explain the vast majority of IQ differences among children in wealthier families…But environmental factors – not genetic deficits – explain IQ differences among poor minorities.” The IQ heritability quotient is 0.72 for well-to-do families, but only 0.10 for poor families. The key data involves 623 pairs of twins born to poor black mothers. It seems that genes and environment interact to a greater degree than had previously been thought, perhaps good genes help you only significantly only when you have a certain minimum level of educational opportunity.

The piece will be out in the November issue of Psychological Science, here is the home page of the author, Eric Turkheimer.