Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

The Bell Curve Flattened
Subsequent research has seriously undercut the claims of the controversial best seller.
By Nicholas Lemann
Posted Saturday, Jan. 18, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET


Charles Murray is a publicity genius, and the publication of his and Richard Herrnstein's book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, in the fall of 1994 was his masterpiece.




In the most famous passage in The Republic, Plato describes an underground cave where people are held prisoner in chains, unable to see anything but the shadows cast by figures passing outside; they mistake the shadows for reality. The Republic is probably the first place in history where an idea like that of Murray and Herrnstein's cognitive elite appears. Plato believed that through education, people could leave the cave and be able to see the truth instead of the shadows, thus fitting themselves to become the wise rulers of society. But he was quick to insert a cautionary note: Those who have left the cave might be tempted to think they can see perfectly clearly, while actually they would be "dazzled by excess of light." The image applies to The Bell Curve: Presented as an exact representation of reality, in opposition to the shadows of political correctness, it actually reflects the blinkered vision of one part of the American elite. It constantly tells these people that they are naturally superior, and offers lurid descriptions of aspects of national life that they know about only by rumor. Readers who accept The Bell Curve as tough-minded and realistic, and who assume that all criticism of it is ignorant and ideologically motivated, are not as far removed from Plato's cave as they might think.
http://slate.com/?id=2416

On why he wrote the book:

""Because a huge number of well-meaning whites fear that they are closet racists, and this book tells them they are not. It's going to make them feel better about things they already think but do not know how to say."
http://www.mediatransparency.org/person ... personID=3

The myth that social variables are normally distributed has

been shown to be invalid by those methodologists who have taken

the trouble to check it out. Its persistence in the folklore and

procedures of social institutions is a reflection of

institutionalized bias, not scientific rigor.