Global InformationRichard Lynn information
Richard Lynn | |
|---|---|
 Lynn in 2008 | |
| Born | 20 February 1930 Hampstead, England |
| Died | July 2023 (aged 93) |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
| Known for | Research concerning race and intelligence |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions |
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Richard Lynn (20 February 1930 – July 2023) was a controversial English psychologist and self-described "scientific racist"[1][2][3] who advocated for a genetic relationship between race and intelligence. He was the editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly, a white supremacist journal.[a] He was a professor emeritus of psychology at Ulster University, but had the title withdrawn by the university in 2018.[9] Lynn was lecturer in psychology at the University of Exeter and professor of psychology at the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, and at the University of Ulster at Coleraine.
Many scientists criticised Lynn's work for lacking scientific rigour, misrepresenting data, and for promoting a racialist political agenda.[b] Lynn is associated with a network of academics and organisations that promote scientific racism.[c] He has also advocated fringe positions regarding sexual differences in intelligence.[26] In two books co-written with Tatu Vanhanen, Lynn and Vanhanen argued that differences in developmental indexes among various nations are partially caused by the average IQ of their citizens. Earl Hunt and Werner Wittmann (2008) questioned the validity of their research methods and the highly inconsistent quality of the available data points that Lynn and Vanhanen used in their analysis.[10] Lynn also argued that a high fertility rate among individuals of low IQ constitutes a major threat to Western civilisation, as he believed people with low IQ scores will eventually outnumber high-IQ individuals. He argued in favour of anti-immigration and eugenics policies, provoking heavy criticism internationally.[11][27][12] Lynn's work was among the main sources cited in the book The Bell Curve, and he was one of 52 scientists who signed an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Mainstream Science on Intelligence",[28] which endorsed a number of the views presented in the book.
He was also on the board of the Pioneer Fund, which funds Mankind Quarterly and has also been identified as racist in nature.[29][8] Two of his recent books are on dysgenics and eugenics. He was on the editorial board of the journal Personality and Individual Differences until 2019.
- ^ Min, Alex (18 November 2020). "Racist Pseudoscience Has No Place At Harvard". Harvard Political Review.
Lynn is a self-described 'scientific racist'...
- ^ Sehgal, Parul (12 February 2020). "Charles Murray Returns, Nodding to Caution but Still Courting Controversy". The New York Times.
Richard Lynn, for example, a self-described 'scientific racist,' ...
- ^ Evans, Gavin (2 March 2018). "The unwelcome revival of 'race science'". The Guardian.
...Richard Lynn, who has described himself as a 'scientific racist'.
- ^ Jackson Jr., John P.; Winston, Andrew S. (7 October 2020). "The Mythical Taboo on Race and Intelligence". Review of General Psychology. 25 (1): 3–26. doi:10.1177/1089268020953622. S2CID 225143131.
- ^ Joe L. Kincheloe, et al., Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined, Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, p. 39
- ^ Ibrahim G. Aoudé, The ethnic studies story: politics and social movements in Hawaiʻi, University of Hawaii Press, 1999, pg. 111
- ^ Kenneth Leech, Race, Church Publishing, Inc., 2005, pg. 14
- ^ a b Tucker, William H. (2002), The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund, University of Illinois Press, p. 2, ISBN 9780252027628
- ^ "Ulster University withdraws status from Prof Richard Lynn". BBC News. 14 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Hunt, E. 2008 pp. 1-9was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Kamin, Leon. "Behind the Bell Curve" (PDF). Scientific American. p. 100. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016.
Lynn's distortions and misrepresentations of the data constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with the scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity
- ^ a b Valone, David A. (2002). "Richard Lynn: Eugenics: A Reassessment, review". Isis. 93 (3): 534. doi:10.1086/374143.
- ^ Velden, Manfred (2010). Biologism: The Consequence of an Illusion. V&R unipress GmbH. p. 118.
- ^ Wilson, Carter A. (1996). Racism: From Slavery to Advanced Capitalism. SAGE. p. 229.
At best Lynn's approach is racial propaganda or biased research driven by a strong prejudice against blacks and a strong need to believe in their genetic inferiority. At worst, Lynn's research arises out of a malicious and dishonest effort to demonstrate the genetic inferiority of blacks
- ^ Barnett, Susan M.; Williams, Wendy (2004). "National Intelligence and The Emperor's New Clothes". PsycCRITIQUES. 49 (4): 389–396. doi:10.1037/004367.
Among this book's strengths are that it argues for a point of view unpopular within the scientific community, it relies on hard data to make its points, its organisation and clarity. Also, the book is expansive in its thinking and argumentation. All of these strengths considered, however, we believe that the arguments advanced in the book are flawed by an omnipresent logical fallacy and confusion of correlation with causation that undermines the foundation of the book.
- ^ Valencia, Richard R. (2010). Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking: Educational Thought and Practice. Routledge. pp. 56–61.
- ^ Gross, Richard (2015). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour (7th ed.). Harchette.
- ^ Richards, Graham (2004). Race, Racism and Psychology: Towards a Reflexive History. Routledge. p. 280.
- ^ Ferber, Abby L. (2012). Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism. Routledge.
- ^ Neisser, Ulric (2004). "Serious Scientists or Disgusting Racists?". PsycCRITIQUES. 49 (1): 5–7. doi:10.1037/004224.
- ^ Gelb, Steven A. (1997), "Heart of Darkness: The Discreet Charm of the Hereditarian Psychologist", Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 19 (1): 129–139, doi:10.1080/1071441970190110
- ^ Kenny, M. G. (2002). "Toward a racial abyss: Eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, and the origins of The Pioneer Fund". J. Hist. Behav. Sci. 38 (3): 259–283. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.626.4377. doi:10.1002/jhbs.10063. PMID 12115787.
- ^ Mehler, Barry (1989). "Foundation for fascism: The new eugenics movement in the United States". Patterns of Prejudice. 23 (4): 17–25. doi:10.1080/0031322x.1989.9970026.
- ^ Newby, Robert G.; Newby, Diane E. (1995). "The Bell Curve: Another Chapter in the Continuing Political Economy of Racism". American Behavioral Scientist. 39 (1): 12–24. doi:10.1177/0002764295039001003. S2CID 143761154.
- ^ Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:5was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ahmed, Rabia (19 April 2014), Forget polio, Pakistan is 'BIGGER' than India and size is all that matters!, retrieved 1 June 2016
- ^ Gottfredson, Linda (13 December 1994), "Mainstream Science on Intelligence", Wall Street Journal, p. A18
- ^ Kincheloe, Joe L. (1997), Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 39, ISBN 9780312172282
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