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Comment by verteu | Hacker News Reader

The scientific consensus on intelligence in 1997 was quite clear on this issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream_Science_on_Intellige... . (See conclusion #3.)

Has the consensus changed since '97? I frequently hear people dispute #2 ("Intelligence can be measured, and intelligence tests measure it well") and #5 ("Intelligence tests are not culturally biased"). However, I'm not aware of a revolution in IQ testing which overturns the old findings.

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That was the consensus of scientists who specialized in studying general intelligence, not the consensus of scientists, and was controversial at the time. It did help to fight myths that were being promulgated by popular writers and politically-motivated cranks about what the consensus of scientists who studied general intelligence actually was.

Asking scientists who specialize in Spearman's g whether g is real is like asking astrologers whether astrology works.

> Asking scientists who specialize in Spearman's g whether g is real is like asking astrologers whether astrology works.

Climate change deniers use the same argument -- "Of course people who professionally study global warming will claim it's real!"

Why is your claim valid while the above is specious? It depends on the rigor of the subfield in question.

I don't know of any field where there is a larger gap between mainstream science's position and what the public think this position is. It's "common knowledge" among a certain educated elite that IQ has been debunked.

What educated elite is that?

California judges, for example, have consistently ruled that IQ tests are "racially and culturally biased": http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/30/us/court-upholds-ruling-on... .

And California judges are competent to decide that question how?

Their opinion is nothing more than "if we don't look at it, we can't see it." It is merely a judgement of what will be considered politically correct. That the judiciary considers itself competent in that domain is terrifying.

In my experience, people who work on Wall Street. And there are many groups in the US which are much more liberal and likely to hold unscientific views about IQ.

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