British psychologist Richard Lynn: biography, activities and interesting facts. "Evolution, Race and Intelligence" by Richard Lynn

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Richard Lynn is a famous British psychologist who is the founder of the theory of the relationship between the level of intelligence and human race. This theory has found acceptance in its own circles, but Lynn's openly racist statements are still the subject of controversy, and his writings are considered by many to be controversial. However, regardless of public opinion, the work of this psychologist is recognized. Richard Lynn has written extensively on this and other topics, with Evolution, Race and Intelligence being one of the best known.

Early years

Richard Lynn was born in 1930 in Bristol, the son of scientist Cindy Harland. This botanist and geneticist was known for his work on the genetics of cotton. However, he was separated from his father at an early age when his parents divorced. Richard met his father for the first time when he was already nineteen years old. Then Harland returned to the UK from South America to teach at the university. Lynn himself received an impressive education, including graduating from the prestigious University of Cambridge. He worked as a teacher of psychology, but he gained his fame onlyin 1973. It was then that he wrote a highly resonant review of one of the books. In it, he expressed the idea that helping third world countries is meaningless, since the population of these states is much worse than ordinary white people, it is not adapted to this world, so there is no reason to spend money on helping them. It was then that Richard Lynn was first noticed by the public.

Increases in IQ of socialites

One of the first phenomena Lynn worked on was the spike in IQ in secular circles. As you can already see, the main topic that Richard Lynn studied in his life is intelligence. He was not the only one working on this theory, which is why the effect of increasing intelligence in secular people was called the "Flynn effect" in honor of another scientist. Now it is standard and generally accepted in psychology, but some call it the Lynn-Flynn effect, since Richard also made a major contribution to its study. However, this scientist would hardly have become so popular only because of these studies. The biggest theme that made Richard Flynn famous all over the world was race.

Race and intelligence differences

In the late seventies, Lynn conducted a study in which he found that people living in Northeast Asia, on average, have six points more IQ than Europeans, who, in turn, have an average of thirty pointssmarter than Africans. During his career, he published many works on the subject, to the extent that he studied African Americans and concluded that African Americans with lighter skin color have higher IQs than those with darker skin. He cited the fact that lighter-skinned African Americans have more European blood, so they are smarter.

Of course, his work was criticized everywhere, many scientists pointed out that they are extremely one-sided and do not take into account many other factors. However, of course, Lynn also had followers who agreed with everything that Richard Lynn wrote. Racial differences in intelligence have become a very hot topic. Leading scientific journals refused to publish his work, and renowned scientist James Watson had to resign from his job when he inadvertently quoted Lynn's work.

Relationship between IQ and the we alth of nations

Richard Lynn in one of his books argued that the difference in intelligence greatly affects the economies of countries. And in those countries where there is a low GDP, he was able to detect a lower level of intelligence of the inhabitants. Again, many people have come to share the same opinion as Richard Lynn: racial differences in intelligence exist and directly affect many areas of life.

However, at the same time, a huge number of scientists said that it is simply impossible to take the information from Lynn's book seriously: the statistics given in it are unreliable, practicallythere are gaps on every page that, if filled in, would completely destroy Lynn's theory. So the work of the scientist was not recommended for reading and was considered frivolous and not sufficiently substantiated to be considered as something worthwhile in the world of serious science.

However, this did not prevent the scientist from working further in the same direction. Richard Lynn has written more than one book in his career. Races, peoples, intellect - these were his main themes, and the principle has always remained the same. He tried in every possible way to prove that a person's intelligence depends on his race and that the African race is the least intellectually developed.

Evolutionary analysis

However, the most striking and well-known book written by Richard Lynn is Evolution, Race, Intelligence. It was his most global work. It analyzes a huge amount of data collected from around the world. In general, the book describes data taken from more than 800,000 people. In a meta-analysis, Lynn is able to show that the average IQ score is highest among people from East Asia, followed by Europeans. As for Africans, Lynn's main focus of research, they lag behind Europeans by an average of 32 points. In some cases, statistics show that Africans are more than 45 points dumber than Europeans. It was due to this book, published in 2006, that Richard Lynn became famous all over the world. "Evolution, Race, Intelligence" is a work that has attracted a lot of attention, but which is still not taken seriously.

The difference in intelligence between men and women

As you already understood, Richard Lynn is an extremely controversial scientist. "Evolution, Race, Intelligence" is a book that has caused a great resonance in society. However, the connection between race and intelligence was not the only (albeit beloved) theme of the scientist. For example, at a certain stage in his career, he tried to prove that men have a higher intelligence than women, since it became known that their brain size ratio was also unequal. However, his theory was refuted by a large number of scientists.

Eugenics

Lynn also paid attention to eugenics, trying to highlight some of its main problems. He believed that humanity was experiencing a decline in he alth, intelligence and conscientiousness. As the reason for this, he singled out the progress of society. Lynn believed that in pre-industrial society, natural selection was in full force, but as society developed, the progress of medicine, natural selection began to weaken, which explains the general decline in intelligence in society. He also reported that children with the highest level of intelligence are the only ones in the family, while children from large families have lower IQs.

Present

Richard Lynn is currently a member of the Pioneer Fund, a large scientific foundation, which, in large part because of Lynn's participation in it, was recognized as racist. However, at the same time, on the other hand, the foundation sponsored many scientific studies,which otherwise might not have happened at all. Lynn's latest book was published as recently as 2015. The scientist returned to his favorite topic again, only this time he concentrated on sports. The book is titled Race and Sport: Evolution and Racial Differences in Sporting Achievement.

Legacy

As controversial and racist as Lynn's research may seem, his contribution to science and to the study of human intelligence is recognized and weighty. Many scientists believe that the data that Lynn collected in his book "Evolution, Race, Intelligence" is more than impressive, and the book itself has had a serious impact on the study of differences in human intelligence. But at the same time, many scientists still criticize him and constantly refute one or another of his arguments. He is accused of concealing research data objectionable to the scientist in order to provide the public with only the information that corresponds to his convictions. And these are not just thoughtless opponents, these are leading scientists who have their own confirmation of the facts. For example, it has been repeatedly confirmed that Lynn used data from an orphanage for mentally retarded children to derive the average level of intelligence of African countries. And this is not the only case, so it is quite difficult to take on faith the works that this scientist publishes.