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'[[Image:Gouldmismeasure.jpg|200px|thumb|First edition (1981) of ''The Mismeasure of Man'']] '''''The Mismeasure of Man''''' is a controversial 1981 book written by the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] [[paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Stephen Jay Gould]] (1941-2002). The book is a [[History of science|history]] and critique of the methods and motivations underlying [[biological determinism]], the belief that "the social and economic differences between human groups&mdash;primarily [[Race (classification of human beings)|races]], [[Social class|classes]], and [[sexes]]&mdash;arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that [[society]], in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology."<ref>Stephen Jay Gould, ''The Mismeasure of Man''. W.W. Norton & Co., 1981, p. 20.</ref> The book also critiques the principal theme of biological determinism, that "worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by ''[[Intelligence quotient|measuring intelligence as a single quantity]]''." Gould discusses two prominent techniques used to measure such a quantity, [[craniometry]] and [[psychological testing]]. According to Gould these methods suffer from "two deep fallacies." The first fallacy is of ''[[reification (fallacy)|reification]]'', that is, "our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities." These entities include [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] (the intelligence quotient) and [[General intelligence factor|g]] (the general intelligence factor), which have been the cornerstone of much intelligence research. The second fallacy is one of ''ranking'', or our "propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale." ''The Mismeasure of Man'' [[Scientific skepticism|skeptically investigates]] "the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number for each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single series of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups&mdash;races, classes, or sexes&mdash;are innately inferior and deserve their status."<ref>''ibid''. pp. 24–25.</ref> The book's second edition (1996) was revised to challenge the arguments of [[Richard Herrnstein]] and [[Charles Murray (author)|Charles Murray]]'s ''[[The Bell Curve]]'', which generated much controversy. ==Summary of contents== [[Image:Mismeasure.png|200px|left|thumb|Cover of the 1996 printing of ''The Mismeasure of Man'']] Gould starts by examining the early 20th century fascination with correlations between cranial capacity and size, and race. The correlations, which were repeatedly shown at the time to prove the understood fact that white, European males (and in many cases, specifically German, French, or English males,) were more intelligent than other, "lesser" races. Acknowledging that the correlation between cranial capacity and intelligence is flawed in and of itself, Gould proceeds to dissect exactly how the very subjective measurements were taken, and then how data was correlated, in many cases clearly incorrectly, using, what Gould argues were clearly unconscious, fudging of the data in many ways. Many intriguing examples of this are pointed out in the book; Grape seed not being a good measure of cranial capacity, as one contemporary cranialist noted, the difference between two measurements could greatly exceed the statistical differences between races. In addition, many factors were taken into account only when beneficial to the theories being propounded; repeatedly, the scientists would argue that body size, sex, or some other factor has some important relationship to head size, and therefore the European sample must be adjusted upward, or the African sample downward, but never vice-versa, even in cases where the data clearly showed that similar adjustments were needed elsewhere. Gould goes on to make similar criticisms of other contemporary theories of various attributes that were "linked" with intelligence, demolishing each in turn. He then turns to IQ testing, its eugenic roots, and the similar failings of the various tests of the IQ systems, including the first mass testing of IQ anywhere, in the US army during World War 1. These tests were carried out badly, frequently so much so that the cultural biases that would have invalidated any significant conclusions from the tests were irrelevant due to the fact that the instructions were so miserable that those tested, in group of hundreds, frequently did not answer anything at all. Lastly, Gould takes issue with the single intelligence theory, or reification, the idea of assuming that if one can measure something, it must have some reality, as opposed to being aspects of a more complicated emergent behavior, or even simple artifacts of the system, such as cultural bias. There are several technical mathematical subjects that Gould explains, involving Dimensional analysis (and NOT unit analysis, which is what most of that node discusses) that were causes of problems with many techniques used. ==Reception== {{wikiquote}} ''The Mismeasure of Man'' won several awards, including the [[National Book Critics Circle]] Award for non-fiction in 1981 and the Outstanding Book Award from the [[American Educational Research Association]] in 1983. An Italian translation won the ''Iglesias'' Prize in 1991. Of the twenty-four reviews of the original edition written by academics experts in psychology, fourteen were positive, three were mixed, and seven were negative. Gould pointed out that "nearly all" of the negative reviews were by "hereditarian" mental testers.<ref>Revised edition, p.45</ref> ===Praise=== Gould pointed out that one of the most positive reviews of the original edition had come from the ''British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology'', which [[Cyril Burt]] had once been an editor of. It stated that, "Gould has performed a valuable service in exposing the logical basis of one of the most important debates in the social sciences, and this book should be required reading for students and practitioners alike".<ref>Revised edition, p.45</ref> [[Leon J. Kamin]], an [[United States|American]] [[psychology|psychologist]] at [[Princeton University]], writes that Gould's work "effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined" the arguments later presented in ''The Bell Curve''. He praises the additions to the book's 1996 edition, writing that they "strengthen the claim of this book to be 'a major contribution toward deflating pseudobiological "explanations" of our present social woes.'" [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] stresses Gould's critique of [[factor analysis]], saying the book "demonstrates persuasively how factor analysis led to the cardinal error in reasoning of confusing correlation with cause, or, to put it another way, of attributing false concreteness to the abstract." The ''Saturday Review'', a British journal, praises the book as a "fascinating historical study of scientific racism" that "illustrate[s] both the logical inconsistencies of the theories and the prejudicially motivated, albeit unintentional, misuse of data in each case." A review in the ''Sunday Times'', another British publication, speaks favorably of the book, suggesting Gould "shifts the argument from a sterile contest between environmentalists and hereditarians and turns it into an argument between those who are impressed with what our biology ''stops'' us doing and those who are impressed with what it ''allows'' us to do." [[Richard York]] and [[Brett Clark]] of the US ''Monthly Review'' praise Gould's narrow focus: "Rather than attempt a grand critique of all 'scientific' efforts aimed at justifying social inequalities, Gould performs a well-reasoned assessment of the errors underlying a specific set of theories and empirical claims."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206yorkclark.htm |title=Debunking as Positive Science: Reflections in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man |author=York, Richard |coauthors=Clark, Brett |year=2006 |month=February |work=Monthly Review}}</ref> ===Criticisms=== ''The Mismeasure of Man'' has been considered highly controversial among psychologists who support the concepts Gould examined. [[Bernard Davis]] (1916–1994), former professor of microbiology and physiology at the [[Harvard Medical School]], and former head of the Center for Human Genetics, accused Gould, in the conservative journal ''The Public Interest'', of setting up [[straw man]] arguments, incorrectly defining key terms (notably "[[reification (fallacy)|reification]]"), choosing data in a "highly selective" manner, and in general being motivated more by political concerns than scientific ones.<ref>Originally published in ''The Public Interest'': [http://www.cpsimoes.net/artigos/art_davis.html review].</ref> Davis claimed that a laudatory review by Morrison appeared in ''Scientific American'' because that journal's editorial staff had "long seen the study of the genetics of intelligence as a threat to social justice." <ref>(Davis, 1983, p. 45)</ref> [[David J. Bartholomew]], Emeritus Professor of [[Statistics]], [[London School of Economics]], and former president of the [[Royal Statistical Society]], wrote that Gould erred in his use of factor analysis <ref>''Measuring Intelligence, Facts and Fallacies'', (University Press, Cambridge, 2004). p.73</ref> and irrelevantly focusing on the issue of reification and ignoring scientific consensus on the existence of the "g" factor of intelligence.<ref>ibid. p. 145-46</ref> In an article written for the April 1982 edition of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', [[Steve Blinkhorn]], a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at [[University of Hertfordshire|Hatfield Polytechnic]], accused Gould of selectively juxtaposing data in order to further a political agenda.<ref>Blinkhorn, Steve (1982) [http://www.skepticfiles.org/evolut/mismeasr.htm "What Skulduggery?"] ''NATURE''. April 1982.</ref> A review in [[Science (journal)|''Science'']] (Samelson, 1982) tended to be critical on a number of counts. ===Response by persons mentioned in the book=== [[Hans Eysenck]], a psychologist who defended ''The Bell Curve''<ref name="gottfredson">Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). [[Mainstream Science on Intelligence]]. ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', p A18.</ref> and believed in parapsychology<ref name="SenseAndNonsense">Eysenck, H.J. (1957), ''Sense and Nonsense in Psychology'', p.131.</ref> was critiqued in the book for using a non-causal relationship to defend a conclusion that black children have lower innate IQ.<ref>Revised edition, p.151</ref> Eysenck and Gould debated the book in an exchange of letters to ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''.<ref> See "Jensen and Bias: An Exchange" ''NYRB'' (October 23, 1980) and [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/7186 "What is Intelligence"] ''NYRB'' (December 18, 1980).</ref> Eysenck's review called the book "a paleontologist's distorted view of what psychologists think, untutored in even the most elementary facts of the science." [[Arthur Jensen]], an educational psychologist [[Arthur Jensen#Criticism|heavily criticized in the book]], accused Gould of using straw man arguments, misrepresenting other scientists and operating from a political agenda.<ref>[http://www.debunker.com/texts/jensen.html "The Debunking of Scientific Fossils and Straw Persons"] ''Contemporary Education Review''</ref> ===Response to the revised edition=== [[Charles Murray]], co-author of ''The Bell Curve'', was discussed at length in the material added to the revised edition, which included three sections about ''The Bell Curve''. In an interview in ''[[The Skeptics Society|Skeptic magazine]]'', Murry claimed that Gould misrepresented his views.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Miele | first=Frank | year=1995 | title=For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls | journal=Skeptic | volume=3 | issue=2 | pages=34–41 | url=http://web.archive.org/web/20041013225203/www.skeptic.com/archives24.html | quote=''Skeptic:'' Let me go back to Gould's four points. Is there any one of those that you think is not a fair and accurate statement of what you said? ''Murray:'' All four of them.}}</ref> [[J. Philippe Rushton]], head of the [[Pioneer Fund]], which funds research towards "the scientific study of heredity and human differences", and author of the controversial ''[[Race, Evolution, and Behavior]]'', accused Gould of "scholarly malfeasance" for misrepresenting or ignoring relevant scientific research, and attacking [[Straw man|dead arguments and methods]].<ref>Rushton, J. P. (1997) [http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/Gould.pdf "Race, Intelligence, And The Brain: The Errors and Omissions Of The 'Revised' Edition of S.J. Gould's ''The Mismeasure of Man''"] ''Personality and Individual Differences''. 23: 169-180.</ref> ==See also== * [[Intelligence testing]] * [[Race and intelligence]] ==External links== ===Criticism=== *[http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/carroll-gould.html "Reflections on Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man"] - by [[John B. Carroll]] *[http://www.eugenics.net/papers/jprnr.html "The Mismeasures of Gould"] - by Philippe Rushton *[http://www.debunker.com/texts/jensen.html "The Debunking of Scientific Fossils and Straw Persons"] by [[Arthur Jensen]] - *[http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/Gould.pdf "Race, Intelligence, and the Brain"] (PDF) by [[J. Philippe Rushton]] *[http://www.cpsimoes.net/artigos/art_davis.html "Neo-Lysenkoism, IQ and the press"] by [[Bernard Davis]] *[http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/09/some-notes-on-g-and-factor-analysis.php "Some notes on g and factor analysis: A rebuttal of The Mismeasure of Man"] - Darth Quixote, at [http://www.gnxp.com/ Gene Expression] ===Praise=== *[http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206yorkclark.htm "Debunking as Positive Science"] by Richard York and Brett Clark *{{cite episode |transcripturl=http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi429.htm |number=429 |title=The Mismeasure of Man |series=The Engines of Our Ingenuity |serieslink=The Engines of Our Ingenuity |credits=John H. Lienhard |network=NPR |station=KUHF-FM Houston |airdate=1990}} *[http://pep-web.org/document.php?id=PAQ.053.0286A "The Mismeasure of Man"] by Martin A. Silverman and Ilene Silverman *[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075(19820205)3%3A215%3A4533%3C656%3AIASOIT%3E2.0.CO;2-Z "Intelligence and Some of its Testers"] by Franz Samelson *[http://educ.queensu.ca/~science/main/profdev/books/PDBRKM.htm "Review of ''The Mismeasure of Man''"] by Karen Murphy. *[http://nootropics.com/intelligence/mismeasure.html "Steven Jay Gould on Intelligence"] by K. B. Korb == Further reading == * {{cite book|title=Why Gould Was Wrong|author=Nils K. Oeijord|date=2003|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=0595301568}} * {{cite journal|title=Blumenbach's Racial Geometry|author=Thomas Junker|journal=Isis|volume=89|issue=3|date=September 1998|pages=498&ndash;501|doi=10.1086/384075|url=http://www.thomas-junker-geschichtederbiologie.de/13760/home.html}} * {{cite journal|title=Still Mismeasuring Man|journal=Skeptic|volume=5|issue=1|date=1997|pages=84}} * {{cite journal|title="The Mismeasure of Man."|author=Allan Janik|journal=Ethics|volume=94|issue=1|date=October 1983|pages=153&ndash;155}} * {{cite journal|title=Intelligence and Some of Its Testers|author=Franz Samelson|journal=Science|volume=215|issue=4533|date=[[1982-02-05]]|pages=656&ndash;657|doi=10.1126/science.215.4533.656|pmid=17842396}} * {{cite journal|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V73I2P68-1.htm|title="The Mismeasure of Man"|author=Diane Ravitch|journal=Commentary|volume=73|issue=2|date=February 1982|format={{Dead link|date=June 2008}} &ndash; ^{[http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=intitle%3A%22The+Mismeasure+of+Man%22&as_publication=Commentary&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]}}} ==References== {{reflist}} {{SJGould}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mismeasure of Man, The}} [[Category:1981 books]] [[Category:Biology books]] [[Category:Books by Stephen Jay Gould]] [[Category:Psychology books]] [[Category:Race and intelligence controversy]] [[Category:Eugenics]] [[de:The Mismeasure of Man]] [[Category:National Book Critics Circle Award winner]]'