ABSTRACT
Issues of differential intelligence among racial and gendered groups in society seem to still capture the popular imagination even now, 150 years since the rise of social Darwinism. Press reports of black people as less intelligent have been aroused in the UK by the publication of The Bell Curve in the USA. Similarly, reports that girls may be outperforming boys in examination results has invoked much media attention, reviving issues of differential genetic capacities between the sexes. This chapter, based on the Lister Lecture presented at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, aims to ask, ‘Why does IQ, as an explanation for differential educational performance between the races and sexes, remain so popular?’ Despite its controversial empiricism, suspect methodology and inconclusive claims, the appeal of this pseudoscientific discourse remains intact. Its logical presentation of ‘facts’ and simple causal explanations heralds a ‘new postbiological discourse’ on ‘difference’. In the new millenium, ideas about innate, genetic, scientifically provable difference are still at the heart of our thinking about race and gender.
