ABSTRACT
The dimensions of bad science reflected in the genetic reductionist ideas are legion and go well beyond logical problems and the misrepresentation of the fundamental features of genetic functioning within the ecology of human development. The recommended applications of bad science reinforce the fears of institutionalized racism in America and further the marginalization of minority group members in society. The past and present use of genetic reductionist ideas in developmental science influence both the overall quality of the scholarship in this field and the quality of life of millions of people. The term "heritability," as it is used today in human behavioral genetics, is one of the most misleading in the history of science. Systematic discrepancies between measurements of the same quantity are never ignored in the physical and biological sciences, because they signal the presence of unsuspected systematic errors or of defects in the theory underlying the measurements.
