ABSTRACT
Those social scientists who insist that there are no racial genetic differences in ability are often the most critical of studies which have used a social criterion of race rather than more precise genetic criteria. The Council of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), for example, published a statement saying, ‘Many of the studies [on white-Negro IQ differences] cited by Jensen [1969a] have employed a social definition of race, rather than the more rigorous genetic definition. Conclusions about the genetic basis for racial differences are obviously dependent on the accuracy of the definition of race employed’ (Council of SPSSI, 1969). The SPSSI Council seems not to have considered the idea that if the observed IQ differences between racial groups are due only to social-environmental factors, then the social definition of race should be quite adequate, and, in fact, should be the only appropriate definition. If it is argued that two socially defined racial groups which differ in mean IQ are not racially ‘pure’ and that one or both groups have some genetic admixture of the other, it can mean only that the biological racial aspect of the IQ differences, if such exists, has been underestimated by comparing socially, rather than genetically, defined racial groups.
