Describe the central argument of Herrnstein and Murray’s 1994 book The Bell Curve, what evidence they used to make their argument, and why this argument is controversial. Describe the various arguments sociologists have used to demonstrate the failings

Question

of the book’s argument.

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. The Bell Curve made the argument that intelligence is the key to social success, and that low intelligence is an important root cause of crime, poverty, and other social problems.
2. The argument was especially controversial because they used IQ test scores to argue that different racial groups had different levels of intelligence, and that this was the root cause of racial inequality.
3. Sociologists deconstruct these arguments by demonstrating that IQ tests are constructed in culturally biased ways, and that poverty and other socioeconomic factors have a high impact on people’s academic performance due to effects occurring during primary socialization. In addition, neither intelligence nor race is a biological phenomenon, but instead both are social constructions, and the arguments made in The Bell Curve completely ignore the impacts of social structures and institutional racism.