The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American LifeThe seminal book about IQ and class that ignited one of the most explosive controversies in decades, now updated with a new Afterword by Charles Murray Breaking new ground and old taboos, Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray tell the story of a society in transformation. At the top, a cognitive elite is forming in which the passkey to the best schools and the best jobs is no longer social background but high intelligence. At the bottom, the common denominator of the underclass is increasingly low intelligence rather than racial or social disadvantage. The Bell Curve describes the state of scientific knowledge about questions that have been on people's minds for years but have been considered too sensitive to talk about openly -- among them, IQ's relationship to crime, unemployment, welfare, child neglect, poverty, and illegitimacy; ethnic differences in intelligence; trends in fertility among women of different levels of intelligence; and what policy can do -- and cannot do -- to compensate for differences in intelligence. Brilliantly argued and meticulously documented, The Bell Curve is the essential first step in coming to grips with the nation's social problems. |
Contents
THE EMERGENCE OF A COGNITIVE ELITE | 25 |
Cognitive Partitioning by Occupation | 51 |
Steeper Ladders Narrower Gates | 91 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
affirmative action AFQT American analysis Asian B/W difference babies birth blacks and whites centile Chapter child cognitive ability cognitive classes cognitive elite controlling for IQ correlation crime decile distribution dropout dysgenic effect environment Error ChiSquare Prob>ChiSq Estimate Std Error Estimates Term Estimate ethnic differences figure Flynn effect graduates high school high-IQ higher illegitimacy income independent variables intelligence test IQ scores IQ tests Jensen job performance job productivity labor force Latinos less marriage Math mean IQ measure mothers NLSY sample normal distribution occupations Parameter Estimates Term parents percent percentile points population poverty poverty line predictive proportion quartile rates regression role RSquare social socioeconomic background socioeconomic status Source DF LogLikelihood Spearman's hypothesis standard deviation standard scores statistical Std Error ChiSquare studies subtests Table Term Estimate Std test scores Test Source DF tion Whole-Model Test Source zAFQT89 zAge zSES