Political philosophy professor discusses racial disparities in IQ scores

Blacks have narrowed the IQ gap by five points over the last 30 years, Flynn said, noting that the disparity between black and white IQs grows with age. At the age of four, there is only a 5.6-point disparity between white and black IQ, while at age 24 there is a 17.6-point difference.

The environment in which a child is raised can make a significant difference in his or her IQ, Flynn said.

He cited a study in which both white and black parents, with an equal amount of education, adopted children. There was a significant difference, he explained, between the IQ of the children raised by black parents and the IQ of those raised by white parents.

Flynn cited a second study done by German scientists to note that the distinction in IQ is not inherently racial.

The study, conducted after the second World War, examined 170 white and 69 half-black children who had been fathered by American soldiers stationed in post-war Germany. The average score was 97 for the children of white American soldiers and German mothers and 96.5 for the children of African-American soldiers and German mothers.

“There is no correlation between black and white performance,” he explained.

The IQ of mixed-raced children varies depending on which parent is white and which parent is black, Flynn said. He noted that children whose father is black and mother is white tended to have higher average IQs than children in the opposite situation.

White mothers tend to be more “heavy-handed” in how they raise their children, Flynn explained.

IQ test procedures are often prone to biases that may create error in their results, Flynn said, adding that the tests are not always a clear measure of intelligence.

“People are asked to indicate their race before they take the test. This creates anxiety even before they get started,” Flynn noted, citing anxiety as a factor that might interfere with the outcome of the test.

Other problems could also make gathering data difficult. IQ tests, such as the one conducted in Germany, may not work as well when introduced into a different country such as the United States, Flynn said.

When asked by an audience member about the feasibility of looking at children in American families with parents of different races, as was done in Germany, Flynn explained that such a proposal “would never pass the ethics committee.”