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Extremely excited to share my article "No support for the hereditarian hypothesis of the Black–White achievement gap using polygenic scores and tests for divergent selection" has been published at the @PhysAnth journal. Thread to follow! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.24216
1. thank you to the journal & editor. It's an absolute honor to be part of the #RaceReconciled2021 special issue (See all the papers here: https://twitter.com/JenniferRaff/status/1311318444743286789?s=20). The first Race Reconciled has some of my favorite papers correcting misconceptions about human variation & race.
2. I'm really sorry the article isn't open access, I unfortunately don't have $4,000 to pay for the OA license. If you don't have access from a university please email me directly (contact info on my website in bio) but please don't use alternative means.. https://twitter.com/itsbirdemic/status/1347607347556970496?s=20
Onto the paper: For those out of the loop, the hereditarian hypothesis is a decades old theory that genetic differences explain a substantial % of differences in cognitive performance, educational attainment, & social outcomes between human races (mostly white and Black folk) 1/
It has been one of the central focuses of scientific racism and deeply imbedded within monied networks attempting to dissuade politicians and the public to support civil rights and progressive policies (see https://kevinabird.github.io/2019/12/18/The-Genetic-Hypothesis-and-Scientific-Racism.html) 2/
The hypothesis has also been highly contentious on scientific grounds with extensive high profile public debates in the 80s and 90s. (e.g. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2529584?casa_token=GXHC3FqgrX8AAAAA:yqiRngZAVW0xQydALpai98rOCYS4VS37T6PKIQIl2i4wouX3Wg8PYK2EgLZ-FF3lXwZxCrT33wGeqzMYRPu7r93G7uJiDZ3sPqsTtdtzndqoHmXasFa0 and http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.7316&rep=rep1&type=pdf) 3/
Recently with breakthroughs in biology like genome-wide association studies & polygenic scores, authors have tried to revive & strenghten the hereditarian hypothesis by arguing genetic variants associated w/ intelligence systematically vary by race, usually due to nat. selection
These papers are then taken up by an online far-right ecosystem that leverages the results to recruit and persuade people into their camp (e.g. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.24150?af=R & https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000860&utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=a67d95b43c-MR_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-a67d95b43c-149575301) 5/
However, these papers often use questionable or un-established methodology or ignore critical limitations of polygenic scores that bias the use of polygenic scores across populations (e.g. https://elifesciences.org/articles/39725 & https://academic.oup.com/emph/article/2019/1/26/5262222 ) 6/
I tackle hereditarian hypothesis using established methods to detect polygenic selection between populations (one based on https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004412 and another on https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04191-y) I also employ less biased analyses by using polygenic scores from within-families 7/
These two approaches find no evidence that natural selection has acted to produce genetic differences between European and African populations. Notably my results suggest past positive results were from not using the less biased within-family polygenic scores. 8/
Next, given that this trait appears to be evolving neutrally I used established evolutionary genetic methods that provides an idealized estimate how much genetics may contribute to trait differences. Important to note this method will most likely provide an *over-estimate* 9/
Using more recent & accurate heritability estimates the result suggest genetics can likely explain *at most* <10% of the trait variance or 4-8 IQ points out of a claimed 30 point gap. Given this disparity from the claims of the hereditarian hypothesis, I argue it is not supported
I also spend time explaining why even if people who try to reanalyze with this method find positive results it is still hardly indicative the hereditarian hypothesis is correct. 11/
I have so many people I am indebted to. @DocEdge85, @JeremyJBerg, and @EvoRoseman provided very helpful advice and feedback as well @CathrynTownsend and many more. Also to my advisors for letting me take on this project during my PhD comprehensive exams!
