Richard Lynn

Early life and career

Lynn is the son of Sydney Cross Harland (1891–1982), a botanist and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), known for his work on cotton genetics. Lynn's parents divorced when he was young and he was 19 when he met his father who had moved abroad to work in Trinidad and then Peru before returning to England in 1949 for a position as professor of genetics at the University of Manchester.

Lynn was educated at Bristol Grammar School and University of Cambridge in England. He has worked as lecturer in psychology at the University of Exeter, and as professor of psychology at the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, and at Ulster University at Coleraine.

In 1974, Lynn published a positive review of Raymond Cattell's A New Morality from Science: Beyondism, in which he expressed the opinion that "incompetent societies have to be allowed to go to the wall" and that "the foreign aid which we give to the under-developed world is a mistake, akin to keeping going incompetent species like the dinosaurs which are not fit for the competitive struggle for existence." In recent years, Lynn has cited the work of Cattell and Cyril Burt as important influences on his own thought.

Publication on secular increases in IQ

Lynn's 1983 article in Nature played some part in bringing the phenomenon of massive score gains on standardized intelligence tests over time to widespread attention. This phenomenon was called the "Flynn effect" in Richard Herrstein and Charles Murray's book The Bell Curve published in 1994. The term "Flynn effect" is now standard in the psychological literature to refer to secular increases in IQ. Some authors refer to the phenomenon under the name "Lynn–Flynn effect".

Race and national differences in intelligence

In the late 1970s, Lynn wrote that he found a higher average IQ in Northeast Asians compared to Europeans (6 points higher in his meta-analysis), and Europeans to be about 2 standard deviations (or 30 points) higher than Sub-Saharan Africans.

Lynn's psychometric studies were cited in the 1994 book The Bell Curve and were criticised as part of the controversy surrounding that book. In his article, "Skin color and intelligence in African Americans," (2002) published in Population and Environment, Lynn concluded that lightness of skin color in African Americans is positively correlated with IQ, which he claims derives from the higher proportion of Caucasian admixture. However, Lynn failed to control for childhood environmental factors that are related to intelligence, and his research was criticized by a subsequent article published in the journal.

Lynn’s work on national IQ differences attracted hostility from mainstream establishment media. Major publishers would not publish them and many major journals would not review them. After quoting Lynn’s work, Nobel Laureate James Watson was forced to retire from Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in 2007. Lynn's work gradually received more citations, and, according to James Thompson, "Despite all attempts to ignore his findings, Lynn’s dogged accumulation of data made a considerable contribution to understanding human differences."

In IQ and the wealth of nations (2002), Lynn and Vanhanen argued that differences in nations' per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are partially caused by IQ differences, meaning that certain nations are wealthier in part, because their citizens are more intelligent. K Richardson wrote in the journal Heredity that "an association between IQ and national wealth is hardly surprising, though its causal direction is the opposite of that assumed by L&V. But I would not take the 'evidence' presented in this book to serve arguments either way." Other economists who reviewed the book also pointed to numerous flaws throughout the study, from unreliable IQ statistics for 81 of the 185 countries used in the analysis, to insecure estimates of the national IQ in the remaining 101 countries in the sample that did not have published IQ data. This was in addition to the highly unreliable GDP estimates for present-day developing countries and the even more unreliable historical data estimating GDP and national IQ dating back to the early 19th century, well before either concept even existed. Even the data on the 81 countries where direct evidence of IQ scores were actually available were highly problematic. For example, the data sets containing Surinamese, Ethiopian, and Mexican IQ scores were based on unrepresentative samples of children who had emigrated from their nation of birth to the Netherlands, Israel, and Argentina, respectively. In a book review for the Journal of Economic Literature, economist Thomas Nechyba wrote, "Such sweeping conclusions based on relatively weak statistical evidence and dubious presumptions seem misguided at best and quite dangerous if taken seriously. It is therefore difficult to find much to recommend in this book."

Lynn's 2006 Race Differences in Intelligence is the largest review of the global cognitive ability data. The book organises the data by nine global regions, surveying 620 published studies from around the world, with a total of 813,778 tested individuals.

Lynn's meta-analysis lists the average IQ scores of East Asians (105), Europeans (99), the Inuit (91), Southeast Asians and indigenous peoples of the Americas each (87), Pacific Islanders (85), Middle Easterners (including South Asians and North Africans) (84), East and West Africans (67), Australian Aborigines (62) and Bushmen and Pygmies (54).

Lynn has previously argued that nutrition is the best-supported environmental explanation for variation in the lower range, and a number of other environmental explanations have been advanced. Ashkenazi Jews average 107–115 in the US and Britain due to their better performance in verbal and reasoning tests even though they performed lower in visual and spatial ability tests, but those in Israel average lower.

Another of Lynn's books is The Global Bell Curve, published in June 2008. In describing the book, Lynn says "it concludes that IQ is a key explanatory variable for the social sciences, analogous to gravity in physics." It was reviewed by J. Philippe Rushton around the time of publication.

In a paper published in 2005 about IQ in Mexico, Lynn reported that Mexicans of European descent had an IQ of 98, Mestizos in Mexicos had an IQ of 94 and indigenous peoples of Mexico had an IQ of 83, explaining the lower than expected IQ of Indians on their poor nutrition and other social factors.

In a 2010 paper about IQ in Italy, Lynn contends that IQs are highest in the north (103 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and lowest in the south (89 in Sicily) and correlated with average incomes, and with stature, infant mortality, literacy and education. The lack of any actual IQ test data among other methodological issues and Lynn's consequent conclusions were criticised.

Other large surveys in Italy have found much smaller differences in educational achievement. Moreover, several subsequent studies based on the direct assessment of IQs failed to report significant differences among Italian regions. On the contrary, the results from the Southern half of the country (103) are sometimes higher than those from the North Central regions (100–101).

Sex differences in intelligence

Lynn's research correlating brain size and reaction time with measured intelligence led him to the problem that men and women have different-sized brains in proportion to their bodies. In 2004, Lynn and Irwing conducted a meta-analysis and reported that an IQ difference of roughly 5 points does appear from age 15 and onwards on the progressive matrices.

Despite some criticism, their theory was supported by subsequent research at the time. However, in the following years, researchers such as Timothy Keith, Johannes Rojahn and Alan Kaufman found contradictory results in gender IQ differences with Keith even finding an adult female latent advantage in general factors and Kaufman finding no difference in general intelligence. Keith said that the difference in Lynn's findings can be attributed to not using latent factors to measure their meta-analysis of sex differences. Rojahn's study found the discrepancies between the gender development were smaller than predicted by Lynn and in fact were so small that they have little or no practical importance.

Lynn stated that the intelligence differences between men and women, on average, are slight and that "the real difference only emerges as we rise up the IQ scale to the sort of level that the really top jobs require and as we drop lower down the scale—because men, as it turns out, have a much wider range of intelligence than women." Lynn stated that there were far more men of extremely high intelligence but also far more men of extremely low intelligence than women due to wider range of intelligence. According to Lynn, the reason men are more intelligent than women is evolution: men were the hunters in ancient hunting-gathering societies, so they needed more intellect to successfully hunt animals. Lynn also said evolution gave men and women different kinds of intelligence. He believes men were given superiority in mathematical and spatial reasoning because they needed it to successfully hunt. Women were given high verbal reasoning abilities because it benefited their social interaction with their children while raising them.

Dysgenics and eugenics

In Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, Lynn reviewed the history of eugenics, from the early writings of Bénédict Morel and Francis Galton through the rise of eugenics in the early 20th century and its subsequent collapse. He identifies three main concerns of eugenicists such as himself: deterioration in health, intelligence and conscientiousness. Lynn asserts that natural selection in pre-industrial societies favoured traits such as intelligence and character but no longer does so in modern societies. He argues that due to the advance of medicine, selection against those with poor genes for health was relaxed.

Lynn examined sibling studies and concluded that the tendency of children with a high number of siblings to be the least intelligent is evidence of dysgenic fertility. He said there has been a genuine increase in phenotypic intelligence, but that this is caused by environmental factors and is masking a decline in genotypic intelligence.

According to Lynn, those with greater educational achievement have fewer children, while children with lower IQs come from larger families, which he viewed as evidence that intelligence and fertility are negatively correlated. He also believes that socioeconomic status. Lynn agreed with Lewis Terman's comment in 1922 that "children of successful and cultivated parents test higher than children from wretched and ignorant homes for the simple reason that their heredity is better". Lynn claimed that socio-economic status is positively correlated with indicators of conscientiousness such as work ethic and moral values and negatively with crime. Next the genetic basis of differences in conscientiousness is discussed, and Lynn concludes that twin studies provide evidence of a high heritability for the trait. The less conscientious, such as criminals, have more offspring.

Lynn presented counter-arguments, such as the traits discussed are not genetically determined, intelligence and fertility can be inversely related without dysgenics, socio-economic status does not differ genetically, and there is no such thing as a 'bad gene', and dismissed all of the counter-arguments on the basis that the trends he found represent a serious problem, leading him to announce his support of eugenics.

A review of Dysgenics by W. D. Hamilton, Royal Society research professor in evolutionary biology at the University of Oxford, was published posthumously in 2000. Hamilton wrote a lengthy review stating that Lynn, "discussing the large bank of evidence that still accumulates on heritability of aptitudes and differentials of fertility, shows in this book that almost all of the worries of the early eugenicists were well-founded, in spite of the relative paucity of their evidence at the time".

Another review of Dysgenics was written in 2002 by Nicholas Mackintosh, emeritus professor of experimental psychology in the University of Cambridge. Mackintosh wrote that, "with a cavalier disregard for political correctness, he argues that the ideas of the eugenecists were correct and that we ignore them at our peril." While recognising that the book provides a valuable and accurate source of information, he criticised Lynn for "not fully acknowledg[ing] the negative relationship between social class and education on the one hand, and infant mortality and life expectancy on the other." He questioned Lynn's interpretation of data. He also points out that according to Lynn's reading of the theory of natural selection, "if it is true that those with lower IQ and less education are producing more offspring, then they are fitter than those of higher IQ and more education". According to Mackintosh, eugenicist arguments are not based on a "biological imperative, but rather on a particular set of value judgements."

In Eugenics: A Reassessment (2001), Lynn claimed that embryo selection as a form of standard reproductive therapy would raise the average intelligence of the population by 15 IQ points in a single generation (p. 300). If couples produce a hundred embryos, he argues, the range in potential IQ would be around 15 points above and below the parents' IQ. Lynn argues this gain could be repeated each generation, eventually stabilising the population's IQ at a theoretical maximum of around 200 after as little as six or seven generations.

Pioneer Fund

Lynn currently serves on the board of directors of the Pioneer Fund, and is also on the editorial board of the Pioneer-supported journal Mankind Quarterly, both of which have been the subject of controversy for their dealing with race and intelligence and eugenics, and have been accused of racism, e.g., by Avner Falk and William Tucker. Lynn's Ulster Institute for Social Research received $609,000 in grants from the Pioneer Fund between 1971 and 1996.

Lynn's 2001 book The Science of Human Diversity: A History of the Pioneer Fund is a history and defence of the fund, in which he argues that, for the last sixty years, it has been "nearly the only non-profit foundation making grants for study and research into individual and group differences and the hereditary basis of human nature ... Over those 60 years, the research funded by Pioneer has helped change the face of social science."

Reception

Lynn's work on national differences, including his compilation of a database of national IQ, has received favourable comments by many other researchers. Biochemist Gerhard Meisenberg describes him as "prominent protagonist of this approach in recent years". In the Bell Curve, Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray describes him as "a leading scholar of racial and ethnic differences". Former president of the Estonian Psychological Association Jüri Allik wrote that "Many of these [cross-cultural studies of personality traits] were inspired by Richard Lynn’s pioneering research and by the sometimes uncomfortable questions he had the courage to ask. The study of national differences in personality have lagged behind similar studies of intelligence, but when influenced by Lynn’s prevailing ideas, they have nevertheless reached a satisfying level of sophistication." Donald Templer said Lynn "is to intellectual group differences as Charles Darwin is to biology." Richard Lynn’s 1971 book, Personality and National Character has been described as "a breakthrough in the study of national cultures".

Lynn's scientific contributions on the evolution of general intelligence has been described as "significant" by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at London School of Economics.

However, his review work on global racial differences in cognitive ability has been cited for misrepresenting the research of other scientists, and has been criticised for unsystematic methodology and distortion.

David King, the coordinator of the consumer watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, said "we find Richard Lynn's claims that some human beings are inherently superior to others repugnant." Similarly, Gavin Evans wrote in the Guardian that Lynn was one of a number of "flat-earthers" who have claimed that "Africans, or black Americans, or poor people" are less intelligent than Westerners. He further wrote, with regard to Lynn's claims that Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, "What is remarkable in all this is not so much that there are people who believe him - after all, there are still those who insist the Earth is flat - but rather that any creditable institution should take it seriously."

The datum that Lynn and Vanhanen used for the lowest IQ estimate, Equatorial Guinea, was taken from a group of children in a home for the developmentally disabled in Spain. Corrections were applied to adjust for differences in IQ cohorts (the "Flynn" effect) on the assumption that the same correction could be applied internationally, without regard to the cultural or economic development level of the country involved. While there appears to be rather little evidence on cohort effect upon IQ across the developing countries, one study in Kenya (Daley, Whaley, Sigman, Espinosa, & Neumann, 2003) shows a substantially larger cohort effect than is reported for developed countries (p.?)

In a critical review of The Bell Curve, psychologist Leon Kamin faulted Lynn for "disregarding scientific objectivity", "misrepresenting data", and for "racism". Kamin argues that the studies of cognitive ability of Africans in Lynn's meta-analysis cited by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray show strong cultural bias. Kamin also reproached Lynn for concocting IQ values from test scores that have no correlation to IQ. Kamin also notes that Lynn excluded a study that found no difference in White and Black performance, and ignored the results of a study which showed Black scores were higher than White scores.

Journalist Charles Lane criticised Lynn's methodology in his article in The New York Review of Books, "The Tainted Sources of The Bell Curve" (1994). Pioneer Fund president Harry Weyher, Jr. published a response accusing the reviewer of errors and misrepresentation; Lane also replied to this with a rebuttal.

In 2002 an academic dispute arose after Lynn claimed that some races are inherently more psychopathic than others, and other psychologists criticised his data and interpretations. Psychologist Leon Kamin has said that "Lynn's distortions and misrepresentations of the data constitute a truly venomous racism, combined with the scandalous disregard for scientific objectivity".

In 2010, on his 80th birthday, Lynn was celebrated with a special issue of Personality and Individual Differences dedicated to his work that was edited by Danish psychologist Helmuth Nyborg with contributions by Nyborg, J. Philippe Rushton, Satoshi Kanazawa and several others.

Lynn says he wants to be remembered this way: "Some loved him, some hated him, but everyone accepted that he kept the faith and told the truth as he saw it".

Controversial statements

Lynn is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in their extremist files as a white nationalist. The SPLC has kept a record of Lynn's controversial statements, for example, in a 2011 interview with neo-Nazi Alex Kurtagic, Lynn stated, "I am deeply pessimistic about the future of the European peoples because mass immigration of third world peoples will lead to these becoming majorities in the United States and westernmost Europe during the present century. I think this will mean the destruction of European civilization in these countries." In 1995, Lynn was quoted by the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) saying, "What is called for here is not genocide, the killing off of the population of incompetent cultures. But we do need to think realistically in terms of the ‘phasing out’ of such peoples...Evolutionary progress means the extinction of the less competent. To think otherwise is mere sentimentality."

FAIR also quoted Lynn as stating:

I think the only solution lies in the breakup of the United States. Blacks and Hispanics are concentrated in the Southwest, the Southeast and the East, but the Northwest and the far Northeast, Maine, Vermont and upstate New York have a large predominance of whites. I believe these predominantly white states should declare independence and secede from the Union. They would then enforce strict border controls and provide minimum welfare, which would be limited to citizens. If this were done, white civilization would survive within this handful of states."

The SPLC stated that "Since the 1970s, Richard Lynn has been working tirelessly to place race, genes, and IQ at the center of discussions surrounding inequality. Through his own writings and those published by his Ulster Institute for Social Research, in Northern Ireland, Lynn argues that members of different races and nations possess innate differences in intelligence and behavior, and that these are responsible for everything from the incarceration rate of black Americans to the poverty of developing nations. Lynn is also an ethnic nationalist who believes that countries must 'remain racially homogenous' in order to flourish." The center has also stated that "Lynn uses his authority as professor (emeritus) of psychology at the University of Ulster to argue for the genetic inferiority of non-white people."

Lynn has also spoken at three different conferences hosted by the white nationalist publication American Renaissance.

Works