Thread by @EikoFried

1/5 This review by Gonthier (2022) tackles a crucial topic: are non-verbal intelligence tests culture fair? This is important because you often see the reasoning "ethnicity/race 1 has lower IQ than ethnicity/race 2, & it must be genetic because non-verbal tests are culture fair".

2/5 This takes ugly extremes such as that there is "some genetic component in Black–White differences in mean IQ" (Rushton & Jensen 2005) etc. So the review here really matters to address threats to such conclusions and can set the record straight.

3/5 Gonthier investigates numerous sources of evidence, from controlled lab experiments in the US to n=1 qualitative reports from ethnologists dating many decadesback, concluding that there is substantial evidence that non-verbal tests are *not* culture fair.

4/5 This is discussed in great detail in the paper, and summarized in this table. Some of these stories were a real learning experience for me as a scholar not working on intelligence—highly recommended.

5/5 Overall, Gonthier concludes that culture is deeply engrained in visuo-spatial reasoning tests, which "makes it impossible to draw clear-cut conclusions from average score differences between ethnic groups".

Here is the #openaccess paper:

…itiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.11…