British psychologist Richard Lynn: biography, activities and interesting facts. "Evolution, race and intellect," Richard Lynn

Richard Lynn is a famous British psychologist who is the founder of the theory of the relationship between the level of intelligence and the race of man. This theory has found recognition in its circles, but Linn's openly racist statements are still the subject of controversy, and his works are widely regarded as contradictory. However, regardless of public opinion, the work of this psychologist is recognized. Richard Lynn wrote a lot of work on this and other topics, and one of the most famous is the book "Evolution, race and intellect."

early years

Richard Lynn was born in 1930 in Bristol, in the family of the scientist Cindy Harland. This botanist and geneticist was known for his work on the study of genetics of cotton. However, with his father he was separated at an early age, when his parents divorced. Richard first met his father when he was nineteen years old. Then Harland returned to the UK from South America to teach at the university. Lynn himself received an impressive education, including graduated from the prestigious Cambridge University. He worked as a teacher of psychology, but his fame was acquired only in 1973. It was then that he wrote a highly resonated review of one of the books. In it he expressed the idea that helping third world countries is meaningless, since the population of these countries is much worse than ordinary white people, it is not adapted to this world, so there is no reason to spend money to help them. It was then that Richard Lynn was first noticed by the public.

Increases in IQ in secular people

One of the first phenomena Lynn worked on is the sudden leaps in the level of intelligence in secular circles. As you can see, the main theme that Richard Lynn studied in his life is intelligence. He was not the only one working on this theory, which is why the effect of increasing intelligence in secular people was called the "Flynn effect" in honor of another scientist. Now it is standard and generally accepted in psychology, but some call it the Linn-Flynn effect, since Richard also made a serious contribution to his study. However, it is unlikely that this scientist would become so popular only because of these studies. The main theme, thanks to which Richard Flynn became known throughout the world, is the race.

Races and differences in intelligence

In the late seventies, Linn conducted a study in which he found that people living in Northeast Asia, on average, are six points larger than IQs than Europeans, who in turn are on average thirty points smarter than Africans. During his career, he published many works on this topic, including the fact that he investigated blacks and came to the conclusion that those blacks whose skin color is lighter have higher IQs than those whose skin is darker. The reason he called the fact that the more light-skinned blacks have more European blood, so they are smarter.

Naturally, his works were criticized everywhere, many scientists pointed out that they are extremely one-sided and do not take into account many other factors. However, of course, Linn had followers who agreed with everything that Richard Lynn wrote. Racial differences in intelligence have become a very urgent topic. Leading scientific journals refused to publish his works, and the famous scientist James Watson was forced to resign from his place of work when he inadvertently cited Linn's writings.

The connection between IQ and the wealth of peoples

Richard Lynn in one of his books argued that the difference in intelligence greatly influences the economies of countries. And in those countries where there is a low GDP, he was able to detect a lower level of intelligence of the inhabitants. Again, many people began to hold the same opinion as Richard Lynn: racial differences in intelligence exist and directly affect many areas of life.

However, at the same time, a huge number of scientists expressed the opinion that it is simply impossible to take information from Linna's book seriously: the statistics given in it are unreliable, practically on every page there are gaps that, when completed, would completely destroy Linn's theory. So the scientist's work was not recommended for reading and was considered to be frivolous and insufficiently justified to view it as something worthwhile in the world of serious science.

However, this did not prevent the scientist from working further in the same direction. Richard Lynn wrote more than one book during his career. Races, peoples, intellect - these were its main themes, and the principle has always remained the same. He tried in every possible way to prove that the intellect of a man depends on his race and that the African race is the least intellectually developed.

Evolutionary analysis

However, the most vivid and well-known book, written by Richard Lynn, is "Evolution, race, intellect." It was his most global work. It analyzes a huge amount of data collected from around the world. In general, the book describes the data taken from more than 800 thousand people. In the meta-analysis, Linn manages to show that the average IQ score is highest among people from East Asia, followed by Europeans. As for Africans, the main object of research for Lynn, they lag behind Europeans on average by 32 points. In some cases, statistics show that Africans are stupider than Europeans by more than 45 points. It was at the expense of this book, published in 2006, that Richard Lynn became famous throughout the world. "Evolution, race, intellect" is a work that attracted a lot of attention, but which still does not want to be taken seriously.

The difference in intelligence between men and women

As you already understood, the extremely ambiguous scientist is Richard Lynn. "Evolution, race, intellect" is a book that evoked a great resonance in society. However, the connection between race and intellect - this was not the only (though favorite) theme of the scientist. For example, at a certain stage of his career, he tried to prove that men have higher intelligence than women, since it became known that the ratio of brain sizes is also unequal. However, his theory was refuted by a large number of scientists.

Eugenics

Lynn also paid attention to eugenics, trying to identify some of its main problems. He believed that humanity is deteriorating health, intelligence and conscientiousness. As a reason for this, he singled out the progress of society. Lynn believed that in the pre-industrial society natural selection acted in full force, but as society developed, the progress of medicine, natural selection began to weaken, which explains the overall decline in intelligence in society. He also reported that children with the highest level of intelligence are the only ones in the family, while children from large families have lower IQs.

Nowadays

Currently, Richard Lynn is a member of the major scientific foundation Pioneer Fund, which in many respects due to his participation in it, Linn was recognized as racist. However, at the same time, on the other hand, the foundation sponsored many scientific studies, which otherwise could not have taken place at all. The last book of Linna was published recently - in 2015. The scientist again returned to his favorite topic, only this time he concentrated on sports. The book is called "Race and Sport: Evolution and Racial Differences in Sports Achievements."

Heritage

No matter how ambiguous and racist Lynn's research may seem, his contribution to science and the study of human intelligence is recognized and weighty. Many scientists believe that the data that Lynn collected in his book "Evolution, race, intellect" are more than impressive, and the book itself had a serious impact on the study of differences in human intelligence. But at the same time so many scientists criticize him and constantly refute one or another of his arguments. He is blamed for hiding unsavourable research data to give the public only those information that correspond to his beliefs. And these are not just thoughtless opponents, they are leading scientists who have their own facts. For example, more than once it has been confirmed that Lynn used intelligence from African children for mental retardation to develop the average intelligence of African countries. And this is not the only case, therefore it is rather difficult to take on faith those works that this scientist publishes.