Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-j4x9h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-12T17:36:20.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

There is no such thing as culture-free intelligence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2022

Gary Lupyan Open the ORCID record for Gary Lupyan [Opens in a new window]
Gary Lupyan*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. lupyan@wisc.edu; http://sapir.psych.wisc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Cognitive scientists and psychometricians are unaccustomed to thinking about culture, often treating their measures – memory, vocabulary, intelligence – as natural kinds. Relying on these measures, behavioral geneticists likewise seem to not wonder about their origin and cultural provenance. I argue that complex human traits – the sort we are most interested in measuring – are cultural products. We can measure them and their heritability, but to conclude that what we have measured is unbound to a time and place is hubris.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e169
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

De Moor, M. H. M., Spector, T. D., Cherkas, L. F., Falchi, M., Hottenga, J. J., Boomsma, D. I., & De Geus, E. J. C. (2007). Genome-wide linkage scan for athlete status in 700 British female DZ twin pairs. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 10(6), 812–820. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.10.6.812.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeDeo, S. (2018). IQ cults, nonlinearity, and reality: A bird-watcher's parable. Axiom of Chance. https://simondedeo.com/?p=337.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. W., & Ramachandran, S. (2018). Missing compared to what? Revisiting heritability, genes and culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1743), 20170064. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0064.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hegarty, M., Montello, D. R., Richardson, A. E., Ishikawa, T., & Lovelace, K. (2006). Spatial abilities at different scales: Individual differences in aptitude-test performance and spatial-layout learning. Intelligence, 34(2), 151–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2005.09.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, A. R. (1980). Bias in mental testing. Free Press.Google Scholar
Kan, K.-J., Wicherts, J. M., Dolan, C. V., & van der Maas, H. L. J. (2013). On the nature and nurture of intelligence and specific cognitive abilities: The more heritable, the more culture dependent. Psychological Science, 24(12), 2420–2428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613493292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perkins, J. M., Subramanian, S. V., Davey Smith, G., & Özaltin, E. (2016). Adult height, nutrition, and population health. Nutrition Reviews, 74(3), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuv105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plomin, R., & Deary, I. J. (2015). Genetics and intelligence differences: Five special findings. Molecular Psychiatry, 20(1), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, K. (2002). What IQ tests test. Theory & Psychology, 12(3), 283–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354302012003012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, S. (2015). Intelligence: All that matters (1st ed.). John Murray.Google Scholar
Roebuck, H., & Lupyan, G. (under review). Re-thinking non-verbal intelligence: The role of language.Google Scholar
Rosselli, M., & Ardila, A. (2003). The impact of culture and education on non-verbal neuropsychological measurements: A critical review. Brain and Cognition, 52(3), 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00170-2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephenson, N. (2012). Arsebestos. In Some remarks: Essays and other writing (pp. 4–15). William Morrow.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. (2004). On human nature: Twenty-fifth anniversary edition, with a new preface (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. Basic Books.Google Scholar