Bell Curve

Chapter 14Ethnic Inequalities inRelation to IQEthnic differences in education, occupations, poverty, unemployment, iUegitimacy, crime , and other signs of inequality preoccupy scholars and thoughtfulcitizens. In this chapter, we examine these differences after cognitive abilityis taken into account.We find that Latinos and whites of similar cognitive ability have similar socialbehavior and economic outcomes. Some differences remain, and a feware substantial, but the overall patm is similarity. For blacks and whites, thestory is more complicated. On two vitul indicators of success--educationalattainment and entry into prestigious occupations-the black-white discrepancyreverses. After controlling for IQ , her numbers of blacks than whitesgraduate from college and enter the professions. On a third important indicatorof success, wages, the black-white difference for year-round workersshrinks from several thousand to a few hundred doUars.In contrast, the B/W gap in annual family income or in persons below thepoverty line narrows after controlling for IQ but still remains sizable. Similarly,differences in unemployment, labor force participation, marriage, andillegitimacy get smaller but remain significant after extracting the effect of IQ.These inequalities must be explained by other factors in American life. Scholarshave advanced many such explanations; we will not try to adjudtcateamong them here, except to suggest that in nying to understand the cultural,social, and economic sources of these differences, understanding how cognitiveability plays into the mix of factors seems indispensable. The role of cognitiveability has seldom been constdered in the pat. Doing so in futureresearch could clarify issues and focw attention on the factors that are actuallyproducing the more noubling inequalities.