Is a person’s intelligence innate and unchanging, or something that can stagnate or grow depending upon the environment in which it is nurtured? Few scientific controversies have been fought more fiercely.
Twenty years ago, the best-selling book The Bell Curve argued that inherited ability was all-important, while critics responded by insisting on the importance of intellectual stimulation.
With its real-world applications for public policy, this dispute is anything but academic. Do inner-city kids score poorly on IQ tests because their learning capacities are limited (an argument many decry as racist)? Because the tests are biased? Or because their schools, and in many cases their home environments, are not conducive to the development of their innate abilities?
[For more of this story, written by Tom Jacobs, go to http://www.psmag.com/nature-an...ligence-is-malleable]
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