Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count

Download or read book Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count written by Richard E. Nisbett and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-02-08 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[Nisbett] weighs in forcefully and articulately . . . [using] a thoroughly appealing style to engage . . . throughout.”—Publishers Weekly Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for group differences in test scores? From the damning research of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson’s statements, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture. In the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man, world-class social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as biologically determined and impervious to culture with vast implications for the role of education as it relates to social and economic development. Intelligence and How to Get It asserts that intellect is not primarily genetic but is principally determined by societal influences.