Early IQ Test Developers and Their Flaws
Alfred Binet (early 1900s, France):
Created the first intelligence test to identify children needing help. He saw intelligence as flexible and warned against viewing scores as fixed measures.
Lewis Terman (USA, 1916):
Adapted Binet's test into the Stanford-Binet IQ test, popularizing IQ scores. Terman believed intelligence was mostly hereditary and linked to social/racial hierarchies.
Henry Goddard and others (early 20th-century America):
Used IQ tests to classify immigrants and marginalized groups. Promoted eugenics and helped justify restrictive immigration and segregation policies.
---
Why the Tests Are Flawed and Biased
IQ tests often reflect language, culture, and education of white, middle-class people, disadvantaging minorities and poor communities.
Early developers assumed intelligence was fixed and hereditary, linked to race-ideas now discredited but historically used to justify racism.
IQ scores measure limited cognitive skills, ignoring environment, education, and other intelligence types (e.g., emotional, creative).
Test results were misused to stereotype and discriminate, ignoring social and historical contexts.
---
Proven Racist Bias and Modern Understanding
IQ tests were explicitly used to support racist policies and eugenics in the 20th century.
Modern research shows racial differences in IQ scores shrink when controlling for socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Intelligence is complex and shaped by genetics and environment; efforts are ongoing to create fairer tests and broaden definitions of intelligence.
---
If you want, I can suggest readings or resources to explore this topic more deeply!
Alfred Binet (early 1900s, France):
Created the first intelligence test to identify children needing help. He saw intelligence as flexible and warned against viewing scores as fixed measures.
Lewis Terman (USA, 1916):
Adapted Binet's test into the Stanford-Binet IQ test, popularizing IQ scores. Terman believed intelligence was mostly hereditary and linked to social/racial hierarchies.
Henry Goddard and others (early 20th-century America):
Used IQ tests to classify immigrants and marginalized groups. Promoted eugenics and helped justify restrictive immigration and segregation policies.
---
Why the Tests Are Flawed and Biased
IQ tests often reflect language, culture, and education of white, middle-class people, disadvantaging minorities and poor communities.
Early developers assumed intelligence was fixed and hereditary, linked to race-ideas now discredited but historically used to justify racism.
IQ scores measure limited cognitive skills, ignoring environment, education, and other intelligence types (e.g., emotional, creative).
Test results were misused to stereotype and discriminate, ignoring social and historical contexts.
---
Proven Racist Bias and Modern Understanding
IQ tests were explicitly used to support racist policies and eugenics in the 20th century.
Modern research shows racial differences in IQ scores shrink when controlling for socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Intelligence is complex and shaped by genetics and environment; efforts are ongoing to create fairer tests and broaden definitions of intelligence.
---
If you want, I can suggest readings or resources to explore this topic more deeply!