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IQ - The Brilliant Idea that Failed by Stephen Murdoch Duckworth Reviewed by RITA CARTER This review first appeared in The Daily Mail WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? That IQ tests are bad, bad, bad. They decide the fate of millions of people each year - which school they get into, which job they get, whether they may adopt a child or be allowed entrance to a new country. In some places they are even used to determine whether criminals should live or be executed. Yet the science behind the idea of an “Intelligence Quotient” is dubious and the tests a relic of psychological misconceptions that date back to before the First World War. They have been used for the vilest purposes and have caused immeasurable suffering and unnecessary social divisiveness. “We do not really know what IQ tests tell us about individuals” says Murdoch, “and yet for a century we have relied on them to sort people in circumstances that are frequently life-defining and sometimes fearsomely dangerous”. The tests survive only because “the notion that the IQ test is a measure of innate intelligence has worked its way into the general consciousness. It is broadly and unthinkingly accepted as fact, even though it is untrue”. SO WHAT'S NEW?? IQ testing has been criticised along these lines for decades so there is nothing particularly new here idea-wise. The book’s strength lies in its detailed analysis and intriguing historical detail. Murdoch traces the invention of IQ testing to a small group of psychologists who saw in it a way of gaining social influence, and describes how it flourished due to a combination of “chutzpah, self-promotion and timing”. He tells how IQ tests were used as part of the selection process for American immigrants, and by the Nazis to help decide who should be subjected to their infamous sterilisation programme. Then he pulls apart the way that IQ tests are used in education (in the 11-plus and SATs exams, for instance) arguing that they have negligible ability to predict academic achievement and serve only to block worthy individuals from getting a good education. HOW READER-FRIENDLY IS IT? Murdoch leavens his prose with personal anecdotes and case studies, and he writes fluently enough (as you would expect of a journalist who has contributed to many of the world’s leading newspapers and ,magazines). If you are interested in the subject of IQ already you will find it fascinating but if not you may find it quite dry . BOFFIN RATING Murdoch has mined his subject deeply and come up with facts aplenty, all of which are no doubt sound. But he tells one side of the story only, so for all its scholarship it is not the definitive account of IQ. © Rita Carter 2007 - www.ritacarter.co.uk |
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