Race, evolution, and behavior

About this book

Testing for racial differences in behavior has been much neglected over the past sixty years. And when not subject to neglect, to strongly negative imputations among professionals and politicians alike. According to J. Philippe Rushton, substantial racial differences do exist and their pattern can only be explained adequately from an evolutionary perspective. In Race, Evolution, and Behavior he reviews international data and finds a distinct pattern. People of East Asian ancestry and people of African ancestry are at opposite ends of a continuum, with people of European ancestry intermediate, albeit with much variability within each broad grouping. Rushton's thesis is that when fully modern humans migrated out of Africa, perhaps only 100,000 years ago, the colder Eurasian climate selected for larger brains, more forward planning, greater family stability, and increased longevity with concomitant reductions in sex hormone, speed of maturation, reproductive potency, and aggressiveness. Rushton's theory emphasizes a trade-off between parenting and mating and brings into focus the concept of a coordinated life history of characteristics, evolving together, to replicate genes more effectively. The selection for large brains and parenting skills was taken furthest in east Asia. Rushton's theory explains differentiation in intelligence and predicts other, seemingly unrelated race effects, such as differences in frequency of twinning. The capacity to unify disparate phenomena is usually considered a virtue in theories. Rushton's gene-based evolutionary models explain ethnocentri…

Themes & subjects