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The Bell Curve

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The Bell Curve is a controversial book by R. J. Herrnstein and C. Murray claiming to have found substantial individual and group differences in intelligence which profoundly influence the social structure and organization of work in modern industrial societies. Following in the footsteps of Harvard researcher Arthur Jensen, Murray and his co-author published reams of statistical data showing correlation between race and intelligence. Like Jensen, The Bell Curve authors were denounced as racists.


Stephen Jay Gould published the first scientific criticism of The Bell Curve in his book The Mismeasure of Man,

where he provides a point-by-point rebuttal of its arguments.


The title is a reference to the shape of the graph of a statistical normal distribution



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