Wikipedia

Dysgenics

(Redirected from Dysgenic pressure)
Not to be confused with Dysgenesis (embryology).

Dysgenics refers to any decrease in the prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or generally adaptive to their environment due to selective pressure disfavouring their reproduction,[1] In other words, where it is present, it amounts to selection against heritable traits posited to be desirable.[2] As such, dysgenics" (with adjective "dysgenic") is the antonym to eugenics" (with adjective "eugenic").

In 1915 the term was used by David Starr Jordan to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving the disabled at home.[3][4] Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century.[5]

More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations have been advanced by the controversial psychologist Richard Lynn, notably in his 1996 book Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, which argued that a reduction in selection pressures and decreased infant mortality since the Industrial Revolution have resulted in an increased propagation of deleterious traits and genetic disorders.[6][7]

Despite these concerns, genetic studies have shown no evidence for dysgenic effects in human populations.[6][8][9][10] Reviewing Lynn's book, the scholar John R. Wilmoth notes: "Overall, the most puzzling aspect of Lynn's alarmist position is that the deterioration of average intelligence predicted by the eugenicists has not occurred."[11]

See also

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Further reading

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  • Dutton, Edward; Woodley of Menie, Michael A. (2018). At Our Wits' End: Why We're Becoming Less Intelligent and What it Means for the Future. Societas. ISBN-10 184540985X, ISBN-13 978-1845409852
  • Itzkoff, Seymour W. (1994). The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 0–275–94467–0
  • Beauchamp, Jonathan P. (11 July 2016). "Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (28): 7774–7779. Bibcode:2016PNAS..113.7774B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1600398113. PMC 4948342. PMID 27402742.
  • Loehlin, John C. (1997). "Dysgenesis and IQ: What evidence is relevant?" (PDF). American Psychologist, 52(11), 1236–1239. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.52.11.1236
  • Lynn, Richard; Harvey, John H. (2008). "The decline of the world's IQ" (PDF). Intelligence 36: 112–120
  • Lynn, Richard (2001). Eugenics: A Reassessment (PDF). Praeger Publishers. ISBN 9780275958220.
  • Reeve, Charlie L.; Heeney, Michael D.; Woodley of Menie, Michael A. (2018). "A systematic review of the state of literature relating parental general cognitive ability and number of offspring" (PDF). Personality and Individual Differences 134, 107–118. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.036

References

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  1. ^ Rédei, George P. (2008). Encyclopedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics, and Informatics, Volume 1. Springer. p. 572. ISBN 978-1-4020-6755-6.
  2. ^ Woodley of Menie, Michael A. (2021). Dysgenic Concerns. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_467
  3. ^ Jordan, David Starr (2003). War and the Breed: The Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations (Reprint ed.). Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 978-1-4102-0900-9.
  4. ^ Carlson, Elof Axel (2001). The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. pp. 189–193. ISBN 9780879695873.
  5. ^ Carlson, Elof Axel (2001). The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN 9780879695873.
  6. ^ a b Fischbach, Karl-Friedrich; Niggeschmidt, Martin (2022). "Do the Dumb Get Dumber and the Smart Get Smarter?". Heritability of Intelligence. Springer. pp. 37–39. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-35321-6_9. ISBN 978-3-658-35321-6. S2CID 244640696. Since the nineteenth century, a 'race deterioration' has been repeatedly predicted as a result of the excessive multiplication of less gifted people. Nevertheless, the educational and qualification level of people in the industrialized countries has risen strongly. The fact that the 'test intelligence' has also significantly increased, is difficult to explain for supporters of the dysgenic thesis: they suspect that the 'phenotypic intelligence' has increased for environmental reasons, while the 'genotypic quality' secretly decreases. There is neither evidence nor proof for this theory. Citations in original omitted.
  7. ^ Lynn, Richard (1997). Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations (PDF). Praeger Publishers. ISBN 9780275949174.
  8. ^ Conley, Dalton; Laidley, Thomas; Belsky, Daniel W.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Boardman, Jason D.; Domingue, Benjamin W. (14 June 2016). "Assortative mating and differential fertility by phenotype and genotype across the 20th century". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (24): 6647–6652. Bibcode:2016PNAS..113.6647C. doi:10.1073/pnas.1523592113. PMC 4914190. PMID 27247411.
  9. ^ Bratsberg, Bernt; Rogeberg, Ole (26 June 2018). "Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (26): 6674–6678. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115.6674B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718793115. PMC 6042097. PMID 29891660.
  10. ^ Neisser, Ulric (1998). The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures. American Psychological Association. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN 978-1557985033. There is no convincing evidence that any dysgenic trend exists. . . . It turns out, counterintuitively, that differential birth rates (for groups scoring high and low on a trait) do not necessarily produce changes in the population mean.
  11. ^ Wilmoth, John R. "Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations", Population and Development Review 23, no. 3 (Sep., 1997): 664-666.
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