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The Global Bell Curve was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 22 February 2014 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into The Bell Curve. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

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This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Michael Duffy (August 6, 2005). "Freedom of speech takes a fall". Sydney Morning Herald.

Popular reception? edit

What seems to be missing from the discussion is how well did The Bell Curve sell? A discussion of how many copies were sold, how many reprints were made, and critics’ assessment of the reason’s behind the book’s commercial success or lack of it are certainly worthwhile. Luokehao, 13 December 2020, 08:09 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.221.166.49 (talk)

This book synopsis relies on a single source. edit

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Of course the synopsis of a book always relies on one source. Why warn readers about that ? It is silly. 142.189.246.116 (talk) 17:38, 2 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

What assumptions does the book actually make? edit

Latest comment: 6 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion

According to Gould, the book authors assume that intelligence must be:

reducible to a single number
capable of rank ordering people in a linear order
primarily genetically based
essentially immutable

But author Charles Murray said he made no such assumptions

Should we leave it at that? Or can we quote the passages which Gould claims indicate such assumptions?

And on the other hand, are there any passages in the book which refute Gould's claim? --Uncle Ed (talk) 14:48, 24 September 2023 (UTC)Reply

It's not our role to do original analysis of the text, nor to second-guess reviews by reliable sources. We simply report the verifiable facts, giving competing views due weight. Generalrelative (talk) 14:59, 24 September 2023 (UTC)Reply

"a view that is now considered discredited by mainstream science" citations are poor edit

Latest comment: 13 days ago7 comments5 people in discussion

The first citation is a guardian opinion article, it's argumentative and raises valid points, however I do not think it can be considered "mainstream science" as the article is not science, it puts forward a point of view that may have some scientific basis by one person.

The second citation is a vox article which is again an opinion article in a similar style to the first, it's a criticism of a podcast between Sam Harris and Charles Murray, it cannot be considered "mainstream science".

The third citation is an actual published article in a journal, however, it cannot be considered a scientific refutation of the view. It's an observation of how white supremacists use similar articles to the ones that Charles Murray has made to justify their bigotry. It is also a low impact article from a low impact journal, the article itself only has 43 citations, it cannot be considered "mainstream science".

I do not believe that the claim is sufficiently cited. 106.68.123.65 (talk) 13:00, 29 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

According to WP:MOSLEAD, the lead does not need to have extensive citations if there are plenty of citations in the main body, as is the case here. Starting with the "Reception" section, I count 35 sources for criticism of the book by mainstream scholars and scientists, several of whom point out how far the book is from the methods and conclusions of mainstream science: references 12-16, 21-25, 29-30, 33-45, 47-54, and 57-58. NightHeron (talk) 13:42, 29 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

"how far the book is from the methods and conclusions of mainstream science" It is a pseudoscience book, written by two cranks. Is it that much of a surprise that its methods do not work? Dimadick (talk) 21:10, 29 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

I get that it's a standard, but I don't think that number of references is valid. The claim that it's "considered discredited by mainstream science" should have more to back it up than two opinion articles and an article that literally has nothing to do with mainstream science, with a low impact factor, that literally doesn't make it mainstream science.

If you wanted to back up the claim , you should post a strong systematic review with a good amount of citations (probably 500+). I think that would sufficiently justify calling it discredited by mainstream science. 106.68.123.65 (talk) 13:06, 1 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

Did I miss something... edit

Or does this source article [1] not even mention The Bell Curve? Goodtablemanners (talk) 01:43, 5 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

It does mention co-author Murray once, but in any case the article is cited to demonstrate that the view of "genetic racial IQ differences" is discredited by mainstream science. Harryhenry1 (talk) 02:16, 5 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

Even so, wouldn't it make more sense to cite an article that specifically mentions the material in The Bell Curve? Goodtablemanners (talk) 03:22, 5 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

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