I’m going to tweet my reply to @EPoe187 here because it’s longish and easier to keep the thread this way.

Until the evidence is in, I will default to the position that there’s no evidence for a genetic contribution to racial differences in IQ. 1/ https://twitter.com/EPoe187/status/1385009641843724288?s=20

There are reasons to think that taking a genetic contribution as default would serve to fuel racism, lower academic expectations for black children, and in that way possibly lead to a widening of the gap. 2/

Perhaps you’ve noticed the racists and white supremacists who follow you and cheer for you when you default to a partial genetic cause for the differences? Arguments for a genetic contribution demand serious ethical consideration. 3/

If (for some reason) you choose to argue for a genetic contribution, imo you have an ethical obligation to make it clear that the evidence does not support a conclusion at this point. This is especially so when speaking/writing for a larger lay audience. 4/

As a curious scientist, I think the genetic investigation of cognitive abilities should continue, and if the relevant genes are identified and some sort of racial association is discovered then we’ll deal with it. 5/

(As an aside about research into the genetics of cognition, IQ etc: I do have serious concerns about how some people might implement such knowledge in the future. I think that moral philosophers should be closely involved at all stages, + lots of caution etc.) 6/

However, I personally doubt that such genetic racial IQ differences are there, for a number of reasons. And I've yet to hear any good causal explanation for the idea that humans in Europe evolved such different cognitive abilities to humans in Africa. 7/

It might be difficult in practice to explain 100% of the gap with environmental causes since they are so multidimensional and nonlinear. We already know what some of the enviro factors are though, and not enough is being done to address and reduce them. 8/

Others have credibly argued that the results you name are not evidence for your claim. See e.g. @itsbirdemic's paper and the references there. Even in your own paper you admit there's no definitive evidence and refer to your position as a hypothesis. 9/ https://twitter.com/EPoe187/status/1385010223837028353?s=20

Earl Hunt’s opinion is not evidence. I can't see a single good reason to default (without evidence) to the position that there are genetic causes for the differences in IQ between races, but I can see some very good reasons not to. 10/10 https://twitter.com/EPoe187/status/1385010520940597251?s=20

I'll add a link to @itsbirdemic's paper here for anyone who's interested: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.24216

Also: https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol23-3-bio-politics/genetic-basis-genome-wide-association-studies-risk/