Intelligence in Everyday Life

PAPER 2
Due November 11 (Rewrite due November 25)
4+ pages, typed double-spaced, stapled, pages numbered
2 copies
Please attach a completed Writer Response form to the copy for your fellow.

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Task:

If you had the power to change one important fact about intelligence, what would it be and why? How would changing that one fact affect American society--for instance, its economy, politics, educational system, the ways its citizens lead their lives or interact with one another, etc? Think broadly, but be specific when you write.

Grading criteria

• Paper has a clear and coherent focus
• Writing is clear and well organized
• Has well-informed, thoughtful ideas about how differences in intelligence affect the lives of individuals and societies
• All depictions of the evidence on g are accurate (e.g., does not make statements that reflect failure to read and understand the course assignments)
• Goes beyond the obvious
• Backs up speculations with specific evidence and strong logic

Examples of changed facts

• All races have the same IQ bell curve (there are no racial differences in g)
• Everyone has an IQ of at least 100
• Instead of IQ becoming more heritable with age, it becomes less heritable
• We discover something (e.g., a teaching method) that equalizes people's trainability
• IQ differences are entirely environmental
• Early family effects on IQ are permanent, not temporary
• You may also entertain changes that presumably no one would want but might have really interesting social effects, such as everyone suddenly goes senile at age 65.
• Etc.

Warning: Go beyond the obvious!

• Certain outcomes will be obvious. For example, if there are no low-IQ people anymore, there will be no more special education classes as we know them today. You must go beyond such obvious outcomes.
• You must also examine the likely cascade of effects that would reverberate through social life and institutions if your fact suddenly changes (or never existed). Would the occupational ladder really stay the same? Would we think about each other in the same way? Would changing your fact have unwelcome consequences, not just the ones you want? (This is the "Be careful what you wish for" issue.)

Goal of assignment

• You as a scientist: To have you think about the broader consequences for a society of its members differing in intelligence. Imagining changing the system is one way to understand better what actually occurs now.
• You as a thoughtful citizen: To have you think through your values by having to imagine what would be a better state of affairs and whether the change you propose might have unwelcome effects to contend with as well as the good outcomes you seek.

Additional help

• Like the first paper assignment, this one also asks you to think creatively (deeply) as a scientist. It differs, however, in necessarily requiring you to engage in more speculation. Specifically, it requires you to make predictions about processes for which you do not have evidence, either because there is none (e.g., we don't know for sure how society would react to the invention of a smart pill) or because we haven't reviewed it (voting patterns, economic trends, etc.). Your argument in this paper will therefore rest more heavily on logic and informed imagination.
• You may (but are not required to) bring in outside evidence or discussion on your chosen topic.
• The assignment asks you to be a magician and change one--but only one--of the basic scientific facts about g. That changed fact may be an invention which neutralizes some current fact (a pill that makes people smarter, a training method that succeeds equally well with people of all g levels, etc.). Except for that one change, your paper must remain firmly grounded in the reality of the evidence about g.
• Please supply both a title and bibliography for your paper. Also number the pages.
• And please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!