Intelligence and How to Get It : Why Schools and Cultures Count

“[Nisbett] weighs in forcefully and articulately . . . [using] a thoroughly appealing style to engage . . . throughout.”—Publishers Weekly"Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Do "the people of the book" really have a leg up when it comes to scholarship? Are there genetic explanations for group differences in test scores? How can parents work to improve the intelligence of their children? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in science? Can schools eliminate the social class and racial gaps in academic achievement?" "From the pessimistic claims of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson's statements relating race and intelligence, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture. In the tradition of The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, eminent social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as biologically fixed, asserting that culture matters most in shaping our potential. Intellect is not primarily genetic but is determined principally by societal influences." "Marshaling a superb array of evidence that explains why schools make us smarter, how social class affects IQ, and how cultural factors confer distinct advantages within different groups, Intelligence and How to Get It is sure to take its place on the shelves as the authoritative anti-Bell Curve. Nisbett makes a strong case for the need to revamp our entire approach to education, arguing that malleable, controllable factors like schools and social environment, and not hardwired genetic codes, hold the keys to the future of intellectual advancement." As the first major work to stake out such firm and far-reaching positions on the central role of culture in molding cognition, this book promises to reignite the fierce debate over society'srole and responsibility in nurturing IQ, with vast implications for structuring our educational system, our economy, and society at large.