Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy with James Flynn

“When you turn your back on reality you lose the ability to manipulate reality. One would think that is self-evident. I didn’t go into this to not try to find the truth.” — James Flynn* Today it is an honor to have Dr. James Flynn on the podcast. Dr. Flynn is Professor Emeritus at the University of Otago and recipient of the University’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Career Research. In 2007, the International Society for Intelligence Research named him its Distinguished Contributor. His TED talk on cognitive and moral progress has received over 3.5 million visits. His long list of books include Are We Getting Smarter?, What is Intelligence?, Where Have All the Liberals Gone?, Fate and Philosophy, How to Improve Your Mind, and most recently, Does Your Family Make You Smarter?: Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy. In this episode we cover a wide range of topics relating to intelligence and its determinants, including: Flynn’s attempts to clarify intelligence and its causes The g factor, and what gives rise to it The validity of multiple intelligences theory Intergenerational trends (the “Flynn effect”) vs. Within-generation trends The “social multiplier” model of intergenerational trends in intelligence Individual multipliers vs. social multipliers The multiple causes of black-white differences in IQ Charley Murray and the meritocracy thesis Transcending the politics of intelligence research The dangers of suppressing ideas and research The 20% wiggle room of autonomy on IQ tests The difference between internal and external environment The impact of having a “family handicap” on SAT scores What we can learn from astronomy about human intelligence Toward a meta-theory of intelligence Toward a more humane society For the full show notes and links relevant to this episode, go to: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/podcast... Subscribe to The Psychology Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/p... https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-... See past epodes and join in the Discussion: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/podcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepsycholog... Twitter:   / psychpodcast