Summers and The Bell Curve

Arelcao Akleos said...
Well, that Summers thing is interesting. If he had said what is claimed he said, then he would have been wrong [given the evidence he alluded to]. He in fact did NOT claim that "men are more mathematically talented than women on average". What he claimed is that the consistent evidence from various testing programs shows that although the averages show no appreciable difference between the sexes [some tests go one way, others the other way, and this can change through different eras] the extremes do. In particular, these tests, no matter where in the world, and no matter what decade you look at, show that in the category of "the very best" and "the very worst" men appear much more frequently than women. If you look at those who score in the bottom 1% of IQ tests, and those who score in the top 1% of IQ tests, men rule by a ratio of at least 2:1. And as you go further out on the deviations, the ratio shoots up. If I remember correctly, the IQ test the military gave back some three decades ago, what was known then--as the "gcf" [general comprehension factor], had a ratio of nearly 8:1 men for those who scored in the top 0.1%. It had an even higher ratio for those who scored in the bottom 0.1%.
What Summers actually said was something close to this:
"It may be that we can never expect the elites in mathematically minded fields to show parity of numbers between men and women. For they draw upon the high extreme of mathematical talent, and all studies indicate that-- however different a story it is with averages-- most of those we can draw upon at the extremes, both low and high, are men".
The evidence, as any researcher worth her/his salt will admit in private, is fully behind Summers. What Summers actually said, not what the quote says he said.

Of course, the subtext of what Summers said is:
Summers: "You guys want parity between different tribal groups in the mathematicals sciences. If we judge people as individuals we cannot expect Parity between the tribes.If we judge people as members of a tribe, to achieve Parity, we leave out many of the best individuals who would otherwise be chosen. So either Harvard suffers in "Social Justice" or Harvard suffers intellectually. I think we should choose Veritas over Kumbaya"
The Harvard Mob: "Burn the Summers Pig, Kumbaya, Burn the Summers Pig, Kumbaya, Ooooh Lefty Kumbayaaaaa"