{{Short description|1995 book by J. Philippe Rushton}} {{Infobox book | name = ''Race, Evolution and Behavior'' | image = Race, Evolution, and Behavior, first edition.jpg | caption = Cover of the first edition | author = [[J. Philippe Rushton]] | country = United States | language = English | subjects = [[Race (human categorization)|Race]]<br />[[Human evolution]]<br />[[Human intelligence]] | publisher = Transaction Books, later The Charles Darwin Research Institute | pub_date = 1995, 1997, 2000 | media_type = Print ([[hardcover]] and [[paperback]]) | pages = 388 | isbn = 978-0-9656836-1-6 }}
'''''Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective''''' is a book by Canadian psychologist and author [[J. Philippe Rushton]]. Rushton was a professor of [[psychology]] at the [[University of Western Ontario]] for many years, and the head of the controversial [[Pioneer Fund]]. The first unabridged edition of the book came out in 1995, and the third, latest unabridged edition came out in 2000; abridged versions were also distributed.
Rushton argues that [[Race (human categorization)|race]] is a valid [[biology|biological]] concept and that [[Human genetic variation|racial differences]] frequently range in a continuum across 60 different behavioral and anatomical variables, with [[Mongoloids]] ([[East Asian people|East Asians]]) at one end of the continuum, [[Negroids]] ([[Sub-Saharan Africans|Sub-Saharan Black Africans]]) at the opposite extreme, and [[Caucasoids]] ([[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]]) in the middle.<ref name=reb2ndabridged>{{cite book | author = Rushton, J. P. | year = 1995 | title = Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective | edition = 2nd special abridged | publisher = Charles Darwin Research Institute | location = Port Huron, MI | isbn = 1-56000-320-0}}</ref>
The book was generally received negatively, its methodology and conclusions being criticized by many experts. The aggressive marketing strategy also received a lot of criticism. The book received positive reviews by some researchers, many of whom were personally associated with Rushton and with the [[Pioneer Fund]] which funded much of Rushton's research.<ref name=val53>{{cite book|first=Richard R.|last=Valencia|title=Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking: educational thought and practice|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2010|page=53|isbn= 9780415877107}}</ref> The book has been examined as an example of Pioneer's funding of [[scientific racism]],<ref name=val53/><ref name=tucker>{{cite book|author=William H. Tucker|title=The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-jIEhfKPaYC|year=2002|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02762-8}}</ref> while psychologist [[Michael Howe (psychologist)|Michael Howe]] has identified the book as part of a movement, begun in the 1990s, to promote a racial agenda in social policy.<ref name=Howe>{{cite book|first=Michael J. A|last=Howe|title=IQ in question: the truth about intelligence|url=https://archive.org/details/iqinquestiontrut0000howe|url-access=registration|year=1997|publisher=Sage|isbn=9781446264461}}</ref>
== Summary == The book grew out of Rushton's 1989 paper, "Evolutionary Biology and Heritable Traits (With Reference to Oriental-White-Black Difference)".<ref>Presented at the Symposium on Evolutionary Theory, Economics and Political Science, AAAS Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA, January 19, 1989)</ref> The 1st unabridged edition was published in 1995, the 2nd unabridged edition in 1997, and the 3rd unabridged edition in 2000.
Rushton argues that Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid populations fall consistently into the same one-two-three way pattern when compared on a list of sixty distinctly different behavioral and anatomical traits and variables.<ref> The terms ''Mongoloid'', ''Caucasoid'', and ''Negroid'' used by Rushton (2000) was in wide use in mainstream literature until the 1990s at least, e.g. by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza. Since the 2000s, these terms have been deprecated in by some authorities. For example, the recommended [[Medical Subject Headings]] as of 2004 was "Oriental Continental Ancestry Group, "African Continental Ancestry Group" and "European Continental Ancestry Group" for "Mongoloid", "Caucasoid" and "Negroid", respectively.<!--The decline in usage of these terms can be seen year by year in a [[Google Scholar]] search, and the change of terms can be seen in, for example, the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), which in deleted the ''-oids'' (as well as terms such as ''Black'' and ''White'') in favor of terms such as ''African Continental Ancestry Group'':--> ''[https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd03/nd03_mesh.html The MeSH descriptor Racial Stocks, and its four children (Australoid Race, Caucasoid Race, Mongoloid Race, and Negroid Race) have been deleted from MeSH in 2004 along with Blacks and Whites.] Race and ethnicity have been used as categories in biomedical research and clinical medicine. Recent genetic research indicates that the degree of genetic heterogeneity within groups and homogeneity across groups make race per se a less compelling predictor.''</ref>
Rushton uses averages of hundreds of studies, modern and historical, to assert the existence of this pattern. Rushton's book is focused on what he considers the three broadest racial groups, and does not address other populations such as [[Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian]]s and [[Australian Aborigines]]. The book argues that Mongoloids, on average, are at one end of a continuum, that Negroids, on average, are at the opposite end of that continuum, and that Caucasoids rank in between Mongoloids and Negroids, but closer to Mongoloids. His continuum includes both external physical characteristics and personality traits.<ref name=reb2ndabridged/>
=== Differential ''K'' theory === {{main|Differential K theory}} Differential ''K'' theory is a debunked theory proposed by Rushton,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rushton|first=J. Philippe|author-link=J. Philippe Rushton|title=Differential ''K'' theory: The sociobiology of individual and group differences|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|date=January 1985|volume=6|issue=4|pages=441–452|doi=10.1016/0191-8869(85)90137-0}}</ref> which attempts to apply [[r/K selection theory|''r''/''K'' selection theory]] to [[human races]]. According to Rushton, this theory explains race differences in fertility, IQ, criminality, and sexual anatomy and behavior.<ref name=weizmann1>{{cite journal|last1=Weizmann|first1=Fredric|last2=Wiener|first2=Neil I.|last3=Wiesenthal|first3=David L.|last4=Ziegler|first4=Michael|title=Differential ''K'' theory and racial hierarchies.|journal=Canadian Psychology|date=1990|volume=31|issue=1|pages=1–13|doi=10.1037/h0078934}}</ref> The theory also hypothesizes that a single factor, the "''K'' factor", affects multiple population statistics Rushton referred to as "life-history traits".<ref name=templer>{{cite journal|last=Templer|first=Donald I.|author-link=Donald Templer|title=Correlational and factor analytic support for Rushton's differential ''K'' life history theory|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|date=October 2008|volume=45|issue=6|pages=440–444|doi=10.1016/j.paid.2008.05.010}}</ref>
This theory has been widely rejected as unscientific or [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]]. Rushton's work includes logical errors, cites poor-quality sources, [[cherry-picking|ignored contrary sources]], and cites sources which Rushton had misinterpreted or misunderstood.<ref name=weizmann1/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=Judith L.|title=Rushton's racial comparisons: An ecological critique of theory and method.|journal=Canadian Psychology|date=1991|volume=32|issue=1|pages=51–62|doi=10.1037/h0078956}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Statement from the Department of Psychology regarding research conducted by Dr. J. Philippe Rushton |url=https://psychology.uwo.ca/people/faculty/remembrance/rushton.html |website=Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Edward M.|authorlink=Edward M. Miller|title=Environmental variability selects for large families only in special circumstances: Another objection to differential ''K'' theory|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|date=December 1995|volume=19|issue=6|pages=903–918|doi=10.1016/S0191-8869(95)00126-3}}</ref>
== Responses == According to Richard R. Valencia, the response to the first edition of Rushton's book was "overwhelmingly negative", with only a small number of supporters, many being, like Rushton, Pioneer Fund grantees, such as psychologists [[Arthur Jensen]], [[Michael Levin (philosopher)|Michael Levin]], [[Richard Lynn]], and [[Linda Gottfredson]].<ref name=val>{{cite book|first=Richard R.|last=Valencia|title=Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking: educational thought and practice|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2010|page=55|isbn= 9780415877107}}</ref>
Valencia identified the main areas of criticism as focusing on Rushton's use of "race" as a biological concept, a failure to appreciate the extent of variation within populations compared with that between populations, a false separation of genetics and environment, poor statistical methodology, a failure to consider alternative hypotheses, and the use of unreliable and inappropriate data to draw conclusions about the relationship between brain size and intelligence. According to Valencia, "experts in life history conclude that Rushton's (1995) work is pseudoscientific and racist."
A more favorable review of the book came from Gottfredson, who wrote in ''[[Politics and the Life Sciences]]'' that the book "confronts us as few books have with the dilemmas wrought in a democratic society by individual and group differences in key human traits".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gottfredson |first=Linda |date=March 1996 |title=Race, Evolution and Behavior: A Life History Perspective |url=https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/1996reviewRushton.pdf |journal=Politics and the Life Sciences}}</ref> Another favorable review of the book appeared in the ''[[National Review]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1994/10/16/calling-all-crackpots/68f3742a-3b1e-46b5-aedf-b8c0f21a5cf4/|title=Calling All Crackpots|last=Lind|first=Michael|date=1994-10-16|newspaper=Washington Post|accessdate=2017-11-09|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>
[[Richard Lewontin]] (1996) argued that in claiming the existence of "major races", and that these categories reflected large biological differences, "Rushton moves in the opposite direction from the entire development of physical anthropology and human genetics for the last thirty years. Anthropologists no longer regard "race" as a useful concept in understanding human evolution and variation."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Review: Of Genes and Genitals |journal=Transition |issue=69 |pages=178–193 |year=1996 |jstor=2935246}}</ref> The anthropologist [[C. Loring Brace]] (1996) concurred, stating that the book was an amalgamation of bad biology and inexcusable anthropology. It is not science but advocacy, and advocacy of '[[racialism]]'".<ref name=brace>{{cite journal |title=Review: Racialism and Racist Agendas |journal=American Anthropologist |series=New Series |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=176–7 |date=March 1996 |jstor=682972 |doi=10.1525/aa.1996.98.1.02a00250}}</ref> Similarly, anthropologist [[John Relethford]] (1995) criticized Rushton's model as "faulty at many points."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Relethford|first1=John H.|title=Race, evolution, and behavior: A life history perspective. By J. Philippe Rushton. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. 1995. 334 pp.|isbn=1-56000-146-1|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|date=September 1995|volume=98|issue=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceevolutionbeh0000rush/page/91 91–94]|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330980110|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/raceevolutionbeh0000rush/page/91}}</ref>
== Mailing controversy == The first special abridged edition published under the Transaction Press name in 1999 caused considerable controversy when 40,000 copies were "mailed, unsolicited, to [[psychologists]], [[anthropologists]], and [[sociology|sociologists]], many of whom were angered when they discovered that their identities and addresses had been obtained from their respective professional associations' mailing lists."<ref name=weizmann>{{cite journal |author=Weizmann, Fredric |title=Race, Evolution, and Behaviour: A Life History Perspective (Review) |journal=Canadian Psychology |date=November 2001 |doi=10.1037/h0088141 |url=}}</ref> The director of Transaction Press [[Irving Louis Horowitz]], although he had defended the original edition of the book, "condemned the abridged edition as a 'pamphlet' that he had never seen or approved prior to its publication."<ref name=weizmann/> A subsequent 2nd special abridged edition was published in 2000 with a rejoinder to Horowitz's criticisms under a new entity called ''The Charles Darwin Research Institute''.<ref name=weizmann/>
According to Tucker, many academics who received the book unsolicited were outraged at its content, calling it "racial pornography" and a "vile piece of work"; at least one insisting on returning it to the publisher.<ref name=tucker/> Hermann Helmuth, a professor of anthropology at Trent University, said, "It is in a way personal and political propaganda. There is no basis to his scientific research."<ref>[http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/2000/February/1/News3.htm UWO Gazette Volume 93, Issue 68 Tuesday, February 1, 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515022349/http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/2000/February/1/News3.htm |date=May 15, 2011}} Psych prof accused of racism</ref>
== As an example of Pioneer Fund activity == ''Race, Evolution, and Behavior'' has been cited as an example of the [[Pioneer Fund]]'s activities in promoting [[scientific racism]]. Valencia notes that many of the supportive comments for the book come from Pioneer grantees like Rushton himself, and that a 100,000 copy print-run of the third edition was financed by Pioneer.<ref name=val/> The book is cited by psychologist [[William H. Tucker (psychologist)|William H. Tucker]] as an example of the Pioneer Fund's continued role "to subsidize the creation and distribution of literature to support racial superiority and racial purity." The mass distribution of the abridged third edition he described as part of a "public relations effort", and "the latest attempt to convince the nation of 'the completely different nature' of blacks and whites." He notes that bulk rates were offered "for distribution to media figures, especially columnists who write on race issues".<ref name=tucker/>
== Reviews == * {{cite news |last1=Browne |first1=Malcolm W. |title=What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/books/what-is-intelligence-and-who-has-it.html |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=16 October 1994}} - review of ''Race, Evolution, and Behavior'' and two other books * {{cite journal |last1=Harpending |first1=Henry |authorlink=Henry Harpending |title=Human biological diversity |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=1995 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=99–103 |doi=10.1002/evan.1360040306 |url=http://harpending.humanevo.utah.edu/Documents/iq.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817172506/http://harpending.humanevo.utah.edu/Documents/iq.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-08-17 |access-date=13 January 2025}} - review of ''Race, Evolution, and Behavior'' and three other books * {{cite news |last1=Buist |first1=Steve |title=Controversial Backer |url=http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/rushton.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170912/http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/rushton.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2016-03-03 |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=[[The Hamilton Spectator]] |date=17 April 2000 |via=[[Institute for the Study of Academic Racism]]}} - discusses the links of the [[Pioneer Fund]] to the distribution and positive reviews for the book * {{cite journal |last1=Horowitz |first1=Irving Louis |author1-link=Irving Louis Horowitz |title=Race, Evolution and Behavior' by J. Philippe Rushton |journal=Society |date=Jan–Feb 1995 |volume=32 |issue=2 |url=http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/Issues/bell-curve/rushton-review.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041116141447/http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/Issues/bell-curve/rushton-review.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2004-11-16 |access-date=13 January 2025}}
== See also == * [[Behavioural genetics]] * [[Behaviorism]] * [[Evolutionary psychology]] * [[Race and intelligence]] * [[Scientific racism]]
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061011215801/http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/rushtonpdfs/race_evolution_behavior.pdf ''Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective''] - Copy of the 2nd Special Abridged Edition that the author put on his personal website {{Authority control}}
[[Category:1995 non-fiction books]] [[Category:American non-fiction books]] [[Category:Books about evolutionary psychology]] [[Category:Books about human intelligence]] [[Category:Books about race and ethnicity]] [[Category:English-language non-fiction books]] [[Category:Forensic psychology]] [[Category:Human evolution books]] [[Category:Pseudoscience literature]] [[Category:Race and intelligence controversy]] [[Category:Scientific racism]]