Letters: How IQ is handed down

IQ and social mobility

Sir: It seems not to have occurred to our leaders that ability is not evenly distributed across the social classes. In a meritocratic society, employers will try to recruit the most able candidates into the top positions. There, they meet other bright people, pair off and have children. As Professor Plomin’s work clearly demonstrates (‘The Truth about Intelligence’, 27 July), these children inherit much of their intelligence from their parents, so like them, they succeed in the education system and end up getting top jobs. Middle-class kids therefore tend to outperform working-class kids, not because they are unfairly privileged, but because they are likely to be brighter.

However, as Mary Wakefield made clear in her interview with Robert Plomin, there is enormous resistance in education and the media to any idea that ability might be genetically transmitted across the generations. Politicians would much prefer to tell voters their children have failed unfairly than to say they just weren’t bright enough. I wish Professor Plomin well in his quest to talk the politicians and educationalists around, but I’m not holding my breath. Meanwhile, we are stuck with a ‘social mobility strategy’ that is pushing our top universities into distorting their admissions procedures by accepting less qualified applicants from lower socioeconomic groups over better qualified youngsters from more affluent homes.
Peter Saunders
Hastings

Sir: Your interview with Prof Robert Plomin will cause wails of anguish among anxious parents who have forked out for useless intelligence-enhancing activities and software. But they might find a ray of hope buried in the feature: that what Prof Plomin called ‘appetite’ (conscientiousness, grit and determination) is far less heritable than IQ, and therefore more influenced by upbringing. As an anxious parent myself, may I request Plomin Pt II on ‘appetite’ before my child leaves for university?
Nancy Wood
London SW1