INTRODUCING THE NETWORK
Our controversies relevance has been growing throughout the years. to the right is a map of the number of scientific articles over time. This controversy seems to be growing in relevance. Perhaps because the issue of immigration is more important than ever. As is apparent in our Lippmannian analysis, where we found that people discussing IQ also discusses issues such as immigration and race.
Another interesting bit is where the articles are from. It is primarily american and eurocentric publishing. This may be due to us searching in english. Another reason is perhaps that the discussion of race is apparently central to IQ and race is a popular issue in america. We do in fact have articles from China and India, however these do not have the same frequency has american and european articles.
The network
The picture illustrates a network of scientific peer-reviewed articles all dealing with the subject of IQ dependency. The illustration shows four cluster and a number of nodes(articles) in the middle of the network. The clusters each represent a group of articles which have a high level of references to each other. This network appeared when we searched for IQ dependency on Scopus, a database for scientific peer-reviewed articles (specifics available in the tool section).
THE CLUSTERS
The green group at the left of the network represents an understanding of the IQ dependency as mainly environmental. The focus here is primarily on nutrition, the Flynn effect and other examples of environmental influences, such as improvement in the educational system and its influence on IQ score.
The pink group at the right side of the network mainly represents articles with a genetic understanding on IQ dependency. The focus is on Genetics, Jensen effect, Spearman's hypothesis, and how IQ determines your life outcome.
THE CLUSTERS
The green group at the left of the network represents an understanding of the IQ dependency as mainly environmental. The focus here is primarily on nutrition, the Flynn effect and other examples of environmental influences, such as improvement in the educational system and its influence on IQ score.
The pink group at the right side of the network mainly represents articles with a genetic understanding on IQ dependency. The focus is on Genetics, Jensen effect, Spearman's hypothesis, and how IQ determines your life outcome.
The orange group at the top represents a group arguing for health dependency on IQ. It mainly revolves around a person called Ian Deary, who argues for the link between intelligence and health. It also argues for genetical and environmental influences on IQ, but mostly looks at health in relation to IQ.
The teal group at the bottom is a group arguing for how dyslexia, reading deficits appear and their link to of patients IQ. They represent a medical group and a psychology group, who argues for why dyslexia occurs and its link to IQ dependency.
The dark blue group at the middle is a group of studies so recognized and big that everybody have to relate to these. One example is the so called Flynn effect which is so fundamental that everybody has to reference it and discuss it. It therefore becomes a major authority on the subject, that has to be accounted for by other actors.
The teal group at the bottom is a group arguing for how dyslexia, reading deficits appear and their link to of patients IQ. They represent a medical group and a psychology group, who argues for why dyslexia occurs and its link to IQ dependency.
The dark blue group at the middle is a group of studies so recognized and big that everybody have to relate to these. One example is the so called Flynn effect which is so fundamental that everybody has to reference it and discuss it. It therefore becomes a major authority on the subject, that has to be accounted for by other actors.
the Authorities - illustrated by the flynn effect
Here on the map is shown everyone referencing the Flynn effect text, marked with yellow. This demonstrates the importance, the authority, and the relevance of the text. The interesting thing is that the Flynn effect can be seen as an argument for environmental effects on IQ, and yet everyone from the genetic side (the cluster to the right) references this text. This furthers the argument that this text, even more so then the rest of the texts in the middle group, are so fundamental that everybody have to link to them, and take a stance on the texts.
A short more technical point to further this is the placement of the authority cluster by the map tool, Since it links nodes closer to one another based on their linking, having the authorities in the middle means that they have a shared relevance, a roughly shared amount of links coming from the two clusters. had they only been referenced by one subject cluster they would appear in the middle of that cluster and not between the clusters. The interesting part is that almost no one in the bottom group references the Flynn effect, maybe because the more medicinal group is more interested in dyslexia and its effect on IQ, rather than the discussion of the Flynn effect and the controversy of whether IQ depends on genetics or environment. |
Main points about the Academic network
Visually there seems to be quite a big seperation in the scientific literature. The different clusters or groups appear by referencing. That s to say the reason for the clustering is the way articles reference between themselves, and not to the same degree to other groups. It thus seems like they discuss the controversy a lot between themselves, however there is still loads of referencing going out to the other groups, hence they are still connected. This referencing is mostly to argue against the other groups point of view, and argue for that their own. An example of that is the following text by R. Lynn and T. Vanhanen called “IQ and the wealth of nations”, which argues for a link between IQ and wealth of nations, where one of the explanations is that IQ is dependent on genetics, and hence IQ effects wealth.
To the left is a version of the map, where the highlighted nodes are texts Lynn and Vanhanen refer to. They reference Flynn from before, and the Flynn effect, and write that they account for the effect, when they write about genetic influence on IQ. They also discuss the environment's influence on IQ, and write that, it is mostly genetic influence: “[...] many experts on this issue estimate the heritability of intelligence among adults as approximately .80 or 80 percent”. Where the word heritability is the genetic heritance influence on intelligence, measured with IQ. Here they reference a article by Jensen which is located at this illustration.
To the left is a version of the map, where the highlighted nodes are texts Lynn and Vanhanen refer to. They reference Flynn from before, and the Flynn effect, and write that they account for the effect, when they write about genetic influence on IQ. They also discuss the environment's influence on IQ, and write that, it is mostly genetic influence: “[...] many experts on this issue estimate the heritability of intelligence among adults as approximately .80 or 80 percent”. Where the word heritability is the genetic heritance influence on intelligence, measured with IQ. Here they reference a article by Jensen which is located at this illustration.
a case of academic discussion - Lynn
The above mentioned article by Lynn is a prototypical article for the nodes in the big groups. They link quite a bit inside their own group, and some outside their group, however this is more limited. One thing in common for most articles is that they link to the group in the middle.
the aforementioned was one article that Lynn have written or co-authored. Lynn has written multiple texts, and is a fundamental figure in this controversy. This can also be seen by our Lippmannian analysis. Lynn's other texts are also referenced by, and references to a wide range of our Scopus texts, therefore his texts are not only in the pro-genetic group. On the map to the right all Lynns texts are coloured black to illustrate this spread positioning. A reason why Lynn is also in the environment group is that he more then once discusses the Flynn effect, which is one of the central themes for the green group, with Flynn´s environmental explanatory leaning. The researchers in the clusters discuss not only their own viewpoints, but also the other viewpoints on the controversy. The only one where this might be the case is the teal group, that discusses dyslexia. This is perhaps the medicinal stigma of eugenics, which is one of the topics Lynn discusses. It is not clear why they do not engage so actively in the discussion as the other groups. The groups are therefore less clear cut then it might appear, but what is clear is the different groups have different topics and opinions on the IQ dependency controversy. |
dynamic map of the academic network
Underneath you find a dynamic version of the academic network. This provides a possibility for the reader to have a closer look at the network. The dynamic manylines however chooses from which angle the map can be seen. Therefore it is upside down compared to the maps we have shown on this page.