Research into intelligence, possibly more than any other area of psychology, has attracted criticism for being biased towards certain races, ethnicities, genders, and classes. The idea that intelligence is innate and genetic has fueled eugenics movements in past decades, while research that shows how intelligence can be learned has supported racist stereotypes about white people. Studies showing that white middle-class males score higher on standardized tests than others have also perpetuated sexist, racial, and cultural prejudices. While IQ tests may measure an individual’s ability to learn new things, they do not necessarily reflect their personality traits.
When cognitive abilities singled out for testing are based on traditional Western notions of intelligence, people from non-Western societies are likely to score poorly, leading to results that suggest that there are differences in brain function between cultures, classes, and genders. In recent years, psychologists have realized that how we think about intelligence is tied to our cultural background, and is not as static as they perceived it, so these accounts must be considered before testing intelligence.
