Tatu Vanhanen (17 April 1929 – 22 August 2015) was a Finnish political scientist, sociologist, and writer. He was a professor of
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
at the
University of Tampere
The University of Tampere (UTA) ( fi, Tampereen yliopisto (Tay), ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019.
The university offered u ...
in
Tampere
Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. Vanhanen was a coauthor with
Richard Lynn
Richard Lynn (born 20 February 1930) is a controversial English psychologist and author. He is a former professor emeritus of psychology at Ulster University, having had the title withdrawn by the university in 2018. He is former assistant edit ...
of ''
IQ and the Wealth of Nations'' (2002) and ''
IQ and Global Inequality'' (2006), and author of ''Ethnic Conflicts Explained by Ethnic Nepotism'' (1999) and many other works.
Work
Vanhanen developed an interest in
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes ( natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...
after studying
E. O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...
's
sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within ...
and later in his career wrote about intelligence and inequality. He supported applying evolutionary and
genetic methods to social sciences.
However, most of his academic work dealt with
democratization, which he had studied with international comparative methods. Vanhanen was known for his Index of Democratization.
In 2004, the Ombudsman of Minorities, Mikko Puumalainen, asked the police to start an investigation regarding Vanhanen's interview with a
Helsingin Sanomat magazine ''Kuukausiliite'', in which he stated that "Whereas the average IQ of Finns is 97, in Africa it is between 60 and 70. Differences in intelligence are the most significant factor in explaining poverty". The
Finnish National Bureau of Investigations was considering launching a preliminary investigation on Vanhanen's speech but later decided against it, not finding that he had
incited hatred against an ethnic group or committed any other crime.
Personal life
Tatu Vanhanen was married to Anni Tiihonen and had three sons. One of them,
Matti Vanhanen
Matti Taneli Vanhanen (; born 4 November 1955) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party and President of the European Council in 2006. In his earlier career, he ...
, was the
Prime Minister of Finland
The prime minister of Finland ( fi, Suomen pääministeri; ) is the leader of the Finnish Government. The prime minister and their cabinet exercise executive authority in the state. The prime minister is formally Finnish order of precedence, r ...
from 2003 to 2010.
Vanhanen died on 22 August 2015 after a long period of illness, aged 86.
Bibliography in English
Books
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See also
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Race and intelligence
Discussions of race and intelligence – specifically, claims of differences in intelligence along racial lines – have appeared in both popular science and academic research since the modern concept of race was first introduced. With the inc ...
References
1929 births
2015 deaths
Finnish non-fiction writers
Finnish political scientists
Finnish sociologists
Intelligence researchers
Race and intelligence controversy
Proponents of scientific racism
Academic staff of the University of Tampere
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