Dysgenics refers to any decrease in the prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or generally adaptive to their environment due to selective pressure disfavouring their reproduction. In 1915 the term was used by

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving the disabled at home. Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century. More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations were advanced by the controversial psychologist and self-described " scientific racist"

Richard Lynn Richard Lynn (20 February 1930 – July 2023) was a controversial English psychologist and self-described " scientific racist" who advocated for a genetic relationship between race and intelligence. He was the editor-in-chief of '' Mankind Qua ...

, notably in his 1996 book '' Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations'', which argued that changes in selection pressures and decreased

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...

since the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

have resulted in an increased propagation of deleterious traits and

genetic disorder A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosome abnormality. Although polygenic disorders ...

s. Despite these concerns, genetic studies have shown no evidence for dysgenic effects in human populations. Citations in original omitted. Reviewing Lynn's book, the scholar John R. Wilmoth notes: "Overall, the most puzzling aspect of Lynn's alarmist position is that the deterioration of average intelligence predicted by the eugenicists has not occurred."

References

{{Population Eugenics Evolutionary biology Futures studies Modern human genetic history

See also

References