The Eyferth study, conducted by German psychologist Klaus Eyferth, examined the IQs of white and racially-mixed children raised by single mothers in post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The mothers of the children studied were white German women, while their fathers were

white White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

and

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

members of the US occupation forces. In contrast to results obtained in many American studies, the average IQs of the children studied were roughly similar across racial groups, making the study an oft-cited piece of evidence in the debate about

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 ...

. Eyferth's study was first published under the title ''Eine Untersuchung der Neger-Mischlingskinder in Westdeutschland'' in the journal '' Vita Humana'' in 1959. Eyferth described further results in the paper ''Leistungen verschiedener Gruppen von Besatzungskindern in Hamburg-Wechsler Intelligenztest für Kinder (HAWIK)'', which was published in the journal ''Archiv für die gesamte Psychologie'' in 1961.

Study design

The children studied had been raised by their unmarried German mothers. Most of the fathers, white or black, had been members of the US occupation forces stationed in Germany. At the time of the study, the children were aged between 5 and 13 (mean age: 10). The mothers of the children were approximately matched for

socio-economic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...

; they were mostly of low socioeconomic status. There were about 98 mixed race (black-white), and about 83 white children in the sample. The total sample consisted of about 5 percent of the German children known to have been fathered by black soldiers between 1945 and 1953, in addition to a matched sample of 83 German children whose fathers were white soldiers. Of the fathers of the mixed-race children, about 20 percent were French Africans and the remaining approximately 80 percent were

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

s. For assessing IQ, a German version of the WISC intelligence test (Hamburg Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, HAWIK) was used.

Results

The white children studied averaged an IQ of 97.2, whereas the average of the racially mixed children was 96.5. Sorted out by sex and race, the average scores obtained were:

Interpretations

Stressing the similarity of average IQ scores across racial groups in the Eyferth study, James Flynn,

Richard E. Nisbett __NOTOC__ Richard Eugene Nisbett (born June 1, 1941) is an American social psychologist and writer. He is the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished Professor of social psychology and co-director of the Culture and Cognition program at the Universit ...

Nathan Brody Nathan Brody is an American psychology professor Emeritus known for his work on intelligence and personality. Brody received his BA from University of New Hampshire and his MA and PhD from University of Michigan. He taught at Wesleyan University ...

, and others have interpreted it as supporting the notion that IQ differences between whites and blacks observed in many other studies are mostly or wholly cultural or environmental in origin. Moreover, they have pointed out that mixed-race children may have faced prejudice growing up as a racial minority, making the similarity of results even more significant.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * {{cite journal, last1=Winick, first1= M., last2= Meyer, first2= K. K., last3=Harris, first3=R. C. , year=1975, title= Malnutrition and environmental enrichment by early adoption, journal=Science, volume= 190, issue= 4220, pages= 1173–1175, doi= 10.1126/science.1198103, pmid= 1198103, bibcode= 1975Sci...190.1173W, s2cid= 30964949 Race and intelligence controversy

Study design

Results

Interpretations

See also

Notes

References