As for point 2—if you were a researcher with heretical opinions, determined to publish research on at least some of them, what would you do? It seems like a reasonable strategy is to pick something heretical that you’re confident you can defend, and do a rock-solid study on it, and brace for impact. Is it still the case that disproving the blank-slate hypothesis would constitute progress in some academic subfields? If so, then expect people to continue trying it.
I should also say, in the context of IQ and effort, some of the true dispute is about whether effort differences can explain race differences in scores. And for that purpose, what I would do is to go more directly into that.
In fact, I have done so. Quoting some discussion I had on Discord:
Me: Oh look at this thing I just saw
(correlation matrix with 0 correlation between race and test effort highlighted)
Other person: That is a really good find. Where’s it from?
Me: from the supplementary info to one of the infamous test motivation studies:
Me: Despite implying that test motivation explains racial gaps in the study text:
On the other hand, test motivation may be a serious confound instudies including participants who are below-average in IQ and wholack external incentives to perform at their maximal potential.Consider, for example, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth(NLSY), a nationally representative sample of more than 12,000adolescents who completed an intelligence test called the ArmedForces Qualifying Test (AFQT). As is typical in social science re-search, NLSY participants were not rewarded in any way for higherscores. The NLSY data were analyzed inThe Bell Curve,inwhichHerrnstein and Murray (44) summarily dismissed test motivation asa potential confound in their analysis of black–white IQ disparities.
(This was way after I became critical of differential psychology btw. Around 2 months ago.)
I should also say, in the context of IQ and effort, some of the true dispute is about whether effort differences can explain race differences in scores. And for that purpose, what I would do is to go more directly into that.
In fact, I have done so. Quoting some discussion I had on Discord:
(This was way after I became critical of differential psychology btw. Around 2 months ago.)