Societal consequences of the g factor in employment

Abstract

This article reviews and rebuts seven common arguments that intelligence (g) is of little or no practical importance in employment. It then illustrates in several ways the profound effect that differences in intelligence in a work force may have on the structure and functioning of whole societies. First, evidence and theory are presented to support the position that the occupational status hierarchy, which is of central concern in the study of social inequality, is an intellectual complexity factor among occupations that has evolved in response to the wide dispersion in intelligence levels within populations. Second, the large and stubborn mean black-white difference in intelligence is used to illustrate more concretely some of the society-wide ramifications of individual and group differences in intelligence, particularly when social policies are based on misconceptions about intelligence or its impact.

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