Race, brain size, and intelligence: a reply to Cernovsky

Cernovsky's 1990 critique of my work on the relation between brain size and IQ inadequately presents my position. I did not address the issue of sex differences in brain size nor did I conclude that "women are less intelligent than men" (p. 337). In the autopsy study cited by Cernovsky, it was concluded that, when body size is controlled, the male-female difference in brain size is removed but the black-white difference in brain size remains. Cernovsky also ignores much additional data, including that Mongoloid populations have larger and heavier brains than Caucasoids. Here, I review evidence on the relation between (a) brain size and race and (b) brain size and intelligence. Data are also tabulated for personality, speed of maturation, and sexuality, on all of which the Caucasoid average consistently falls between those of Mongoloids and Negroids. This ordering may be explained by a gene-based evolutionary theory of r/K reproductive strategies in which Mongoloids are more K-selected than Caucasoids and Caucasoids more than Negroids.