The eugenic hypothesis

The reproduction of intelligence

“…These results were complemented by the observation that subfertility of men in Who's Who in America disappeared for cohorts born after 1910 (Kirk, 1957). The conclusion at that time was that dysgenic fertility for intelligence was a temporary phenomenon during the demographic transition when the more intelligent pioneered the use of contraception, but disappeared at a later stage when contraceptive habits had diffused through the entire population (Osborn & Bajema, 1972).…”

The social and scientific temporal correlates of genotypic intelligence and the Flynn effect

“…This led to speculation that eugenic fertility for intelligence was rather the norm than the exception (Falek, 1971;Osborn & Bajema, 1972). Subsequent research cast doubt on the relevance of these studies owing to the limited range of locations from which the samples were sourced, and also the narrow range of birth cohorts considered (e.g.…”

The Rôle of Genetics in Reducing the Incidence of Mental Disorders

“…A large number of patients with mental disorders including mental subnormality were either destroyed or sterilized in Germany after 1933 for the sake of 'race hygiene'. THE EUGENIC HYPOTHESIS THE EUGENIC HYPOTHESIS, as formulated in the U.S.A. in the late 1930s, has been examined by Osborn and Bajema (1972)3. It came into being at a time when social conditions in the United States were particularly bad, and its aim was that through selective human breeding &dquo;the distribution of births would favour those individual family lives ... whose genetic potentials were most appropriate to their particular environment.&dquo; Osborn and Bajema admit that the hoped-for Utopian society has not been attained.…”