Edwin B. Newman, chairman of the Psychology Department, defended Richard J. Herrnstein, professor of Psychology, yesterday before a forum sponsored by SDS and the University Action Group (UAG).
Newman rejected as "political fiction" the allegation that Herrnstein's controversial article in the Atlantic Monthly on I.Q. has racist implications. "I simply don't take such attitudes seriously," he said.
Hernnstein's article maintains that intelligence is 80 per cent hereditary, and that the I.Q. test is an adequate test of intelligence.
Newman, who read the article for the first time Wednesday night, supported Herrnstein by saying that genes can determine talents or intelligence just as they can determine the probability of good health.
"We have to face the facts that genes have much to do with the unequal distribution of health and disease," he argued. "Talent genes are similarly unevenly distributed throughout the population."
Alan J. Garfinkel, a graduate student and UAG member, opposed Newman, and said Hernnstein's article was "hardline racism, but more palitable to the community" since it gives the public a statistical basis for prejudice.
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