Role of Intelligence in Society

Eugenics 

• In US, immigration called for 'race purifying' policies
• > marriage restrictions and forced sterilisation, to protect wellborn from genetic degradation
• Privileged ethnic groups considered innately talented and biologically advanced
• Binet's intelligence scale in 1909 gave rise to standardised intelligence testing 
• > eugenicists advocated large scale testing to identify, segregate and sterilise 'feeble minded'
• Francis Galton proposed system of arranged marriages between men of distinction and women of wealth would eventually produce a gifted race 
• American Eugenics Society argued for sterilisation of insane, retarded or epileptic citizens 
• Eugenics criticised in 1930s and was discredited…