Galton's observation

Galton's society included only upper class individuals who were of high intelligence. Galton ignored the fact that being in a high class society provides him with access to better education and teachers. Galton presumably would have been given the best of everything with no stress-- best education, household etc. The people Galton would have been surrounded with would have also been very intelligent individuals. By ignoring all of these factors in his observation, Galton did not collect enough evidence to conclude that intelligence is solely inherited. The only way Galton could have proven his observation was correct would be to place people from many different backgrounds and socieconomic classes into the same situations-- have an even number of upper class and lower class individuals living in a lower socioeconomic class as well as the same even amount in an upper class environment. This would prove inheritance is the only factor in intelligence as well as proving that the environment has no bearing on intelligence.


Michelle