{"title":"Was the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study Abhorrent or Just Controversial?","authors":"Lucas J Matthews, Eric Turkheimer","doi":"10.1007/s10519-026-10275-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study (MTRAS) has been a source of enduring controversy due to its goal of addressing genetic and environmental explanations of Black-White IQ differences. The study followed the intellectual development of 130 Black and interracial children adopted into relatively advantaged White households. However, contrary to the initial interpretations of its original researchers, MTRAS became a tool for hereditarian racial ideologies. Its findings were appropriated and publicized by figures associated with racist research agendas, such as J. Philippe Rushton. We contend that the design of MTRAS was never capable of achieving its most ambitious scientific aims and, as a result, unintentionally contributed to a body of speculative literature that leveraged its inconclusive findings to support harmful discriminatory ideologies. To the extent that MTRAS was both limited in scientific value and potentially harmful, this paper examines the question: was MTRAS abhorrent race science?</p>","PeriodicalId":8715,"journal":{"name":"Behavior Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Behavior Genetics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-026-10275-z","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study (MTRAS) has been a source of enduring controversy due to its goal of addressing genetic and environmental explanations of Black-White IQ differences. The study followed the intellectual development of 130 Black and interracial children adopted into relatively advantaged White households. However, contrary to the initial interpretations of its original researchers, MTRAS became a tool for hereditarian racial ideologies. Its findings were appropriated and publicized by figures associated with racist research agendas, such as J. Philippe Rushton. We contend that the design of MTRAS was never capable of achieving its most ambitious scientific aims and, as a result, unintentionally contributed to a body of speculative literature that leveraged its inconclusive findings to support harmful discriminatory ideologies. To the extent that MTRAS was both limited in scientific value and potentially harmful, this paper examines the question: was MTRAS abhorrent race science?
明尼苏达跨种族收养研究（MTRAS）一直是一个持久争议的来源，因为它的目标是解决遗传和环境对黑人和白人智商差异的解释。这项研究追踪了130名被相对有利的白人家庭收养的黑人和跨种族儿童的智力发展情况。然而，与最初研究人员的最初解释相反，MTRAS成为了遗传主义种族意识形态的工具。它的发现被与种族主义研究议程有关的人物挪用和公布，比如j·菲利普·拉什顿（J. Philippe Rushton）。我们认为，MTRAS的设计从未能够实现其最雄心勃勃的科学目标，因此，无意中助长了大量投机文献，这些文献利用其不确定的发现来支持有害的歧视性意识形态。在某种程度上，MTRAS在科学价值和潜在危害上都是有限的，本文探讨了这个问题：MTRAS是可恶的种族科学吗？
期刊介绍：
Behavior Genetics - the leading journal concerned with the genetic analysis of complex traits - is published in cooperation with the Behavior Genetics Association. This timely journal disseminates the most current original research on the inheritance and evolution of behavioral characteristics in man and other species. Contributions from eminent international researchers focus on both the application of various genetic perspectives to the study of behavioral characteristics and the influence of behavioral differences on the genetic structure of populations.
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