2018-05-03

Hasty conclusions can occur in scholarly pursuits as well as in everyday

situations. As noted briefly in Chapter 1, one of the most ambitious tests of human intelligence ever conducted led to hasty conclusions; almost a

century later it remains a vivid testimony to the harm they can do. During

World War I, psychologists administered intelligence tests to almost 2 million army recruits. The resulting scores, expressed in terms of mental age,were as follows: immigrants from northern Europe, 13; immigrants from southern and central Europe, 11; U.S.-born blacks, 10. The psychologists

leaped to the conclusion that southern and central Europeans and blacks

are morons. (The term was considered scientific at that time.) This conclusion was instrumental in the framing of the 1924 immigration law that discriminated against southern and central Europeans and reinforced

negative stereotypes about African Americans.

草率的决定不但发生在日常情景里，也发生在学术研究中。就像在第一章里短暂提到的那样，最具野心的人类测试之一曾经导致了草率的决定；几乎一个世纪后，它为它们可以造成的伤害留下了一个生动的证词。在第一次世界大战期间，心理学家们为两百万部队新兵进行了智力测验。最后的成绩是，根据心理年龄表示，如下：从北欧移民来的，13；从南欧和中欧移民的，11；美国出生的黑人，10.心理学家们草率的得出结论，南欧，中欧和黑人都是愚者。（这个术语在那个时代被认为是科学的。）这个结论对1924年制定的歧视南部、中部欧洲人并强化对非洲籍美国人的负面成见的移民法起到了推动作用。