How IQ test paved way for Eugenics & racism in America and Nazi Germany

The first widely accepted intelligence test, the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test, was developed in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon in France.

Initially, it was designed to identify students who needed extra support in school. However, this test has a dark history, as it was later used to justify discriminatory practices like eugenics and forced sterilization.

Intelligence test in USA

In 1905, Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon developed the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test to identify schoolchildren who needed individualized attention.

The test focused on assessing attention, memory, and verbal skills, and its results could be used to predict scholarly performance.

Binet and Simon published their findings multiple times in Binet's scientific journal, L'Année Psychologique.

The Binet-Simon test was translated and adapted for use in the United States, leading to the development of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale by Lewis Terman.

The Binet-Simon test was later used to promote eugenics, a pseudoscientific movement advocating for the improvement of the human gene pool through selective breeding.

Eugenecists believed that intelligence was hereditary and that certain groups, such as immigrants, African Americans, and those with mental disabilities, were genetically inferior.

This led to the forced sterilization of thousands of individuals in the United States and other countries, including women who were deemed intellectually deficient.

The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) upheld the constitutionality of state sterilization laws, further solidifying the use of intelligence tests to justify eugenic practices.

The Nazis in Germany also used intelligence tests and eugenics to justify the persecution and extermination of Jewish people, disabled people, and other minorities.