This being a question derived from some recent remarks by Matt Goodwin[i] (remarks which I reproduce in full below[ii]).
If you view the complete context for Goodwin’s remarks, they
seem to flow from his complaints about "diversity" policies at
Universities and a
story in the Telegraph about white students allegedly being blocked from
applying for a course at Cambridge University. It is not entirely clear why
Goodwin suddenly starts talking about health differences between groups in
the context of differences (or the absence thereof) in academic achievement between
groups, but, in either case, similar principles apply and we can address the question
posed in the title.
I suppose the short answer to this question is “probably not”,
or at least, “probably not in the way that Matt Goodwin imagines".
There are many reasons for my saying this but I should
like to focus on just one of them.
Most human genetic traits are polygenic in nature rather than
controlled by a single gene.
Perhaps you remember school-textbook pictures like this:
Figure 1 Simple four-generation Mendelian Pedigree of Brown and Blue eyes[iii]
Now there is nothing wrong with diagrams like this are far
as they go, but it turns out that, even eye colour, is a lot more complicated
than our school textbooks would suggest and is controlled by dozens of genes
working together in complex waysiii.
And when it come to things like height, or academic ability,
or health conditions, or nearly everything actually, the genetics gets really
really complicated.
So why is polygenic (cf monogenic) control such a big deal?
After all,
one might reason, I used to naively imagine that there was only one gene for
being good at cricket (or whatever) and now I know that there are twenty-seven
genes for being good at cricket and I can search for the presence of this set
of genes in different groups of people and thereby make generalizations about
the average cricket-abilities of those different groups.
But, as the song goes, “It ain’t necessarily so!”
Let us pursue a simple thought experiment:
We note that some people in Littleengland have a condition
called “Dysportia[iv]” which
renders them incapable of understanding or successfully joining in any sporting
activities. We then discover that everyone in Littleengland with Dysportia has
genes A and B (whereas everyone else in Littleengland has A, or B, or neither,
but never both together.
Ah ha, we conclude, we have discovered the genes for Dysportia!
But then we investigate Farflungland where everyone has the
AB gene pair but nobody has Dysportia. So what is going on? Well it turns out
that everyone in Littleengland, and nobody in Farflungland, also has gene C – which,
it transpires, is necessary to make the AB gene pair do its thing.
But then we investigate Evenfurtherawyland where everybody
has gene C but nobody has the AB gene pair; and yet (we find) Dysportia is
quite common in Evenfurtherawyland. Of course, it then turns out that the
people in Evenfurtherawyland with Dysportia have the gene triple DEF that (in
combination with gene C) has the same effects as AB (in combination with gene
C).
This is already mind-boggling complicated and we are talking
about a 100% genetic condition controlled by a handful of genes with all or nothing
effects – genes that are incredibly neatly and conveniently distributed amongst
our chosen groups.
In any real situation, every finding would be statistical rather
all-or-nothing; environmental factors would play a major role; there would be
all sorts of “noise” in the data; the various genes involved would be very untidily
distributed across the different groups; and there might be hundred of genes
and countless gene interactions involved.
NB if you wish to become a lot better informed about human genetics, the limits of our understanding thereof, "groups", and the dangers of "a little learning" in these areas, you could do a lot worse than to read Adam Rutherford's splendid books:
How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality
The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest To Edit Life
[i] Director
of the Legatum Institute’s Centre for UK Prosperity https://www.openforumevents.co.uk/speakers/professor-matthew-goodwin/
[ii] “We
are on the cusp of developments with genetic coding … and science that are
going to be complete game changers in how we understand health, medicine,
life-expectancy … all of that stuff. So the idea that there are not inherent
differences between groups is just going to be completely unsustainable …I mean
it already is, if you look at the evidence, but over the next 5 to 10 years
it’s going to look utterly ridiculous as a lot of this research and evidence
comes through.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbQ9UNPy23g&ab_channel=Triggernometry
[iii] Mackey,
D.A. What colour are your eyes? Teaching the genetics of eye colour &
colour vision. Edridge Green Lecture RCOphth Annual Congress Glasgow May 2019.
Eye 36, 704–715 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-021-01749-x
[iv] I
have this condition.
