2018-05-04

If these psychologists had asked one simple question—Is the conclusion

that southern and central Europeans and U.S.-born blacks are morons the

only possible conclusion?—they would have wondered whether the design

and administration of the test might be at fault. They also would have found that the test directions varied from site to site, with some recruits told to finish each part before moving on and others not, and that recruits at the back of the test room sometimes could not hear the instructions at all. In addition,they would have found that the same form of the test was given to recruits who could read and write English, those who spoke only a foreign language, and those who had never learned to read and write.

如果这些心理学家提出一个简单的问题——南方和中部欧洲人和美国出生的黑人是愚者这个结论是唯一可能的结论吗？——他们可能会质疑是否这个测试的设计和管理可能出错了。他们也可能发现这个方向点对点的变化，一些新兵在继续测试前被要求完成每个部分而一些不是，并且新兵在测试房间的后面有时不能完全听见指示。另外，他们会发现会读写英语的人，只会说一种外语的人，不会读写的人都被给予同一种测试。