Intelligence in Context The Cultural and Historical

Foundations of Human Intelligence

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 Robert J. Sternberg • David D. Preiss
Editors

Intelligence in
Context
The Cultural and Historical
Foundations of Human Intelligence
Editors
Robert J. Sternberg David D. Preiss
Department of Psychology Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Cornell University Santiago, RM - Santiago, Chile
Ithaca, NY, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-92797-4    ISBN 978-3-030-92798-1 (eBook)

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 Preface

Intelligence often is thought of as represented by a score on some kind of

an intelligence test: a verbal one, a nonverbal one, or perhaps some mix-
ture of the two. The tests yield a score, which may or may not have an
impact on decisions that experts or bureaucrats take about an individual’s
life. The test can provide or restrict educational opportunities, can provide
access to special treatments or interventions, and, in some extreme cases,
save or cost a person’s life if used as a part of a trial for which the death
penalty is a result. During most of the twentieth century, intelligence test-
ing played a substantial role in shaping not only our educational institu-
tions but also our society in general. Today, intelligence tests are still widely
used, but that use is not exempt from intense debate because of the long-
standing differences in test performance between individuals from differ-
ent socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.
Many researchers in the field of intelligence look beyond IQ tests in
various ways to understand and measure intelligence. Although there are
many ways of looking beyond, one of the most important ones is to look
to intelligence as it occurs in its natural contexts, including not only the
individuals and groups but also the cognitive tools and technologies they
use when performing different tasks (Preiss & Sternberg, 2005). John
Berry (1974), one of the contributors to this book, was one of the earliest
to recognize that intelligence can vary as a function of contextual
demands. Michael Cole and his collaborators also have long taken this
v
vi Preface

position (Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 1982), as have

many others since then (e.g., Mpofu, 2004; Rogoff, 2003; Scribner,
1984; Serpell, 1974; see essays in Sternberg & Preiss; 2005, and a review
in Sternberg, 2020).
As you will discover when you read this book, many of the authors
believe that a contextual approach to intelligence is more important than
ever. IQ has proven inadequate for solving many, perhaps any of the seri-
ous problems the world faces today. And some of these problems, such as
climate change, are potentially catastrophic. The name given to the Epoch
undergoing this possible eventual catastrophe, the Anthropocene, makes
clear that many of the issues that we face today are a result of not only our
activities but also our abilities, including those comprised by the con-
struct of intelligence. In addition to understanding the relation of intel-
ligence to its context, it is important to understand how historical changes
impact intelligence research: They affect not only our definitions of intel-
ligence and of intelligence assessment but also the nature of the abilities
themselves.
The book opens with this brief introduction and then is divided into
seven parts.
In Part I, Intelligence and Cultural Evolution, researchers consider how
cultural evolution shapes intelligence and how intelligence, in turn, is
shaped by cultural evolution. This part consists of two chapters:
“Intelligence as Ecological and Cultural Adaptation,” by John W. Berry,
and “Adaptive Intelligence and Cultural Evolution,” by Chi-yue Chiu,
Hiu-sze Chan, Sau-lai Lee, and Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong.
Berry advances an ecocultural framework, which suggests that intelli-
gence favors adaptation in multiple and different ways across cultures.
This framework rests on two principles: (i) psychological processes are
largely universally shared, and (ii) these processes are variably developed
historically and ontogenetically. The author indicates that, for under-
standing intelligence, it is therefore necessary to know the challenges
people face in their own ecosystems. Chiu and collaborators link adaptive
intelligence to cultural evolution theories and suggest that adaptive intel-
ligence is supported by individual and interpersonal capacities. These
capacities have evolved and are evolving to support adaptation in con-
crete physical, socioeconomic, and social ecologies. The authors propose
 Preface vii

a conceptual framework for understanding, measuring, and developing a

psychological system of adaptive intelligence.
Part II deals with Culture and Society in the History of Research on
Human Intelligence. There are three chapters: “A Brief History of IQ
Testing: Fixed vs. Malleable Intelligence,” by Alan S. Kaufman, Dowon
Choi, Hansika Kapoor, and James C. Kaufman; “The Idea of a Peculiarly
Female Intelligence: A Brief History of Bias Masked as Science,” by Gerd
Gigerenzer; and “Intelligence and Wisdom in Chinese Intellectual
History and in Modern-Day Taiwan,” by Shih-ying Yang, Kimberly
Y. H. Chang, and Shin-yi Huang.
Kaufman and his collaborators review the history of IQ test develop-
ment. They assess how different scholars in the history of the field have
considered the malleability of intelligence. Specifically, they summarize
the views of Binet, Terman, Wechsler, and others on both basic and
applied topics related to the definition and interpretation of intelligence
and its measurement. Next, Gigerenzer identifies three approaches devel-
oped by men to a peculiarly female intelligence in order to explain and
justify their own superior social position. He summarizes historical
approaches as well as other approaches originating from modern research
on intelligence and related fields. Closing this section, Yang and collabo-
rators explore the concepts of intelligence and wisdom in Chinese intel-
lectual history and in modern-day Taiwan, showing that, in Taiwan, the
Chinese term for intelligence is often used interchangeably with that for
wisdom. Then, they trace the evolving concepts of wisdom and intelli-
gence through Chinese intellectual history and present a pilot study
exploring perceived differences between wisdom and intelligence in
Taiwan today.
Part III focuses on Socio-cultural Influences in Human Intelligence. It
comprises three chapters: “The Status of Intelligence as a Panhuman
Construct in Cross-Cultural Psychology,” by Johnny R. J. Fontaine and
Ype H. Poortinga; “Cultural intelligence: From Intelligence in Context
and across Cultures to Intercultural Contexts,” by Kok Yee Ng, Soon
Ang, and Thomas Rockstuhl; and “Cultural Change in Africa under the
Pressure of HIV/AIDS: The Role of Natively Developed Intelligence,” by
Mei Tan and Elena L. Grigorenko.
viii Preface

Fontaine and Poortinga summarize the early history of intelligence test-

ing in cross-cultural contexts and present examples of studies that have
produced credible findings about effects of economic and social condi-
tions on intellectual performance. Second, they argue that the distinction
between credible and noncredible approaches in cross-cultural research on
human intelligence centers on a differentiated approach to psychometric
equivalence. Third, they discuss various approaches to the assessment of
intelligence, in terms of the level of equivalence that can be achieved, and
the consequent prospect for cross-cultural comparison. Kok Yee Ng, Soon
Ang, and Thomas Rockstuhl take the view that intelligence and context
are deeply intertwined. They show how three different streams of intelli-
gence research emerge from different conceptualizations of context: (1) a
narrow focus on intelligence in context; (2) an ethnological approach
focused on intelligence across cultures; and (3) an integrative approach,
which they name “cultural intelligence.” The last approach studies the
capability to function effectively in the specific context of intercultural
interactions. The authors discuss implications and future research direc-
tions in the Anthropocene epoch. Tan and Grigorenko discuss culturally
shaped components of intelligence playing a relevant role in the survival
and well-being of individuals affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan
Africa. They focus specifically on cognition relevant to social responsibility
and social connectivity. They then illustrate how such skills have been
instrumental in individuals’ adaptation, with a focus on the accommoda-
tion of AIDS orphans within African kinship systems, and the transfor-
mation of African conceptions of time to support habits of medication
adherence.
Part IV deals with Context, Assessment, and Intellectual Performance. It
has two chapters: “Taking an Intelligence Test: Does the Context Matter?”
by Adrian Furnham and “A Contextual Approach to Research on
Intelligence and Complex Task Performance,” by David Z. Hambrick.
Furnham makes a distinction between the academic view and the lay
understanding of intelligence, considers issues about the perception and
accuracy of intelligence tests, and, in contrast with typical other means of
assessment, looks at other everyday tests and markers of intelligence and
what they mean. He concludes that most people take a wider view of
intelligence and are skeptical about tests because their face validity seems
 Preface ix

not to coincide with people’s understanding of what intelligence means.

Hambrick argues that although scores on tests of standardized tests of
intelligence meaningfully predict performance in complex real-world
tasks, research on intelligence has been conducted in a largely acontextual
fashion. He focuses on the interplay between intelligence, domain knowl-
edge, and the environment in complex task performance and sketches
out a contextual view of intelligence
Part V covers Social Issues and the Science of Human Intelligence. It con-
sists of three chapters: “Mindsets of Intelligence: Their Development,
Consequences, and Relation to Group-based Inequality,” by Lin Bian;
“Re-Envisioning Intelligence in Cultural Context,” by Lisa Suzuki,
Taymy Josefa Caso, and Aysegul Yucel; and “Challenges for Intelligence
Today: Combatting Misinformation and Fake News,” by Stephen J. Ceci
and Wendy M. Williams.
Bian provides a selective review of implicit theories of intelligence at
both the individual and the organizational levels. She discusses the acqui-
sition of these beliefs and their impacts in people’s behavior. She com-
ments on people’s stereotypes about intelligence based on gender or race,
and summarizes evidence showing how a fixed organizational mindset
detrimentally impacts individuals of negatively stereotyped groups.
Suzuki and collaborators propose that traditional definitions of intelli-
gence are limited in their cultural adaptability. The authors claim that
measures must be inclusive of various forms of intelligence, including
those advanced by theories of social, emotional, and cultural intelligences.
For the authors, intelligence can no longer be defined by a single score
but rather must be based on profiles of behavior and outcomes that takes
into consideration flexibility, adaptability, and survival. Ceci and Williams
discuss how intelligence today must address how people identify and
resist misinformation. They propose that current conceptions of intelli-
gence should incorporate how people reason in today’s information-rich
era, which requires us all to distinguish trustworthy information from
fake news. They indicate that the evidence points to the importance of
assuming an “openly active method of thinking” to identify and resist
misinformation. They conclude by discussing the relationship between
this mode of thinking and intelligence as it is usually defined.
x Preface

Part VI encompasses thoughts on The Future of the Science of Human

Intelligence and Its Implications for Society. It consists of two chapters:
“Human intelligence in the Time of the Anthropocene,” by David
D. Preiss, and “Time Bomb: How the Western Conception of Intelligence
Is Taking Down Humanity,” by Robert J. Sternberg.
Sternberg proposes that humans are on a species-suicidal course and
that the conventional notion of intelligence has led us to set a time bomb
for our own existence. He argues that serious problems in the world will
not be solved by conventional education or by selecting students with the
highest IQs. He proposes that we need a conception of intelligence in
instruction and assessment that considers the kinds of problems people
need to solve in order to ensure their survival and that of many other spe-
cies. This requires focusing on creative, practical, and wisdom-based abil-
ities. Preiss discusses how the transformations we have experienced during
the Anthropocene signal the need to more deeply consider the role of
context in our thinking of intelligence. Next, he discusses how the cul-
tural evolution of our symbolic abilities is key to understand the proper-
ties of modern-day human intelligence. Then, he comments on how the
invention of the theory of general intelligence was marked by a lack of
consideration of the role of context, notwithstanding the fact that the
British founders of the field were working in the midst of the great trans-
formation provoked by the Industrial Revolution. Finally, he concludes
by discussing how intelligence research should be conducted to address
the demands of the Anthropocene.
Finally, Part VII, Conclusion, involves just a single chapter: “Conclusion:
Intelligence Does Not Inhere within the Individual but Rather in Person
x Task x Situation Interactions,” by the editors.
As a whole, this book makes a compelling case for the integration of
contextual perspectives in human intelligence research. It includes chap-
ters dealing with the relation between intelligence and natural and cul-
tural evolution, the role of contextual variables in intelligence, the
evolution of the concept of intelligence across time, the status of human
intelligence in the Anthropocene, and contemporary social issues and
intelligence. The book is written for those in the field of intelligence, but
also for others who are interested in intelligence and thinking about it
beyond the narrow confines of IQ-based and other similar
 Preface xi

psychometrically based concepts. We believe that the book will also be

instrumental to fostering academic dialogue between psychologists and
scholars working in other social sciences on issues related to the cultural,
social, and contextual determinants of human ability.
This book is not focused on decomposing environmental and heredi-
tary influences in human intelligence but rather on understanding how
culture and society impact human intelligence and our understanding of
human ability. Additionally, this book can be seen as a companion book
to one we edited roughly fifteen years ago that focused on the way tools
and technologies both define and amplify human intelligence (Sternberg
& Preiss, 2005). That book also made a case for the consideration of
contextual variables in our understanding of human intelligence.
We thank Palgrave Macmillan Publishers and our editors there for
their helpful assistant in bringing this book into reality. The work of
David Preiss in this book was supported by grant FONDECYT No.
1181095. He expresses his gratitude to the Agencia Nacional de
Investigación y Desarrollo, ANID. We dedicate this book to two giants in
the field of context and intelligence, the late Urie Bronfenbreneer and
Michael Cole.

Ithaca, NY, USA Robert J. Sternberg

Santiago, Chile  David D. Preiss

References
Berry, J. W. (1974). Radical cultural relativism and the concept of intelligence.
In J. W. Berry, & P. R. Dasen (Eds.), Culture and cognition: Readings in cross-
cultural psychology (pp. 225–229). Methuen.
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (1982). Culture and intelli-
gence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of human intelligence (pp. 642–719).
Cambridge University Press.
Mpofu, E. (2004). Intelligence in Zimbabwe. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),
International handbook of intelligence (pp. 364–390). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
xii Preface

Preiss, D. D. & Sternberg, R. J. Technologies for working intelligences. (2005).

In Sternberg, R. J. & Preiss, D. (Eds.) Intelligence and technology. The impact
of tools on the nature and development of human abilities (pp. 183–208).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford
University Press.
Scribner, S. (1984). Studying working intelligence. In B. Rogoff & J. Lave
(Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 9–40).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Serpell, R. (1974). Aspects of intelligence in a developing country. African Social
Research, No. 17, 576
Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Cultural approaches to intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg
(Ed.), Human intelligence: An introduction (pp. 174–201). Cambridge
University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. & Preiss D. D. (Eds.) (2005). Intelligence and technology: The
impact of tools on the nature and development of human abilities. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
 Contents

1 I ntroduction  1
Robert J. Sternberg

Part I Intelligence and Cultural Evolution   5

2 Intelligence
 as Ecological and Cultural Adaptation  7
John W. Berry

3 Adaptive
 Intelligence and Cultural Evolution 31
Chi-yue Chiu, Hiu-sze Chan, Sau-lai Lee, and
Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong

Part II Culture and Society in the History of Research on

Human Intelligence  57

4 A
 Brief History of IQ Testing: Fixed vs. Malleable
Intelligence 59
Alan S. Kaufman, Dowon Choi, Hansika Kapoor, and
James C. Kaufman

xiii
xiv Contents

5 The
 Idea of a Peculiarly Female Intelligence: A Brief
History of Bias Masked as Science 93
Gerd Gigerenzer

6 Wisdom
 as Perfect Intelligence: Intelligence and Wisdom
in Chinese Intellectual History and in Modern-Day
Taiwan121
Shih-ying Yang, Kimberly Y. H. Chang, and Shin-yi Huang

Part III Socio-cultural Influences in Human Intelligence 151

7 The
 Status of Intelligence as a Panhuman Construct in
Cross-­Cultural Psychology153
Johnny R. J. Fontaine and Ype H. Poortinga

8 Cultural
 Intelligence: From Intelligence in Context and
Across Cultures to Intercultural Contexts177
Kok Yee Ng, Soon Ang, and Thomas Rockstuhl

9 Cultural
 Change in Africa Under the Pressure of HIV/
AIDS: The Adaptive Role of Intelligence201
Mei Tan and Elena L. Grigorenko

Part IV Context, Assessment, and Intellectual Performance 231

10 Taking
 an Intelligence Test: Does the Context Matter?233
Adrian Furnham

11 A
 Contextual Approach to Research on Intelligence and
Complex Task Performance257
David Z. Hambrick
 Contents xv

Part V Social Issues and the Science of Human Intelligence 287

12 Mindsets
 of Intelligence: Their Development,
Consequences, and Relation to Group-Based Inequality289
Lin Bian

13 Re-envisioning
 Intelligence in Cultural Context317
Lisa Suzuki, Taymy Josefa Caso, and Aysegul Yucel

14 Challenges
 for Intelligence Today: Combatting
Misinformation and Fake News339
Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams

Part VI The Future of the Science of Human Intelligence and

Its Implications for Society 359

15 Human
 Intelligence in the Time of the Anthropocene361
David D. Preiss

16 Time
 Bomb: How the Western Conception of Intelligence
Is Taking Down Humanity393
Robert J. Sternberg

Part VII Conclusion 413

17 Conclusion:
 Intelligence Does Not Inhere Within the
Individual but Rather in Person x Task x Situation
Interactions415
Robert J. Sternberg and David D. Preiss

I ndex433
 Notes on Contributors

Robert J. Sternberg is a psychologist interested in the psychology of intelli-

gence, creativity and wisdom. He is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University
and Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
His PhD is from Stanford University and he holds 13 honorary doctorates. He
is a past winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology and the James and
Cattell Awards from APS. He has been cited over 211,000 times with an h
index of 222.
David D. Preiss is a psychologist interested in the psychology of creativity,
intelligence and other higher order human skills. He is Professor of Psychology
at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He holds a PhD in Psychology
from Yale University, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He is a fellow of
the Association for Psychological Science. Preiss is the author of more than 50
papers and book chapters in the fields of cultural psychology and educational
psychology and the co-editor of four international books in different areas of
psychology.
Soon Ang is a distinguished university professor and founder of the Center for
Leadership and Cultural Intelligence at Nanyang Technological University
(Singapore). A multiple-award-winning researcher, Soon Ang pioneered and co-
authored books on culture intelligence. Her recent interests include conceptual-
ization, measurement and growth of intercultural and leadership capabilities.

xvii
xviii Notes on Contributors

John W. Berry is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Queen’s University,

Canada. He graduated (BA) from Sir George Williams University in 1963, and
from the University of Edinburgh (PhD, 1966). He received honorary doctor-
ates from the University of Athens and Université de Geneve (in 2001). He is a
fellow of numerous academic societies (IACCP, IAAP, IAIR, CPA) and the Royal
Society of Canada. He has published over 40 books and over 300 articles and
chapters in the areas of cross-cultural, intercultural, social and cognitive psychol-
ogy with various colleagues.
Lin Bian is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago.
From 2019–2021, she held the Evalyn Edwards Milman Assistant Professorship
at Cornell University. Her research focuses on children’s reasoning about social
categories, including topics on stereotypes, academic motivation, sociomoral
expectations and intergroup relations.
Taymy Josefa Caso PhD (they/she), is Assistant Professor of Educational
Psychology at the University of Alberta and a lecturer at New York University
and the University of Minnesota Medical School. Caso completed a postdoc-
toral fellowship in Transgender Health in the Institute for Sexual and Gender
Health and maintains a research affiliation at the National Center for Gender
Spectrum Health. They hold degrees in counseling and clinical psychology from
New York University and Columbia University, Teachers College. Their research
focuses on minority health disparities, intersectionality, identity-based margin-
alization within LGBTQ+ BIPOC communities, gender and sexual fluidity, and
social determinants of health. Their advocacy work utilizes decolonizing peda-
gogy to deconstruct institutional and systemic barriers to equity and develop
community-based interventions for underserved communities. They have been
the recipient of several grants and awards, which recognize scholarship, service,
advocacy, and activism that support and empower marginalized and underrep-
resented communities.
Stephen J. Ceci is the author of approximately 500 articles, chapters and books
and recipient of the William James Award from APS, the APA Lifetime
Contribution Award for Applications to Psychology and three lifetime achieve-
ment awards from various organizations. He is a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education.
Hiu-sze Chan is currently a PhD student of Sociology at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong. Her research interests are culture and education. She has a mas-
ter’s degree in applied psychology from the City University in Hong Kong and