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Brain size and cognitive ability: Correlations with age, sex, social class, and race

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03 October 2023 Editor's Note: Please be aware that this article contains harmful language or ideas which have been cited as justification for recent race-based violence. PB&R and the Psychonomic Society actively oppose any form of discrimination and we refer the reader to https://www.psychonomic.org/page/RA1996 for additional information about this article and fundamental objections to the author’s work. This article remains as part of published record.

Abstract

Using data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), autopsy, endocranial measurements, and other techniques, we show that (1) brain size is correlated with cognitive ability about .44 using MRI; (2) brain size varies by age, sex, social class, and race; and (3) cognitive ability varies by age, sex, social class, and race. Brain size and cognitive ability show a curvilinear relation with age, increasing to young adulthood and then decreasing; increasing from women to men; increasing with socioeconomic status; and increasing from Africans to Europeans to Asians. Although only further research can determine if such correlations represent cause and effect, it is clear that the direction of the brain-size/cognitive-ability relationships described by Paul Broca (1824–1880), Francis Galton (1822–1911), and other nineteenth-century visionaries is true, and that the null hypothesis of no relation, strongly advocated over the last half century, is false.

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  • 03 October 2023

    Editor's Note: Please be aware that this article contains harmful language or ideas which have been cited as justification for recent race-based violence. PB&R and the Psychonomic Society actively oppose any form of discrimination and we refer the reader to https://www.psychonomic.org/page/RA1996 for additional information about this article and fundamental objections to the author’s work. This article remains as part of published record.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5C2, London, ON, Canada

    J. Philippe Rushton & C. Davison Ankney

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  1. J. Philippe Rushton
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  2. C. Davison Ankney
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Correspondence to J. Philippe Rushton.

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We thank E. Hunt, D. N. Jackson, A. R. Jensen, S. Johnson, P. Kyllonen, H. L. Roediger III, E. Tulving, J. Wickett, L. Willerman, and several anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions. This review draws on what we have previously published individually and jointly elsewhere.

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Rushton, J.P., Ankney, C.D. Brain size and cognitive ability: Correlations with age, sex, social class, and race. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 3, 21–36 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210739

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210739

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