| Sumario: | This article presents the question of social class differences in measured intelligence as an illustration of the more general problem of the relation between social structure and the distribution of genetic characteristics in populations. Though innate intelligence may legitimately be inferred from available evidence, the evidence is also strong that it is determined not by one gene but polygenically. On these assumptions a genetic model may be constructed which, when relevant variations in social structure are taken into account, throws considerable doubt on the possibility that mean differences between classes in measured intelligence are innate. When a caste society is transformed into a class society the classes, may still be seen as gene pools but with migration between them. The question now becomes one of determining the relation between social mobility and genic migration. On the evidence, especially of correlation coefficients derived from studies of twins, siblings and foster children, it may be concluded that there is a genetic component in the intelligence test performance of individuals.
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