Statistics and Eugenics

Why Statistics Matter

Eugenics is similar to Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”, however, this survival is not the natural survival that Darwin was describing. When he hypothesized that the fit would out survive the unfit, he did not have in mind that the fit would be scientifically defined to survive with the other “fit” ones.

When trying to convince a population about something, it helps to have facts to back up what is being said. The eugenics movement was seeking out the fit ones. The movement to define these fit ones was done creating hypotheses and searching for the answer by using statistics. The application of these statistics on the other hand were misrepresented or misread to further the eugenic cause. When the eugenics movement needed to legitimize their hypothesis, the statistics where an important factor. Now, the statistics that were created have a lasting place in the mathematics community, but have lost backing in the social statistics world.

Notable Mathematicians in the Eugenics Movement

Adolphe Quetelet

Before the eugenics movement, there was already statistical application to the natural sciences. It had not been widely applied to the social sciences. Quetelet was regarded as the first social statistician. He was an astronomer and meteorologist. He had an interest however in why people are how they are. He is famous for his creation of the body mass index. [1]

He looked at social situations in a very scientific manner. In physics, there are formulas that will tell you how far something will go if it has an initial velocity of “x”, and angle of “y” and other factors. He applied this to the social sciences. He believed by putting the certain factors into the right equation he could calculate things.

In his research, he created something called the “average man”. This average man was a set of characteristics of a human. He first got the average height and weight of people. He then compared those to sex, age, job and location. This is how he created his average man.

Quetelet was important to the Eugenic movement for two reasons. He was the first one to think that certain factors could determine actions of the average human. It is important to note that these factors were physical. The second reason is a particular quote of his.

“If the average man were ascertained for one nation, he could represent the type of that nation. If he could be ascertained according to the mass of men, he would represent the type of human species altogether.” [2]

The application and belief of this quote is what is troubling and useful for the eugenics movement. The belief that a group of people could be represented as an “average man” is the standard protocol for the eugenics movement.

R.A. Fisher

R.A. Fisher is another notable statistician who believed in eugenics. Fisher was also a notable geneticist as well. He once wrote a paper entitled “The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance.” This paper tackled a eugenics issue that involved both genetics and statistics. Fisher believed that the genes of the parents would be passed on to their children. In this paper he introduced new statistics that included the idea of analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA has become a well known and commonly used statistical test to measure correlation between multiple objects. Fisher believed that the intelligence of a person was directly passed down from their parents. Fisher also believed that one could predict how many children a woman would be able to have by the amount of children her parents had.

In Fisher’s case he took this belief a step further. He actually attempted to create a family based on his eugenics beliefs. He ended up marrying his wife based off of the fact that she was one of 10 children and that her father was a very well known man of faith as well as the fact that his family, the Guinness family was known around the world for not only the religion side, but also that of the brewing side and a family of well known bankers. For Fisher this could not have been a better eugenic marriage. He had a wife that would be able to have many children but also was from a well off family known for its intelligence in multiple different ventures. Fisher was known to believe that the upper class needed to have large families in order for them to cancel out the lower classes continued growth of “lesser people.” Although he was able to create a large family, he and his wife had 9 children, their marriage would not last as his wife was unable to cope with his drastic beliefs.

Even through this all he never stopped believing in eugenics. In 1933 he became a professor of Eugenics at University College London. He eventually received the honor of Knight Bachelor from Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 for his work in genetics and statistics, which were quite profound as he did create ANOVA and what became to be known as biometrical genetics, but obviously his eugenics background was overlooked. To leave a lasting impression of what Fisher truly believed about people of the world here is a quote about how races differed: “in their innate capacity for intellectual and emotional development.” [3]