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.

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.