Professor James Flynn

James R. Flynn is Professor Emeritus at the University of Otago (New Zealand), recipient of the University's Gold Medal for Distinguished Career Research.  As a psychologist, he is best known for the Flynn Effect, the discovery of massive IQ gains from one generation to another. In 2006, Jim gave the Annual Psychometrics Centre Public Lecture Beyond the Flynn Effect: A solution to all outstanding problems - except enhancing wisdom at Trinity Colllege, Cambridge. (Note: a video of this talk is also available on our wiki)

Jim Flynn has been profiled in Scientific American, and The American Psychological Association has devoted a symposium and a book to his research. As a philosopher, his latest book is 'How To Defend Humane Ideals'.  Professor Jeremy Waldron of Columbia has described its treatment of race and class as 'magnificent'.  He has been Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford) and Distinguished Visiting Speaker at Cornell. He has been featured in Scientific American and Newsweek and awarded his university's Medal for Distinguished Career Research.

His current research includes:  

• a report on evidence from many nations showing that females are now doing as well as males on Raven's Progressive Matrices;
• a series of articles showing the limitations of g or the general intelligence factor - which is at present championed by thinkers such as Arthur Jensen, Ian Deary, and many others;
• a book for a wide audience showing that no psychological discoveries of the last half century should discourage us from trying to build a society without deep gulfs between the races, genders, or classes
• looking ahead, an attempt to reconcile philosophy, psychology, and law concerning when we can hold people responsible for their actions.