Editing Robert Yerkes (section)

==Intelligence testing and eugenics==
{{Eugenics sidebar|pre-war academics}}
In 1917, Yerkes served as president of the [[American Psychological Association]] (APA).  Under his influence, the APA began several programs devoted to the war effort in [[World War I]]. As chairman of the Committee on the [[Psychological Examination]] of Recruits, he developed the [[Army Alpha]] and [[Army Beta]] Intelligence Tests, the first nonverbal group tests, which were given to over 1 million United States soldiers during the war.

Although Yerkes claimed that the tests measured native intelligence, and not education or training, this claim is difficult to sustain in the face of the questions themselves. Question 18 of Alpha Test 8 reads: "Velvet Joe appears in advertisements of ... (tooth powder)(dry goods)('''tobacco''')(soap)."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Black|first=Edwin|title=War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race|publisher=Dialog Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0914153306}}</ref>

Yerkes used the results of tests such as these to argue that recent immigrants (especially those from Southern and Eastern Europe) scored considerably lower than older waves of immigration (from Northern Europe.) The results would later be criticized as very clearly only measuring [[acculturation]], as the test scores correlated nearly exactly with the number of years spent living in the US. Nonetheless, the effects of Yerkes work would have a lasting effect on American [[xenophobia]] and anti-immigrant sentiment. His work was used as one of the eugenic motivations for harsh and [[racism|racist]] immigration restrictions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQNeAQAAQBAJ&q=anti-italianism+essays+on+prejudice|title=Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice |last1=Connell|first1=W. |last2=Gardaphé|first2=F.|date=2010  |publisher=Springer |isbn=9780230115323 |page=48}}</ref>

He was appointed as an "Expert Eugenic Agent" to The House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, where his work would contribute to the creation of the discriminatory [[National Origins Formula]].<ref name=":0" /> In his introduction to [[Carl Brigham|Carl C. Brigham's]] ''A Study of American Intelligence'' (which helped popularize [[eugenics]] in the U.S.), Yerkes stated that "no one of us as a citizen can afford to ignore the menace of race deterioration."<ref>Brigham 1923, 80-86; Yerkes 1921, 785</ref>

Along with [[Edward L. Thorndike]], Yerkes was a member and Chairman of the Committee on Inheritance of Mental Traits, part of the [[Eugenics Record Office]], which was founded by [[Charles Benedict Davenport]], a former teacher of Yerkes at Harvard.<ref>"Testing For Order And Control In The Corporate Liberal State", Clarence J. Karier, pages 108-137, Roots of Crisis: American Education in the Twentieth Century, ed. C. J. Karier, P. Violas, J. Spring. Page 112 here. See also below, Autobiography of Robert Mearns Yerkes, 1930.</ref>