Review of

Ritchie, S. J. (2015). Intelligence: All that matters. London: John Murray Learning.

By Douglas K. Detterman

Intelligence: All that matters matters a lot.

Douglas K. Detterman

Case Western Reserve University

Cleveland, OH USA

I hope this book sells a million copies. Stuart Ritchie has written a very brief book (about

130 pages) that offers a superb introduction to the field of human intelligence. It can be read in a

few hours and gives an honest, forthright, clear, and most of all, accurate representation of the

field.

All that matters is a series of books published in the United Kingdom by John Murray

Learning (and in the United States by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.) that might be

compared to the For dummies series in the United States. According to the publisher, these

books “introduce the most exciting and relevant areas of an important topic to students and

general readers” (p. 148). Topics include such subjects as democracy, political philosophy,

water, love, emotions, and cyber crime and warfare, to name a few. Each book contains a final

section called “100 ideas” that provides “ways you can explore the subject in more depth. (p.

117)”

A quote often attributed to Mark Twain or Benjamin Franklin but actually first written by

Blaise Pascal comes to mind: “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to
 D e tt e r m a n P a g e | 2

make it shorter.” Ritchie evidently had the time to make it short. What impresses me about this

book is the careful wording that conveys crucial information about the field briefly and concisely

but neither overstates nor understates the case. As anyone who works in the field of human

intelligence knows, this is not always easy to do but, for the most part, Ritchie has done it.

Further, the writing style is completely engaging and moves at a fast pace. That is, it is not

boring.

Generally a short book of this kind can be criticized for two things: 1) what is included, and

2) what is left out. I will refrain from remarking on either. Though, like me, I am sure anyone

who is reading this review and reads the book will have their own strong preferences about both.

(Probably that more of their research and less of others should have been included.) I will only

say that Ritchie has made good decisions about what to include and, perhaps as importantly,

what to leave out. My impression of the book is that it covers the most important information

and misunderstandings about intelligence succinctly but pithily.

The book consists of six chapters which are: 1) Introducing intelligence, 2) Testing

intelligence, 3) Why intelligence matters, 4) The biology of intelligence, 5) The easy way to raise

your IQ, and 6) Why is intelligence so controversial. It concludes with the mandatory 100 ideas

section.

A description of some of the content will give a feeling for the book’s character. The first

chapter, like each chapter, begins with a quote. The quote is from the late Christopher Hitchens

writing in The Nation: “There is. . . an unusually high and consistent correlation between the

stupidity of a given person and [their] propensity to be impressed by the measurement of IQ.”

After a paragraph recounting how and why smart people don’t like intelligence, Ritchie
 D e tt e r m a n P a g e | 3

responds: “But anyone who makes these arguments simply hasn’t seen the scientific evidence.

(p. 2) “ Bravo! This is a precisely accurate statement that perfectly represents my sentiments.

A second example comes from chapter five, “The easy way to raise your IQ.” One might

think that Ritchie has gone beyond the pale here. But he has not. The first sentence of this

chapter explains, “I admit it: I chose the title of this chapter just to get your attention. (p. 82).” In

fact, the chapter is about many of the ways that have been advertised as raising IQ but do not.

He debunks the Mozart effect, brain training, and the panoply of other techniques that have

gotten much public attention.

He does suggest that the one confirmed way of assuring yourself of a higher IQ is to obtain

more education. There has been a debate for some years about the direction of the causal arrow

between education and intelligence. Some suggest that education actually increases IQ by up to

3 IQ points for each additional year of education obtained. Others argue that this is due to

selection since it is usually people with higher IQs that are capable of obtaining higher levels of

education. The interesting thing about Ritchie’s advice is that it doesn’t matter which way the

causal arrow is drawn. No matter which way it goes, if a person completes more education they

are likely to have a higher IQ than those that have not completed that level of education. This is

very clever advice and only slightly devious. Further, it is generally conceded that more

education is always better so who would be willing to argue against it?

The required 100 ideas section at the end of the book provides lists of items whose combined

sum is 100. The lists are things like: fifteen books about intelligence, five anti-IQ books, five

websites on intelligence, ten review papers on intelligence, and ten common myths about

intelligence (debunked). In addition to references to other work there are also lists like the five

smartest fictional characters and the five known for low intelligence. Perhaps the most
 D e tt e r m a n P a g e | 4

interesting to those in the field is the ten ‘big questions’ for future research. The 100 ideas

section is designed to provide direction for those interested in exploring the topic further. Lists

are usually boring but these are varied enough to keep a reader’s interest and perhaps kindle

additional interest.

According to Amazon, Intelligence: All that matters will be available in the United States on

September 15, 2015 and will cost $5.99 in a Kindle format and $12.92 in paperback. (Amazon

provides a lowest price guarantee if the price should change before publication.) It is already

available on Amazon UK for £4.99 for the Kindle edition and £8.99 for the paperback. At

exchange rates at this writing, United States customers are getting a bargain. Given the

reasonable price, how can this book be used to spread the word about intelligence?

One thought that came to mind would be to send pairs of graduate students into the world

with free copies of this book to proselytize the unbelievers as the Mormons or Jehovah’s

Witnesses do. If this seems too extreme, there are other intermediate tactics. If I were teaching

an undergraduate course on intelligence, before the course began I would require students to read

this book and then watch the Haier (2013) Great Course, The Intelligent Brain. If I were

teaching a graduate course, I would have students read the Richie book, watch the Haier course,

and read Deary’s (2000) Looking down on intelligence: From psychometrics to the brain.

Given the unreliable content about intelligence in many undergraduate introductory psychology

books, the Ritchie book would also make good supplemental reading for students in an

introductory psychology course.

The advantage of using the just recommended prequels to any course including intelligence

is that it starts students in the course on an equal footing and dispels many of the urban myths

about intelligence before the course begins. Misinformation is a particular problem in teaching
 D e tt e r m a n P a g e | 5

intelligence since students have not had many sources of accurate information about the topic.

The pre-course reading would free the instructor to go more deeply into the subject matter rather

than spending time on correcting misconceptions.

Ritchie is to be commended for writing a book that sets the record straight and provides basic

information about intelligence to a generally ill-informed public. An author may not get rich or

famous from writing such a book (though I hope Ritchie does) but they perform a valuable

service to the field, service that is not to be underestimated. There is much that needs to be done

to ensure that the world has a truer view of intelligence and this book is a help to that effort.

References

Deary, I. J. (2000). Looking down on intelligence: From psychometrics to the brain. Oxford,

UK: Oxford University Press.

Haier, R. H. (2013). The intelligent brain. Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses.