A science explainer

Does Race Cause Behavior?

A common argument says racial gaps in crime, income or education must reflect something innate. This video examines the evidence: causal inference, wealth data, measurement, genomics and natural experiments.

11 min · captions available · sources below

Chapters

    About this video

    It walks through six tests of the idea that race is a biological cause of behavioral or socioeconomic outcomes: causal inference (confounders and residuals), wealth and neighborhoods, measurement bias, genomics, immigrant outcomes and a sex-difference test using Raj Chetty's intergenerational data.

    Every statistic on screen carries its source. Charts marked schematic or illustrative show a concept rather than exact data. Narration is AI-generated.

    Transcript

    Read the full narration

    Sources

    1. Lewontin (1972). The Apportionment of Human Diversity. Evolutionary Biology 6:381–398.
    2. Lewontin (1970). Race and Intelligence. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 26(3).
    3. Rosenberg et al. (2002). Genetic Structure of Human Populations. Science 298:2381.
    4. Aladangady, Chang & Krimmel (2023). Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty. FEDS Notes, Federal Reserve (SCF 2022).
    5. Pew Research Center (2023). How wealth and wealth gaps vary by household income.
    6. Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones & Porter (2018). The Opportunity Atlas. Opportunity Insights.
    7. SAMHSA (2024). 2023 NSDUH Race/Ethnicity Highlights (PDF).
    8. ACLU (2020). A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform.
    9. Skiba, Michael, Nardo & Peterson (2002). The Color of Discipline. Urban Review 34(4).
    10. Scarr, Pakstis, Katz & Barker (1977). Absence of a Relationship between Degree of White Ancestry and Intellectual Skills within a Black Population. Human Genetics 39.
    11. Monk (2014). Skin Tone Stratification among Black Americans, 2001–2003. Social Forces 92(4) (PDF).
    12. Hersch (2008). Profiling the New Immigrant Worker: The Effects of Skin Color and Height. J. Labor Economics 26(2).
    13. Martin et al. (2019). Clinical use of current polygenic risk scores may exacerbate health disparities. Nature Genetics 51.
    14. American Society of Human Genetics (2018). ASHG Denounces Attempts to Link Genetics and Racial Supremacy. AJHG 103.
    15. Pew Research Center (2026). Key findings about Black immigrants in the U.S.
    16. U.S. Census Bureau (2025). Educational attainment data, CPS 2024.
    17. Abramitzky, Boustan, Jácome, Pérez & Torres (2024). Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870–2020. AER: Insights 6(4).
    18. UK Department for Education. GCSE results (Attainment 8), by ethnicity.
    19. Chetty, Hendren, Jones & Porter (2020). Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective. QJE 135(2).