Re: Anarchy and spontaneous order in business and education

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Tue, 22 Jul 1997 22:51:02 -0400


N.BOSTROM@lse.ac.uk wrote:
>
> ... As far as I know, it is
> actually not legal in the USA to use IQ-like tests in hiring
> decisions, unless that specific test has been specifically proven
> to be a reliable predictor of the specific task the man is hired
> for.

Unfortunately, I don't think that there is any such generic law.
There is a recent trend to use "graphology" as part of the
hiring decision. Graphology is a pseudoscience whose practioners
claim to be able to determine personality traits of the writer
of a handwriting sample, based not on the words but on how the
letters are formed. We also use lie detectors, even though
studies have shown them to be completely unreliable.