Several possible studies
Story checked
Nathan Cofnas’s “race realism” is pseudoscience – For Better Science (opens in a new tab)
forbetterscience.com · 2026-09-15
Short answer
Several possible studiesNo clear answer.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Checked against the study summary. The full text wasn't available, so some details couldn't be settled either way.
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The story
Nathan Cofnas’s “race realism” is pseudoscience – For Better Science
forbetterscience.com · 2026-09-15
The story’s checkable claims.
Read the original story (opens in a new tab)NewsLink checks it
Several studies could be the source of this story.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Open claim evidenceSearch result
Several studies could fit.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Source layer
The 11 papers the story cites
Source study separated from background citations.
The research anchor for the report.
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Science Is Not Always “Self-Correcting”
Foundations of Science · 2016
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry
Philosophical Psychology · 2020
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
It’s a High-IQ Match! in advance
Social Theory and Practice · 2026
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Genome-wide association meta-analysis in 269,867 individuals identifies new genetic and functional links to intelligence
Nature Genetics · 2018
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Genomic prediction of cognitive traits in childhood and adolescence
Molecular Psychiatry · 2019
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Immunizing Strategies and Epistemic Defense Mechanisms
Philosophia · 2011
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Protocol for a meta-analysis of stereotype threat in African Americans
PLOS ONE · 2024
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
The Anti-Jewish Narrative
Philosophia · 2021
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Still No Evidence for a Jewish Group Evolutionary Strategy
Evolutionary Psychological Science · 2023
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
Letting the daylight in: Reviewing the reviewers and other ways to maximize transparency in science
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience · 2012
- Cited as backgroundpresented as earlier work
10.4324/9781003014805/creating-future-people-jonathan-anomaly
Evidence layer
Claim by claim
What the story asserts. With no source study, there is nothing to check these against.
Reading mode
Scan verdicts. Open evidence only when needed.
Claim 1 of 6Not checkedNathan Cofnas’s defence of “race realism” or “hereditarianism” can be labelled pseudoscience.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 2 of 6Not checkedCofnas is not, in the article’s view, a scholar doing empirical research on race and IQ; his writing on the topic is mainly in blogs and ideological manifestos rather than reports of ongoing research.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 3 of 6Not checkedThe article says Cofnas’s academic papers use cautious language about future possibilities, while his blog posts and public statements present the strong version of his racial claims as already scientifically established.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 4 of 6Not checkedThe article argues that Cofnas’s blog posts rely on pseudoscientific or racist sources such as Arthur Jensen, Philippe Rushton, Richard Lynn, Emil Kirkegaard, and related race-science circles.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 5 of 6Not checkedThe article says Cofnas uses strategic ambiguity, “switcheroo,” and “deflationary revision” to shift between weak and strong versions of his hereditarian claims and to accuse critics of misrepresenting him.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 6 of 6Not checkedThe article also frames the Ghent University controversy as part of a wider dispute over Cofnas’s appointment, protests, support letters, and investigation, but those events are presented as context rather than the scientific focus of the piece.View evidenceHide evidence
As statedover 955 signatories; over 4,500 signatories
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Method layer
No single source study was found.
NewsLink still surfaces nearby research so you can inspect the field instead of a single paper.
Nearby research
No exact source, but these papers are close.
Crossref, PubMed, Europe PMC · 50 candidate papers
Science Is Not Always “Self-Correcting”
Foundations of Science · 2016 · Crossref
Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry
Philosophical Psychology · 2020 · Crossref
It’s a High-IQ Match! in advance
Social Theory and Practice · 2026 · Crossref
Genome-wide association meta-analysis in 269,867 individuals identifies new genetic and functional links to intelligence
Nature Genetics · 2018 · Crossref
Genomic prediction of cognitive traits in childhood and adolescence
Molecular Psychiatry · 2019 · Crossref
And 45 more candidates considered.