Departures of note

Cyril Burt was an English educational psychologist whose research on the heritability of intelligence shaped British educational policy, including the development of the 11-plus examinations. After his death in 1971, his twin studies were discredited when evidence emerged indicating he had fabricated data, inventing correlations in separated twins that did not exist. The allegations, which became a major scandal in psychology, centred on his published figures for the IQ correlation of identical twins raised apart, which appeared too consistent and too convenient to be genuine.

Burt was born in London in 1883, the son of a medical practitioner who later moved the family to Warwickshire. As a boy he met Francis Galton through a family connection, and Galton's ideas on statistics and individual differences shaped his later work. He studied classics and psychology at Jesus College, Oxford, under William McDougall, then worked with Charles Spearman and Karl Pearson on psychological testing and eugenics. In 1908 he took a lectureship at Liverpool University, and in 1913 became a school psychologist for the London County Council, where he was responsible for identifying children deemed 'feeble-minded' under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913. He also helped establish child guidance in Britain; his 1925 book The Young Delinquent contributed to the opening of the London Child Guidance Clinic in 1927. In 1931 he became professor of psychology at University College London, succeeding Spearman, and later served as president of the British Psychological Society (1942). In 1946 he became the first British psychologist to be knighted. He was made honorary president of Mensa in 1960 after suggesting on radio in 1946 the formation of an organization for people with high IQ scores, and he officially joined Mensa soon thereafter. He retired in 1951 but continued writing. He died of cancer in London on 10 October 1971, aged 88. Shortly after his death, his twin studies on the heritability of intelligence were discredited when evidence emerged indicating he had falsified research data, inventing correlations in separated twins which did not exist, alongside other fabrications.

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