Science Investigation Ideas

UK College Lecturer Under Fire for Blog Post Calling Black Women Ugly

As an investigation by the London School of Economics continues into a blog posting by one of its lecturers who questioned why black women are "less physically attractive" than other women, a growing number of critics are calling for his ouster.

In a blog posting Sunday that was removed from Psychology Today, Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, a lecturer in the London School of Economic's management department, wrote that black women were rated to be less attractive than women of other races on average, although black men were not rated less attractive than men of other races.

"The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone," Kanazawa wrote, according to cached versions of the posting. "The race differences in the level of testosterone can therefore potentially explain why black women are less physically attractive than women of other races, while (net of intelligence) black men are more physically attractive than men of other races."

Kanazawa could not be reached for comment Thursday by FoxNews.com, but officials at the London School of Economic confirmed an investigation into the matter is ongoing.

"The views expressed by this academic are his own and do not in any way represent those of LSE as an institution," the school said in a statement to FoxNews.com. "The important principle of academic freedom means that authors have the right to publish their views – but it also means the freedom to disagree. We are conducting internal investigations into this matter."

Messages seeking comment from Psychology Today were not immediately returned, but in an email to NPR, Kaja Perina, the publication's editor-in-chief, seemingly distanced herself from the growing controversy.

"Our bloggers are credential[ed] social scientists and for this reason they are invited to post to the site on topics of their choosing," Perina wrote. "We in turn reserve the right to remove posts for any number of reasons. Because the post was not commissioned or solicited by PT (in contrast to a magazine article), there was no editorial intent to address questions of race and physical attractiveness."

Perina, NPR noted, did not address why the magazine's site had not acknowledged the removal or explain why it had done so.

Meanwhile, a number of prominent psychologists, columnists and authors continue to blast Kanazawa, whom one critic described as the " Rush Limbaugh " of evolutionary psychology.

Anita Loughrey's Blog: 100+ Fun Ideas for Science Investigations

My employment background has been largely within primary education, where I was a teacher since 1988. I became a full-time freelance writer in 2002, after the birth of my third child. Now I mainly write teacher resources for primary school and illustrated children's non-fiction but, have also published short stories in women's magazines and articles in my local newspaper. I have a regular column in Writer's Forum about authors and their research and have been published in some county magazines. I am a member of the Society of Authors, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Network for Information Book Writers and Editors (NIBWEB) and the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE). I am also a member of the History Association (HA). For more information about me check out my website: www.anitaloughrey.

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