Richard Lynn graduated in Psychology and took his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. He has been lecturer in Psychology at the University of Exeter, professor of Psychology at the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, and professor and head of the department of Psychology at the University of Ulster.

Currently he is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland. His main work has been on intelligence and personality.

His books include Personality and National Character (1972), Dimensions of Personality (1980), Educational Achievement in Japan (1988), Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations (1996), Eugenics: A Reassessment (2001), (co-author) IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002), Race Differences in Intelligence (2006), and (co-author) IQ and Global Inequality (2006).

He has received awards including the Passingham Prize at Cambridge University for the best Psychology student of the year and the US Mensa Awards for Excellence in 1985, 1993, and 2007 for work on intelligence.

Richard Lynn's new book shows that in many multi-racial countries, people of Jewish and East Asian ancestry average highest in IQ and socio-economic position, Whites next highest, South Asians and Hispanics next highest, and people of African descent consistently average at lower levels. Lynn argues that the average population group differences in socio-economic position (education levels, earnings, welfare dependency) are due to their average differences in intelligence. Since these differences also translate into fertility patterns, with the lowest IQ populations having more children, the specter of a dysgenic future is raised. Altogether the issues are discussed separately across 13 countries or areas of the world: the United States, Africa, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Latin America, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.