Inheritance and inequality

In his analysis of the attainment gap in higher education, Dave Thomas rightly argues that the precursors of inequality such as “poor housing, job insecurity and social exclusion” must be mollified (“Inequality in attainment”, Letters, 18 June). Nevertheless, he totally ignores the factors of intelligence and genetics that, in their interaction with the environment, might conceivably exert an influence upon this vexed question of group differences.

R. E. Rawles
Honorary research fellow in psychology
University College London