Self-interest in preserving hierarchy drove belief in eugenics over evidence.

Evidence

It did not matter that people did not change after blood transfusions. Nor did it matter that eugenicists never uncovered any evidence proving that heredity shaped behavior. The eugenics movement created believers, not evidence. Americans wanted to believe that the racial, ethnic, class, and gender hierarchies in the United States were natural and normal. They wanted to believe that they were passing their traits on to their children. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 793

Categorization

• QUESTION: Kendi frames eugenics as created believers not evidence — is this fully compatible with the idea-first reading of eugenics as a scientific program, or does eugenics itself resist the inversion?
• SEED: An essay contrasting modern pseudo-science with eugenics: both create believers before evidence, or does eugenics differ in having genuine (if flawed) scientific ambition?