of the authors of The Bell Curve rests on four unsupported, and mostly false, assumptions about intelligence: Intelligence must be reducible to a single number. Intelligence must be capable of rank ordering people in a linear order. Intelligence must be primarily genetically based. Intelligence must be essentially immutable. In a 1995 interview with Frank Miele of Skeptic, Murray denied making each of these four assumptions. Criticism by James Heckman The Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist James Heckman considers two assumptions made in the book to be questionable: that g accounts for correlation across test scores and performance in society, and that g cannot be manipulated. Heckman's reanalysis of the evidence used in The Bell Curve found contradictions: The factors that explain wages receive different weights than the factors that explain test scores. More than g is required to explain either. Other factors besides g contribute to social performance, and they can be manipulated. In response, Murray argued that this was a straw man and that the book does not argue that g or IQ are totally immutable or the only factors affecting outcomes. In a 2005 interview, Heckman praised The Bell Curve for breaking "a taboo by showing that differences in ability existed and predicted a variety of socioeconomic outcomes" and for playing "a very important role in raising the issue of differences in ability and their importance" and stated that he was "a bigger fan of [The Bell Curve] than you might think." However, he also maintained that Herrnstein and Murray overestimated the role of heredity in determining intelligence differences. Criticism by Noam Chomsky In 1995, Noam Chomsky criticized the book and its assumptions on IQ. He takes issue with the idea that IQ is 60% heritable, arguing that the "statement is meaningless" because heritability does not have to be genetic. Chomsky gives the example of women wearing earrings: He goes on to say there is almost no evidence of a genetic link, and greater evidence that environmental issues are what determine IQ differences. Criticism by Ned Block Philosopher Ned Block argues that The Bell Curve misleads about intelligence as it conflates genetic determination with heritability. Genetic determination and heritability are not interchangeable as there are traits that are genetically determined but not heritable, and vice versa. For example, the number of fingers on a human hand are genetically determined as genes code for five fingers in nearly everybody. However,