Slobodian reminds us that "The Bell Curve did not mean 'cognitive elite' as a compliment. In later books Murray would [...] pointedly criticize the cognitive elite for their literal and figurative aloofness from the rest of the population. But the moral charge was always ambiguous. The authors were themselves part of this elite. Both Herrnstein and Murray attended Harvard and lived in centers of wealth and privilege, greater Boston and greater Washington. DC. Wasn't membership in a cognitive elite being presented as an aspiration?"
He notes that eventually "the critical term 'cognitive elite' became a self-congratualtory one" (172)