Francis Galton used measurement of family resemblance to develop ideas that became central to regression and correlation. In his stature study, he grouped offspring heights by adjusted parental height and found that average offspring deviations were smaller than parental deviations. The Galton's stature regression article reconstructs his grouped data and the approximately two-thirds slope. This is a motivating example of regression toward the mean, rather than a law that every child must be closer to the population mean.[ref]
Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature by Francis Galton. 1886, printed pp. 247–248 and Plate IX(a), grouped family-height data and regression
His statistical programme was also bound up with advocacy of eugenics. UCL's institutional history documents the racial and social hierarchies behind that programme and the endowment that helped establish its early statistics department. That history belongs alongside his mathematical contributions.[ref]
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical-physical-sciences/statistics/about-us/our-history. UCL Statistical Science, Our History, Francis Galton and the early department
Portrait of Francis Galton
. Unknown photographer; Wellcome Library, London (institutional credit). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
Francis Galton (1822–1911) was an English polymath, best known for his contributions to various fields including statistics, psychology, anthropology, and genetics. He was a relative of Charles Darwin and was influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution. Galton is particularly recognized for: 1. **Eugenics**: He is often regarded as the founder of the eugenics movement, promoting the idea of improving human populations through controlled breeding for desirable inherited traits.
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