IQ has been going down since 1975. Now each successive generation is stupider than the one preceding it by 7 points. That means young zoomers will average like a 90 IQ which is at the level of a juvenile delinquent. They aren’t sure what’s causing it but some suspect maybe dietary factors are involved.
Knowing stuff is racist.
1.) Diet seems to be a primary factor in Flynn effect. That however is speculation, but logically make sense as there are multiple benefits of improved health and human function.
2.) IQ is not related to education or environment. Proof: if it was, there would be multiple businesses with products/programs to increase IQ, and their products would work. Those that have done this have failed. Things like playing Mozart for new borns and young children has been proven a sham. Head Start was initially intended to increase IQ. They tried many different education programs, methods and techniques. They all failed. In fact, any advantages children gained in reading and math by starting earlier than other students was lost by 5th grade. So not only was knowledge and skill not retained, intelligence wasn’t increased. We’re still wasting money on Head Start.
3.) The article states “ IQ tests haven't adapted to accurately quantify an estimate of modern people's intelligence – favouring forms of formally taught reasoning that may be less emphasised in contemporary” That is not possible considering how IQ tests work. I’ll avoid a dissertation on that since it is easy to look up.
4.)The 7 point decline per generation claim doesn’t ring true. Take two generations since ‘75 and you have a 14 point decline. That means a score previously being slightly below the mean IQ is now approaching a score of 83. (I’ll explain the importance of that number shortly.) The mean is 100. Slightly below is 97; most people would not be able to differentiate that from the mean, just as 103 is indistinguishable. Take 14 pts away from 97 and you get to 83. That’s the magic number for dysfunction. There are very few jobs a person can do with an IQ 83 and below. The US Military won’t even take this low of an IQ and has been consistent about that since WWI. 84 or 85 and the person is real slow, but gains entry to the military. The point here being, a swing of 14 points is huge. Approximately 10% of the population have IQ’s at 83 and below. It has been consistent in research for a long time because it is so problematic. Working harder and learning doesn’t not fix it.
5.) People should realize there’s a lot of intelligence research that has and continues to be repeated in the media even though it has been subsequently proven to lack all merit. A prime example is the notion that there are different types of intelligence, e.g., creative intelligence and sports intelligence. That’s complete BS. I suspect that the research in this article isn’t widely peer reviewed and replicated and the journalist writing about the research lacks the cognitive ability to understand the research. It could be misinterpreted. Journalists, by the way, typically have average IQs.
Sorry for being long winded, I find this fairly interesting to learn about and to discuss.
As for the kids in this video, they are just poorly educated. I’m not saying there is a genius among them. There’s a high probability they are quite average given the way statistics work. Although, considering the race most of the kids, they are probably less intelligent than average. There is a huge amount of peer reviewed research that repeatedly place Asians higher than whites and whites above blacks. Even so, the questions involved have only to do recalling facts without reasoning. That’s definitely in reach of someone with slightly below average intelligence.
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed this writing exercise.