The Victorians Were Probably Smarter Than People Today

Science Direct ^ | 2013 | Michael A. Woodley, Jan te Nijenhuis, Raegan Murphy

[marktwain]

Abstract

The Victorian era was marked by an explosion of innovation and genius, per capita rates of which appear to have declined subsequently. The presence of dysgenic fertility for IQ amongst Western nations, starting in the 19th century, suggests that these trends might be related to declining IQ. This is because high-IQ people are more productive and more creative. We tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were cleverer than modern populations, using high-quality instruments, namely measures of simple visual reaction time in a meta-analytic study. Simple reaction time measures correlate substantially with measures of general intelligence (g) and are considered elementary measures of cognition. In this study we used the data on the secular slowing of simple reaction time described in a meta-analysis of 14 age-matched studies from Western countries conducted between 1889 and 2004 to estimate the decline in g that may have resulted from the presence of dysgenic fertility. Using psychometric meta-analysis we computed the true correlation between simple reaction time and g, yielding a decline of − 1.16 IQ points per decade or − 13.35 IQ points since Victorian times. These findings strongly indicate that with respect to g the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations.

[BeauBo]

They attribute this to “dysgenic fertility” - which means more reproduction by those with inferior genetics, which is creepy.

[jumpingcholla34]

I agree with your analysis about importing folks from a low-IQ region into a high-IQ region.

Also, immigration advocates often say we get the more competent people from the sending countries, which benefits the U.S. If we assume this is true (and for many sending countries, it obviously is not), what's the result if we import the brighter fraction of a country with an average IQ of 75? (Unfortunately, there are such countries.) We're still getting people with a lower average IQ than our own native population. Getting these people lowers our country's average IQ, while losing these people lowers the sending country's average IQ. Quite the lose-lose proposition.

Also, I admit that IQ isn't everything, but it's a rough proxy for lots of behavioral qualities that an advanced nation needs.

[marktwain]

They attribute this to “dysgenic fertility” - which means more reproduction by those with inferior genetics, which is creepy.

Just because it has become politically incorrect to talk about it does not mean that it is false.

[fuzzylogic]

...and yet that might be the very reason they were smarter !?!?!

[Campion]

The “explosion of innovation and genius” in the Victorian era probably had more to do with science finally reaching critical mass shortly before that time. I’d point especially to the Maxwell equations of electromagnetism, published in the 1860-61 timeframe.

[Chickensoup]

We are killing off a lot a good people now in the past 20 years through constant war.

[Gritty]

Now, if you've imported enough people from Region B into Region A, wouldn't it make sense that the average IQ in Region A is going to decline?

Great point!

Here are some embarrassing graphs...

... and here is an embarrassing list...

National IQ Scores by Country

[Terry L Smith]

Ponder then why are there a growing number of folks that have taken up ‘steampunk’ as a hobby, an emulation, and an admiration for creative inventions that came forth from that period of time.

I submit the following as example:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=steampunk+computer&view=detailv2&qpvt=steampunk+computer&id=758A289DBED0109C1E3A56A259AD2ECC8C110A77&selectedIndex=24&ccid=HQSeXmHR&simid=607993926273860865&thid=OIP.M1d049e5e61d15b1b4e2817cfc1f93809o0&ajaxhist=0

[nomad]

Yeah, I highly recommend it, ranks among the funniest movies ever.

[marktwain]

Here is the link to the National IQ rankings

http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html

Highest Singapore 108 Next highest South Korea 106

U.S. 98 ninth place, tied with 8 other countries

Lowest Equatorial Guinea 59 Next lowest Saint Lucia 62

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Yeah, and throw batting averages in there and Asians would rule the world.

[antidisestablishment]

Muslim-majority countries prove this principle:

Afghanistan	84
Albania	90
Algeria	83
Azerbaijan	87
Bahrain	83
Bangladesh	82
Brunei	91
Burkina Faso	68
Chad	68
Comoros	77
Djibouti	68
Egypt	81
Guinea	67
Indonesia	87
Iran	84
Iraq	87
Jordan	84
Kazakhstan	94
Kuwait	86
Kyrgyzstan	90
Lebanon	82
Libya	83
Malaysia	92
Maldives	81
Mali	74
Mauritania	89
Morocco	84
Niger	69
Nigeria	84
Oman	83
Pakistan	84
Qatar	78
Saudi Arabia	84
Senegal	76
Sierra Leone	91
Somalia	68
Sudan	71
Syria	83
Tajikistan	87
The Gambia	66
Tunisia	83
Turkey	90
Turkmenistan	87
United Arab Emirates	84
Uzbekistan	86
Yemen	85
AVERAGE:	82

[TalonDJ]

Is it not true? Morons with no jobs are cranking out babies because we subsidize them. Meanwhile the affluent and intelligent. are having fewer and fewer kids.

[Chickensoup]

I wonder what the rankings were 50 years ago.

[Wallace T.]

There are some interesting numbers here. Argentina has a national average IQ of 93. The population is overwhelmingly of Italian (102) and Spanish (98) ancestry. Why does Lithuania (91) lag so far behind its neighbors Latvia (98), Estonia (99) and Poland (99)? Ashkenazi Jews average about 115 IQ, yet Israel as a whole has a national average IQ of 95. At an average national IQ of 92, Ireland lags well behind the rest of northern and western Europe, which averages around 100. So genetics is not the only factor in IQ. However, it appears that genetics predominate. Northeast Asians are the most intelligent, followed by western and northern Europe and nations mostly settled from there (Canada, Australia, United States), eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, mestizo countries of Latin America, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.

The old school anthropologists, mostly scorned by modern academia and lacking any knowledge of DNA, were more right than wrong on racial differences.

[gattaca]

bmp