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Why are IQs dropping in the USA?
Hotair ^ | 04/10/2023 | David Strom

Posted on 04/10/2023 9:13:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

For decades IQs were climbing in the Western World. It was called the “Flynn effect.”

Average IQs were defined as 100 in each succeeding iteration of the IQ test, as by definition the average was normed to 100. But if you rescored earlier IQ tests based upon prior norms, the average IQ would have increased by about 15 points or one standard deviation.

In other words, if you took an IQ test in 1942 and scored 100, by today’s scoring you would have an IQ of 86.

That is, until the past 10 or so years. In the past 10 years, IQs have been dropping, and dropping pretty fast. And nobody is quite sure why. It is labeled the “Reverse Flynn Effect.”

There is lively debate about what exactly the Flynn effect and now the Reverse Flynn effect exactly mean. It could be something as simple as differences in education or education styles or something physical such as the effects of nutrition, as diets change over time. There could have been something that stimulated logic and reading abilities in the past and that no longer exists, or something else.

But the fact is that improvements in IQ over time are being erased.

Americans’ IQ scores are trending in a downward direction. In fact, they’ve been falling for over a decade.

According to a press release, in studying intelligence testing data from 2006 to 2018, Northwestern University researchers noticed that test scores in three out of four “cognitive domains” were going down. This is the first time we’ve seen a consistent negative slope for these testing categories, providing tangible evidence of what is known as the “Reverse Flynn Effect.”

In a 1984 study, James Flynn noticed that intelligence test scores had steadily increased since the early 1930s. We call that steady rise the Flynn Effect. Considering that overall intelligence seemed to be increasing faster than could be explained by evolution, the reason increase became a source of debate, with many attributing the change to various environmental factors.

One interesting clue is the fact that of the 4 domains of intelligence measured only 3 of the four have gone down, while the 4th–spacial reasoning–continued to rise.

Almost sounds like playing video games a lot dumbs down the verbal and logic abilities while increasing spatial reasoning. That is my favorite explanation.

Schools, too, have stopped emphasizing logic and reading and gone deep into ideological propaganda. The simplest conversation with a newly graduated student reveals their utter inability to reason coherently on almost any matter or use the English language as a sophisticated communication tool.

Hence the inability to define simple terms such as sex, or answer the question “what is a woman.”

We know that exposure to sophisticated concepts and reading matter a lot, particularly at the early stages of brain development. With the reduced emphasis on reading and logic skills and the enhanced ability to consume endless amounts of simple content–usually in very small bites–it wouldn’t be surprising to see the ability of younger people to exercise more sophisticated abilities.

Of course, this is speculation on my part.

Dworak, a research assistant professor at Northwestern University and one of the authors on the study, is very clear that these results don’t necessarily mean Americans are getting less intelligent. “It doesn’t mean their mental ability is lower or higher; it’s just a difference in scores that are favoring older or newer samples,” she said in a press release. “It could just be that they’re getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests.”

And, it should be said, there has long been debate over how accurately IQ tests are able to gauge overall intelligence and potential for success in society in the first place.

Regardless, scores are falling, and there’s got to be a reason for the decline. Dworak says it might have something to do with “a shift in perceived values in society.” She offers up the potential explanation that an increase in focus on STEM education may have allowed other areas, like abstract reasoning, to fall by the wayside.

I don’t buy that society is becoming more focused on STEM. We talk a lot about it, but STEM scores are pretty dismal in the schools, and STEM itself is becoming ideological.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you sliced and diced the population in order to tease out some more sophisticated correlations. Race, income, type of school, hours on the Internet, content consumption habits, parenting styles.

I suspect we could learn a lot. And given the size of the data sample, I suspect that the studies could easily be done, or even have been done and the results not widely distributed for political reasons.

But again, that latter is just speculation. It may be that the variables simply weren’t recorded.

In any case, the fact remains: something bad is going on here. I think we have all seen the effects in our personal experiences, and now the anecdotal impressions have data to back them up.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: curriculum; intelligence; iq; learning; teaching
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To: TigersEye

Inadequate dietary protein ( = vegetarian & veganism )


21 posted on 04/10/2023 9:32:47 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: SeekAndFind
Import the 3rd world, become the 3rd world. We had an immigration policy that filtered for the best of immigrants until 1964. Ted Kennedy pushed through the Hart-Celler Act unleashing the current mess we have today. The influx has been lower IQ, lower skilled. The "reverse effect" on average IQ isn't that hard to understand.
22 posted on 04/10/2023 9:33:30 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: lgjhn23

Combine the lack of education in substantive subjects with the irrational and illogical ideology of leftism and it’s a wonder all of the kids aren’t complete zombies.


23 posted on 04/10/2023 9:34:18 PM PDT by TigersEye (Woke is a cancer of the mind and humanity)
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To: SeekAndFind

Massive immigration.


24 posted on 04/10/2023 9:34:57 PM PDT by SACK UP
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To: SeekAndFind

So a moron of today is a genius compared to a Depression era moron?
That professor of IQ tests has all kinds of reasons to disregard the results of the research.
I think they are scared that rioting and a closer look by the Eff Bee Eye would happen if they released the real findings.


25 posted on 04/10/2023 9:36:19 PM PDT by Honest Nigerian (.)
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To: Paal Gulli

It might be useful is someone did a comparative study on IQs between children raised in meat-eating homes and those raised in vegan/vegetarian homes.


26 posted on 04/10/2023 9:37:12 PM PDT by TigersEye (Woke is a cancer of the mind and humanity)
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To: lizma2
It is more then that.

Most people's first contact with the printed word is through pulling books off the shelf and looking at them.

You can not do that with an e-book. If your home does not have real books in it, a lot of real books, your kids will not become readers. If you do not read, and read a large variety of books, you are reducing your ability to think.

People think e-books are the same thing. They are not. I can pick out the kids in my Sunday School class who have real books in the home and those who don't. And frankly the blue light is not good for adults or children.

But, what do I know.

27 posted on 04/10/2023 9:37:43 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Follow the money. Even if it leads you to someplace horrible it will still lead you to the truth.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Parents no longer read to their children. Nor do they value education


28 posted on 04/10/2023 9:38:15 PM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: SeekAndFind

Climate change.


29 posted on 04/10/2023 9:39:47 PM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: rktman

Indeed


30 posted on 04/10/2023 9:39:51 PM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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>> “It could just be that they’re getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests.”

Possibly. Or maybe a shift in the demographic.

Presented with an IQ challenge, the intelligent folks will no doubt desire to prove their aptitude. The general decline in education will likely hamstring the rest for various reasons including the sense of futility.

Both patriotism and aparant IQ on the decline — imagine that.


31 posted on 04/10/2023 9:39:58 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: SeekAndFind

When everything is push-button and you don’t have to think about anything or use your brain, your IQ is going to drop.


32 posted on 04/10/2023 9:41:17 PM PDT by Jonty30 (How is grinning and bearing something a bad thing? They are grinning.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The root cause is that liberals are allowed to breed.


33 posted on 04/10/2023 9:42:12 PM PDT by Revolutionary ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!")
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To: TigersEye

After the end of the Cold War, this country lost its sense of purpose.

Now we are a “Seinfeld” Country, a country about nothing.


34 posted on 04/10/2023 9:42:38 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: TigersEye

The purpose of an education should be to develop a good “BS Meter”.

Now the purpose is to create a race of dumbed-down automotons, who will do what they are told.


35 posted on 04/10/2023 9:44:40 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

I hadn’t thought about it like that but you’re right.

America isn’t sponge-worthy anymore!


36 posted on 04/10/2023 9:46:15 PM PDT by TigersEye (Woke is a cancer of the mind and humanity)
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To: SeekAndFind

The author wrote an article in the first person...in denial, and can’t see the forest through the trees.

LOL


37 posted on 04/10/2023 9:46:19 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: SeekAndFind

The following is from Wikipedia, “Citing a high correlation between rising literacy rates and gains in IQ, David Marks has argued that the Flynn effect is caused by changes in literacy rates.[43]”. If there is anything to that, the inverse would be true. I tend to think IQ is mostly a function of genetics and health. But I think there is room for environmental and social elements that affect IQ. Is it possible that education in America is so poor that the number of illiterates have increased enough to move the average IQ score?


38 posted on 04/10/2023 9:46:23 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." )
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To: SeekAndFind

Radical Urbanization, Globalism, Feminist Supremacy, and a variety of negative or nihilistic ideologies are my scapegoats.

I’m open to other suggestions because topics like this have a lot of variables, variables that are built into our human nature, upbringing, the information we accepted as truth, our biases, etc.


39 posted on 04/10/2023 9:46:53 PM PDT by unclebankster ( Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.)
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To: dfwgator

You’re probably right about that too.
I got my “BS Meter” from my dad mostly but these days too many kids don’t have a dad.


40 posted on 04/10/2023 9:48:43 PM PDT by TigersEye (Woke is a cancer of the mind and humanity)
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