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.
Because our public schools suck. TPTB prefer the kids to be dumb and dependent so they can be controlled.
United Seinfeld of America? 🤔
Zackly Even the teachers are a lot dumber that I remember
Open borders mainly same reason height has also fallen
Some other factors too
Schools not as good etc
I wonder if there’s room to speculate that the designers of IQ tests might be getting dumber? :)
So things WILL get better?
We’re better at basketball now
I agree 100%. There are many kids I run across, including my own, who are smart, articulate, hard working, and care. There is a huge disparity between them and their peers. My kids regularly complain about how “stupid” the other kids are. Constantly on Tik-tok and other social media. Caring about what celebritards and athletes say and think. Worried about offending the “protected” classes; all that. Just stupid kids beyond what is a normally stupid kid.
I am positively convinced that children raised by a 2-parent household that care about their children are far, far ahead of their peers. It’s almost night and day.
Bookmark
Dumbasses breeding with other dumbasses. Paid for by your tax dollars.
Among the whole population, or just congress?
OOOOH OOOOOH...I KNOW!!!
Climate Change
Too many electronic devices eliminate the need for much problem-solving. Hence, that primal ability never gets developed. Why invent something when you can use a canned solution? Also, things like cell phones take up WAY too much of kids’ time, when they should be out exploring nature and puttering around with things.
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.
***********
The dumbed-down theory has been around awhile. The theory used to be industrial capitalists were educating the working class for labor in industry.
Now we now live in a world of highly educated people from all over the globe, who work in private and public corporate bureaucracies, but the dumbed-down automotons still exist.
They just have a plethora of credentials and are into whatever “Great Woke Crusade” that moves to the forefront.
No one has mentioned the rise of the internet. TikTok, on demand content streaming, and the like is sucking the intellect from an entire generation of youth. Book reading is in serious decline.
Low IQ is caused by lack of fathers in some homes. Sad.
It’s all about the turn towards mediocrity in the education system, and how people depending on computers to do a lot of what people used to use their brains for. But, the social media and gaming online means that kids and adults have their brains engaged on a lot o things that have not much to do with learning and using their brains.
But, a lot of it is about how educators and governments don’t want people to be ‘smart’, since smart people tend to be take care of themselves and less dependent on government. Big government needs dumb and uneducated people.
No. We’ve changed basketball to accommodate lower IQ players…
Yep. You’re echoing things I said in post #14.
Electronic media is not real life and in spite of appearances, is not as complicated. It doesn’t challenge the mind in deep or expansive ways.
As for leftism, critical thinking is anathema to the agenda.
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