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.
Back around 2000, I had retired from the military and moved to mil-contractor work. I sat in a IT room....four young female airmen and one day...the subject of SSRIs came up (Prozac is among the group in SSRIs).
All four were prescribed SSRIs in high school and the Air Force was continuing their prescription. All four had concentration issues...limited ability to make rational decisions...lousy sleep hours...anxiety issues. I simply asked...how many associates in high school were getting same drugs (they figured one-third of their friends).
My only suspicion today...if you had one-third of high school kids looped-up like this, then they can’t concentrate or perform routine testing. The system has lessened the tests, and they progressed on through college with the same problems, and the college lessening what they teach.
In the end, you are surrounded by dummies (even doctors) who can’t perform at the level required. Reminds me of that movie ‘Idiocracy’ (2008).
Because learning has been deemed racist by schools?
Subsidizing the birth of low IQ domestically, importing low IQ immigrants. It started the decade we started doing these two things.
“ Subsidizing the birth of low IQ domestically, importing low IQ immigrants. It started the decade we started doing these two things.”
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1965, IMHO. Thank you Ted Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson with support of many others.
Now we are a “Seinfeld” Country, a country about nothing.
It was Zbigniew Brzezinski who said (sometime in the 90s, IIRC) that America has to sit down and ask itself what its purpose is.
IQ average 100 and dropping?
100 seems very low
NEA yes
the dumbing down of America
nutrition is so important to young brains - in the womb and up to 25 years old
we need the meat and fat
also, people used to eat more home cooking and much less processed food
I don’t mind participation trophies for very young children just learning a sport. It acknowledges their effort and teamwork. Should not be given after age six
they are not even expected to learn cursive
it goes downhill from there
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS and BAD PARENTS!
geebus, seeing that color over all of Africa is disturbing.
AVERAGE 50 to 60 IQ...??? That is dangerously stupid.
That means half of them were LESS than that. (yes I know not exactly correct, but close... and lets not get distracted into a discussion of who took statistics in college)
1. Importing retards by the millions does
to IQs what printing money by the trillions does to the value of a dollar.
2. Societal Aversion to things that are difficult. Why think when you can get an answer from google or wikipedia?
3. Rejection of Western Civilization and its pillars of truth, knowledge, and freedom of thought because “its white”
4. For the most part, “The Masses” want to be led. If led in the wrong direction and not encouraged to do hard things, they wont.
5. Socialism. Its easy. We have more socialism than ever, and we are collectively dumber for it.
6. Independent thought, individualism. We have less of it than ever, and we are collectively dumber for it.
7. Hurt feelings. We have more of that than ever, and are dumber than ever for it.
8. Just wait to see what things like ChatGPT do to the average IQ. You used to be able to tell how smart someone was by reading things they produce. It is difficult to mask stupid with the written word by your own hand. This will be harder as “learning” means interfacing with ChatGPT.
The good news?
You cant stifle true intellect and thirst for knowledge. You cant corral a free spirit. So no matter what, a portion of the masses will rise and create wonderful and beautiful things. They will be unappreciated by a growing majority, but these individuals will press on anyway.
Starvation, grinding poverty will further cure some from always taking the “easy way”.
Renewal of the religious. Not the pedophile/sexual deviant “religion”, but by those truly inspired by God. Thats the heaviest lift, Im afraid.
Deviance has become the norm. We gotta lose that.
There are other IQ maps. This one the worse. Having said that, all of the IQ maps show the same differential.
Because of WOKE
With Out Kompetent Education
There is solid evidence that a childhood diet with sufficient animal fat is essential to optimal brain development. A kid raised on a totally vegan diet will have a malnourished brain. iDK how many there are, but they won’t be neurologically robust.
Maybe not dumber but more political. One of the major subtests of the adult IQ test is judgment— the ability make adaptive interpretations of information. I haven’t seen a recent revision of the IQ test because I don’t use them anymore, but I would not be surprised to see that moral ambiguity,
relativism and “nonjudgmentalism” have crept into the scoring.
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