Intelligence Expected To Decline In Higher IQ And Rise In Lower IQ People

haidut

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While the study is observational, it is important because it shows that IQ score is very malleable and depends on the environment more than anything else. I think Ray said in one of his interviews that he thinks the population of Western countries is getting progressively dumber, and he attributed it to poor diet and a system which favors learned helplessness. I have also seen charts showing that SAT scores (which was designed based on an IQ test) have declined steadily over the last 3o years. Well, according to this study the bad trend is likely to continue except for the people at the bottom of the IQ range, whose scores are expected to rise.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916310984
"...Experts on intelligence, cognitive ability and student achievement were surveyed for their opinions on the causes of the 20th century rise in intelligence test results called the “FLynn effect”, on the causes of a possible end of the FLynn effect and on the future development of IQ in different world regions. Ratings from N = 75 experts attributed the secular IQ rise to better health and nutrition, more and better education and rising standards of living. Genetic changes were seen as not important. A possible stagnation or retrograde of the FLynn effect was attributed to asymmetric fertility (genetic and socialization effects), migration, declines in education and the influence of media. Experts expected 21st century IQ increases in currently on average low-ability regions (+ 6 to + 7 IQ points, in Latin America, Africa, India) and in East Asia (+ 7 IQ), but not in the West (a stagnation, below + 1 IQ), with a small decline in the US (− 0.45 IQ). Similar results were obtained for all experts and experts on the FLynn effect itself (mean r = 0.90 to 0.97; N = 17). The results correlated strongly with and confirmed a recent meta-analysis on the causes of the FLynn effect (r = 0.65 to 0.71; Pietschnig & Voracek, 2015)."
 

Constatine

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Imagine the state of generations 30 years from now. A generation of Forest Gumps. Many claim that this effect is due to "unavoidable genetic changes" (scientist version of learned helplessness). They believe a decreasing IQ to be a natural part of human evolution, as if it were pre-written in our DNA. It seems our scientists are a perfect example of this IQ drop.
 

zztr

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SAT scores (which was designed based on an IQ test) have declined steadily over the last 3o years.

That's just way more people taking the test and demographic changes from mass immigration.

What the data actually show is demographics completely dominate socio-economic factors in the score trends. The poorest whites, often in legitimately stressful poverty for generations, outscore the children of other groups in the top income bracket.
 
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mujuro

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It's funny you should mention SAT scores. I just finished watching this video. I've skipped to the relevant part.

 

DaveFoster

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If you acknowledge this is true, then you must also question any positive associations you have for the fastest-growing political ideologies in the West.

The reasoning for this is as follows, and it's difficult for a proof: If population intelligence declines, but environmental complexity increases, can we compare the present political system to previous systems with regards to its appropriate functionality?

If you think the current trends among the younger generation is generative, then you must reconcile this with the declining intelligence.

Also, it's necessary to acknowledge total IQ. East Asians have high IQ's relative to the other parts of the world.
 
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Drareg

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If you acknowledge this is true, then you must also question any positive associations you have for the fastest-growing political ideologies in the West.

The reasoning for this is as follows, and it's difficult for a proof: If population intelligence declines, but environmental complexity increases, can we compare the present political system to previous systems with regards to its appropriate functionality?

If you think the current trends among the younger generation is generative, then you must reconcile this with the declining intelligence.

Also, it's necessary to acknowledge total IQ. East Asians have high IQ's relative to the other parts of the world.

Where do see enviromental complexity increasing Dave?
 

Drareg

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It could also be people who score higher start to realise IQ tests are not a good measure of intelligence overall by their own experience,they stop caring.
The people with low IQs don't have this experience and are determined to get over the social stigma and try harder,you can practice for these tests now,in the past that was a touch more difficult to do.
 

lvysaur

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If population intelligence declines, but environmental complexity increases

Paleolithic people had larger heads than neolithic or modern people (and smaller bodies than modern people as well). Cranial capacity:body mass ratio may be correlated with IQ. I strongly suspect that it's correlated with spatial IQ, but not with verbal, mathematical, logical skills.

If true, it means all of human history is a dumbing down of humans and a smarting up of societies.
 

Queequeg

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Immigration is a big part of it but I would bet that IQs within each race are dropping as well. This is most likely due to increased environmental toxins primarily lead and pesticides. I am sure xenoestrogens, GMOs and EMFs aren't helping either. I read a while back that there were fewer and fewer super geniuses being found in China because so many people had moved to the polluted cities and a pure environment is needed for a super genius to develop.
 

lvysaur

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It could also be people who score higher start to realise IQ tests are not a good measure of intelligence overall by their own experience,they stop caring.

I think that people who are excessively stimulated probably find it harder to focus on IQ tests. I remember reading an article about IQ testing where it said that a lot of people who scored low simply stopped doing the test midway. There's also the correlation between IQ and the ability to delay gratification.

I think some portion of IQ measurement is an artifact of people not caring about an arbitrary test given to them. I suspect that many with IQs in the 140+ range are just people who tried harder than those in the 120-130 range.

It would explain very smart people like Feynman, who tested at an IQ of 120 or so. If you don't try hard on IQ tests (because you know it doesn't mean anything), but you try hard at other stuff, you do well.
 
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Queequeg

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I think that people who are excessively stimulated probably find it harder to focus on IQ tests. I remember reading an article about IQ testing where it said that a lot of people who scored low simply stopped doing the test midway. There's also the correlation between IQ and the ability to delay gratification.

I think some portion of IQ measurement is an artifact of people not caring about an arbitrary test given to them. I suspect that many with IQs in the 140+ range are just people who tried harder than those in the 120-130 range.

It would explain very smart people like Feynman, who tested at an IQ of 120 or so. If you don't try hard on IQ tests (because you know it doesn't mean anything), but you try hard at other stuff, you do well.
Increased use of smartphones, computers and TV has certainly played a role in lowering the ability to focus on anything for more than 2 minutes.
 

lvysaur

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Increased use of smartphones, computers and TV has certainly played a role in lowering the ability to focus on anything for more than 2 minutes.

Agree, but they're not equal in scope.

I think TV is the most harmless one here. In order to watch TV, you have to pick a channel and watch the programming intently. Commercials make people switch channels, which might disrupt the attention span a bit.

Computers (or more correctly, internet) are a much worse offender. It's very easy to open too many tabs and spread yourself too thin. The worst offender of this is social media (including anonymous social media people don't usually think of, like reddit, 4chan, etc.)

Smartphones make it harder to browse many things at once, so in that respect they're better than PCs. However, they might disrupt your eye's natural motion; we hold them in our hands, they're always slightly vibrating, and we're trying to read small text on them. This is pure speculation, but it might be making your eyes more prone to moving around, which is bad when you're trying to read and focus on a stationary text.
 

Queequeg

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It's funny you should mention SAT scores. I just finished watching this video. I've skipped to the relevant part.



Thanks for sharing this anti-semitic BS that has nothing to do with the subject. The world has been scapegoating the Jews for the last 2,000 years. This is nothing new.
 

Queequeg

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Agree, but they're not equal in scope.

I think TV is the most harmless one here. In order to watch TV, you have to pick a channel and watch the programming intently. Commercials make people switch channels, which might disrupt the attention span a bit.

Computers (or more correctly, internet) are a much worse offender. It's very easy to open too many tabs and spread yourself too thin. The worst offender of this is social media (including anonymous social media people don't usually think of, like reddit, 4chan, etc.)

Smartphones make it harder to browse many things at once, so in that respect they're better than PCs. However, they might disrupt your eye's natural motion; we hold them in our hands, they're always slightly vibrating, and we're trying to read small text on them. This is pure speculation, but it might be making your eyes more prone to moving around, which is bad when you're trying to read and focus on a stationary text.
Not sure which one is worse but I think they all play a part. I think the problem with TV, especially HD TV, is that the intense colors and sharp images, fast cutting between scenes, and dramatic action probably desensitizes us to normal life by down-regulating our neural networks to cope with the over stimulation. The 60 HZ flicker rate is thought to put you into an alpha brain state that makes you more suggestible to advertising. If you have ever watched a child fixated on the TV it looks like they are being hypnotized by the images. I'm sure that this cant be good over the long term.
 

Drareg

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I think that people who are excessively stimulated probably find it harder to focus on IQ tests. I remember reading an article about IQ testing where it said that a lot of people who scored low simply stopped doing the test midway. There's also the correlation between IQ and the ability to delay gratification.

I think some portion of IQ measurement is an artifact of people not caring about an arbitrary test given to them. I suspect that many with IQs in the 140+ range are just people who tried harder than those in the 120-130 range.

It would explain very smart people like Feynman, who tested at an IQ of 120 or so. If you don't try hard on IQ tests (because you know it doesn't mean anything), but you try hard at other stuff, you do well.

A lot of scientist tested at that range, I think in some cases 140+ may be a sign of skills in some areas but no way overall intelligence, but if they have practiced I'm not sure what it means anymore.
Some will argue those scientist were not intelligent,even if theories are not right,they were intelligent in some cases,be it socially or even intelligent to hide the flaws in their theories to maintain salaries until retirement.

If people when the iQ obsession was rampant could practice it would have increased IQ scores worldwide imo.
Mensa will send you practice tests also.
 

lvysaur

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It's funny you should mention SAT scores. I just finished watching this video. I've skipped to the relevant part.

>Blacks score lower than whites: genes, of course

>Whites score lower than Jews: I don't believe in numbers. Unfair advantage. Fake news.


tumblr_ne0wilp7HO1rwg7ino1_1280.png
 

Drareg

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Thanks for sharing this anti-semitic BS that has nothing to do with the subject. The world has been scapegoating the Jews for the last 2,000 years. This is nothing new.

Exactly.
I'm failing in the capitalist system so let's the blame the Jews,all of them even the homeless Jews in Israel.
 

zztr

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IQs within each race are dropping as well. This is most likely due to increased environmental toxins primarily lead and pesticides. I am sure xenoestrogens, GMOs and EMFs aren't helping either.

I think it's very difficult to build an environmental case for declining intelligence because simple heredity explains pretty much everything. We have about 100 years of very good data on IQ in industrialized countries. Intelligence is one of the most strongly heritable traits at a correlation of about 0.7. We're just seeing a lot of dysgenic breeding across all races in industrialized countries. The most intelligent have few children and a lot of literal morons have large numbers.

Also, I don't buy claims that we suffer from more stressful pollution or malnutrition over the last few generations. Everybody was breathing coal and wood smoke all day in the past, and in the case of America everybody was drunk over half the time. In large of swathes of the country diseases of deficiency such as goiter and pellagra were major problems well into the 20th century. Most people did backbreaking labor for long hours. It's very difficult to argue that plastics and vaccines or whatever are affecting us now more than were these stressors.
 

Drareg

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I think it's very difficult to build an environmental case for declining intelligence because simple heredity explains pretty much everything. We have about 100 years of very good data on IQ in industrialized countries. Intelligence is one of the most strongly heritable traits at a correlation of about 0.7. We're just seeing a lot of dysgenic breeding across all races in industrialized countries. The most intelligent have few children and a lot of literal morons have large numbers.

Also, I don't buy claims that we suffer from more stressful pollution or malnutrition over the last few generations. Everybody was breathing coal and wood smoke all day in the past, and in the case of America everybody was drunk over half the time. In large of swathes of the country diseases of deficiency such as goiter and pellagra were major problems well into the 20th century. Most people did backbreaking labor for long hours. It's very difficult to argue that plastics and vaccines or whatever are affecting us now more than were these stressors.

Yes and also the great examples of kids who left their parents at birth and went to a completely different environment and thought the natives of completely different cultures intelligent new ways proves this theory,but this never happened did it? they went across town or state to the same culture and socioeconomic status.
The womb is an environment.

Everybody in the city may have been breathing smoke for a short period ,those outside the cities were not.
Everybody was drunk,everybody! No they were not and there was a period of enforcement on no alcohol consumption.
 

Queequeg

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I think it's very difficult to build an environmental case for declining intelligence because simple heredity explains pretty much everything. We have about 100 years of very good data on IQ in industrialized countries. Intelligence is one of the most strongly heritable traits at a correlation of about 0.7. We're just seeing a lot of dysgenic breeding across all races in industrialized countries. The most intelligent have few children and a lot of literal morons have large numbers.

Also, I don't buy claims that we suffer from more stressful pollution or malnutrition over the last few generations. Everybody was breathing coal and wood smoke all day in the past, and in the case of America everybody was drunk over half the time. In large of swathes of the country diseases of deficiency such as goiter and pellagra were major problems well into the 20th century. Most people did backbreaking labor for long hours. It's very difficult to argue that plastics and vaccines or whatever are affecting us now more than were these stressors.
I think its a multitude of factors but environmental toxins is certainly right up there. Plastics, lead, pesticides, and mercury are all far more neurotoxic than anything we would have breathed in the past. It could be argued that more physical labor would actually boost brain health as compared to the sedentary life we lead to today. The studies are quite solid that environmental toxins have lead to decreases in intelligence. I think a big problem in urban poor environments is that black kids consistently have higher lead blood levels than white kids. This needs to be accounted for in any cross racial comparison.
Lots of studies showing the connection between environmental toxins and reduced IQ
The Toxins That Threaten Our Brains
Harmful chemicals and neurotoxins: Silently eroding intelligence, damaging societies - Journalist's Resource
Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com
 

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