Technology may be getting smarter but humans have been getting less intelligent since Victorian times, according to a controversial study.

The research claims that up until 180 years ago, people were getting smarter thanks to natural selection favouring 'survival of the sharpest'.

The emergence of farming, cities and government would have made it easier for smarter people to get on in life, have more children and pass on their genes more widely.

But that trend has now being reversed, researchers in Brussels claim.

Genes driving intelligence have become less common since Victorian times, because advances in medicine and nutrition means people with lower IQs can have more children that survive into adulthood.

Scroll down for video

Up until the Victorian era people were getting brighter thanks to natural selection which meant that people with higher IQs survived, the study suggests. Pictured is Victorian scientist Charles Darwin, who discovered natural selection

WHAT DID THEY FIND? Up until the Victorian era people were getting brighter thanks to natural selection which meant that people who were brighter and funnier survived, the study suggests. Over many centuries the genetics of the human population would have changed as people with smarter traits did better than those without them. However, with advancements in medicine and nutrition, people who might have previously died without being able to reproduce can now survive into adulthood. Advertisement

The research is led by Michael Woodley from the Free University in Brussels, according to The Times.

'The millennia-long micro-evolutionary trend favouring higher GCA [general cognitive ability] not only ceased, but likely went into reverse among European-derived populations living in the 19th century', researchers found.

James Thompson a senior psychology lecturer at University College London, who was not involved in the research, wrote about the research in his blog on 'Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media'.

'If we had been caught in our Victorian prime our rise in ability since the pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer ages would have been even more apparent', he said.

'Selection is the key. When you must use your wits to survive, and restrain present urges for future gains, then the brighter multiply'.

'When, in less taxing circumstances, there is no particular need for wit or restraint, then there is no premium for those characteristics', he said.

Michael Faraday was an English scientists who lived from 1791 to 1867. He invented the principles behind electromagnetic induction and electrolysis. The study suggests IQs have decreased since Victorian times when we were in our prime

Dr Woodley and his researchers used genomes recovered from 99 people in central Europe who died between 2,000BC to 600AD.

They compared these to the DNA of 503 modern Europeans and found intelligence genes had become more common over time.

These results were backed up by separate analysis of the genes of 66 individuals who had lived over 3,200 years.

This general increase in intelligence is counterbalanced by a dip since the 20th century - meaning that although people on average have higher IQs they have decreased since Victorian times when we were in our prime.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel lived from 1806 - 1859 and is considered one of Britain's finest engineers. The controversial study which suggests humanity was at its intellectual peak in Victorian times

The controversial paper has been released a website for early-stage research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

One of the authors, Davide Piffer, has previously argued that Africans have a genetic disposition to have lower IQs than Europeans.

In 2014, Dr Woodley claimed people's reactions are slower than in Victorian times, and has linked it to a decline in our genetic potential.

Dr Woodley's study showed people's reaction times have slowed over the century – the equivalent to one IQ point per decade.