Why Are Children Now Less Intelligent?

“Take 14-year-olds in Britain. What 25% could do back in 1994, now only 5% can do,” Shayer added, citing maths and science tests. __ Why IQ Levels Are Falling

Multiple studies have demonstrated a reversal of the so-called “Flynn Effect”, with the result that youngsters in the west are growing less intelligent on IQ tests, rather than more.

The following extended excerpt is from an article in The Times (UK), providing more detail.

… Now that [the Flynn effect] appears be going backwards. The IQ scores of young Britons born after 1975 are declining roughly as quickly as they used to rise. Why? __ Times UK

Dumb and dumber: why we’re getting less intelligent

Oliver Moody, Science Correspondent

June 12 2018, 12:01am, The Times

The IQ scores of young people have begun to fall after rising steadily since the Second World War, according to the first authoritative study of the phenomenon.

The decline, which is equivalent to at least seven points per generation, is thought to have started with the cohort born in 1975, who reached adulthood in the early Nineties.

… The turning point marks the end of a well-known but poorly understood trend known as the Flynn effect, in which average IQs have risen by about three points a decade for the past 60 or 70 years.

“This is the most convincing evidence yet of a reversal of the Flynn effect,” Stuart Ritchie, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the research, said. “If you assume their model is correct, the results are impressive, and pretty worrying.”

There had been signs that IQ scores might have fallen since the turn of the millennium. Two British studies suggested that the decline was between 2.5 and 4.3 points per decade. This has not been widely accepted owing to the limited research to date. A study has now shown, however, that Norwegian men’s IQs are measurably lower today than the scores of their fathers at the same age.

Ole Rogeberg and Bernt Bratsberg, of the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo, analysed the scores from a standardised IQ test of more than 730,000 men who reported for national service between 1970 and 2009. The research appears in the journal PNAS.

The vast majority of young Norwegian men are required to perform national service and take a standardised IQ test when they join up.

The results, published in the journal PNAS, show that those born in 1991 scored about five points lower than those born in 1975, and three points lower than those born in 1962.

The reasons behind the Flynn effect and its apparent reversal are disputed. Scientists have put the rise in IQ down to better teaching, nutrition, healthcare and even artificial lighting.

Some academics suggest the recent fall could be down to genetics. Their argument is, crudely, that less intelligent people have more babies, and so over time the gains are cancelled out by the spread of genes linked to low-intelligence….

“Intelligence researchers make a distinction between fluid and crystallised intelligence,” he said. “Crystallised intelligence is stuff you have been taught and trained in, and fluid intelligence is your ability to see new patterns and use logic to solve novel problems.”

…

Robin Morris, professor of neuropsychology at King’s College London, said IQ scores probably had hit a ceiling in the west, but there was not yet any reason to be unduly concerned.

… Now that [the Flynn effect] appears be going backwards. The IQ scores of young Britons born after 1975 are declining roughly as quickly as they used to rise. Why?

… is it just that the digital age demands from young people a new kind of intelligence that IQ tests designed half a century ago are not very good at capturing? Nobody knows. This is only the beginning of what will be a vicious and protracted debate.

End of excerpt from The Times

Abstract of new PNAS paper by Bratsberg and Rogeberg

Comment: The author of the above piece in The Times appears too eager to rule out all possible explanations for this trend for fear of being seen as politically incorrect. Fortunately, real science looks beyond PC boundaries and questions inconvenient dogmas. Journalists cannot typically be trusted on matters of science. They have neither the training nor the integrity for the task, it seems.

This matter is far too important for the human race at large to be swept under the rug. Every possible explanation must be carefully examined and tested.

The findings have been replicated in the UK and now have been extended to Norway. These results seem to support the long-term decline in “reaction times” found by Jensen and others.

The Genius Famine by Bruce Charlton and Edward Dutton describes the modern dearth of high IQ geniuses and has some suggestions for how to reverse the decline.

Stupid and unaccomplished people in high places — such as government, media, academia, foundations, corporate human resources departments, etc. — can do untold damage to the future of the human enterprise.

The modern left seems to make a fetish of low intelligence, diverting scarce resources away from competent and productive enterprises toward groups and collectives bent on squandering the human capital of the world.

The first step toward finding a remedy to this planned murder of human genius and potential from the left, is to shine a bright light on exactly what is happening. With exposure of the true nature of the problem, genuine solutions should present themselves.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. It is never too late to have a Dangerous Childhood © .