American IQs Are Dropping. Here's Why It Might Not Be A Bad Thing
By: Elizabeth Dworak (Fatherly)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
New research from Northwestern University in Illinois finds that American's IQs are dropping. IQ — a term that stands for Intelligence Quotient — has been used for decades as a standard measure of problem-solving ability, intelligence, and logic and reasoning skills. From 1932 until 2012, IQ scores increased as much as five points per decade, a phenomenon known as the "Flynn Effect."
However, researchers from Northwestern University have discovered a "reverse Flynn Effect" going back all the way to 2006. Study author Elizabeth Dworak and her team examined data from almost 400,000 people who had taken an online personality assessment called the Synthetic Aperture Personality Assessment (SAPA) Project. The test provides users with insight into 27 different personality traits, and there are also sections that measure cognitive ability.
The researchers found that scores associated with "verbal reasoning (logic, vocabulary), matrix reasoning (visual problem solving, analogies), and letter and number series (computational/mathematical)" all declined from 2006 to 2018, while scores for 3D rotation or spatial reasoning increased. These changes were consistent regardless of education level, age, or gender.
So, are we really all getting less smart? Not so fast. Dworak stressed that the decline in scores doesn't necessarily mean Americans aren't as intelligent as their grandparents or great-grandparents were.
"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."
Dworak also said there are numerous possibilities for the decline, ranging from poor nutrition to a rise in screens and media consumption to pollution and a decline in overall health.
"If you're thinking about what society cares about and what it's emphasizing and reinforcing every day, there's a possibility of that being reflected in performance on an ability test," Dworak said, citing the increased emphasis on STEM education over the last ten years.
Dworak also noted that since the SAPA project was advertised as a personality test, users could have been less motivated to answer questions that did not directly relate to personality, resulting in lower scores for sections dealing with aptitude.
IQ measurement has a controversial history. Many scholars and researchers believe that IQ tests don't give an accurate picture of what we refer to as intelligence. There are also questions as to the validity of IQ testing across disciplines — IQ tests tend to measure academic aptitude at the expense of social and emotional intelligence and artistic creativity. And there are strong historical ties between IQ tests and the eugenics movement.
Still, though, there is room for more research to determine what caused the relatively abrupt change in Americans' IQ in recent years. "There's debate about what's causing it, but not every domain is going down; one of them is going up," Dworak said. "If all the scores were going in the same direction, you could make a nice little narrative about it, but that's not the case. We need to do more to dig into it."
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And "Fartherly Magazine" thinks it's a good thing.
There is no question that standards have been lowered and there are reasons for it: none of them good. At least we now know why the likes of an AOC can win an election.
The lower the IQ the higher the chance she and people like Biden will win an election. It sure does help explain the dems desire to dumb down our education system in general by not allowing some kids to excel and focus teaching our kids things that will not help them in the real world..
That's why they wanted all the millions of mail-in ballots. They had to get all those who didn't have enough interest to go out and vote in an election
Well, there goes an interesting article.
How so?
Did I come up short?
Yes, you did. I was going to comment about a pleasant change from politics and then it went there. I actually had something to say about the topic of IQ...
I may come up short in my seeds, but not elsewhere!
Please say what you were going to about the topic.
Hopefully for a hasty death.
These changes were consistent regardless of education level, age, or gender.
seems like they are missing a category that’s usually included.
Lol.
That missing category may prove to be very insulting if certain people get it!
clown show.
And both of you incessantly talk about others being obsessed with race.
Suggesting IQ is a racial trait is , well, racism.
Who made that suggestion?
You.
You know, about a month ago I was trying to get through to another race obsessed individual who thought that the internment of Japanese Americans was based on race. After explaining to her that it was wrong, no matter what the reason, I had to tell her that an entire group was being held responsible for what others of the same group had done.
We never got to finish that discussion.
If we had I would have brought her to the example of the group always held resonsible for others of the same group: WHITES!
No John. It was pointed out that race was not included in the conclusion of: These changes were consistent regardless of education level, age, or gender.
I pointed out that it was insulting to not include it.
GET IT?
But progressives/liberals/leftists have always insisted that certain groups are stupid and inferior and can't fend for themselves.
That's the real racism.
Yes, they are the real racists and it is they who have divided the country along racial lines.
Why would anyone be "insulted" if race was not used as a category for IQ results? The only ones who would be insulted are those who try and claim race is indicative of IQ. get it?
Because it would mean that certain IQ's were always low, would it not?
The only ones who would be insulted are those who try and claim race is indicative of IQ. get it?
That progressive side again. Race obsession = racism.
you understand race is pretty much always accounted for In these things, right?
and you are the one who noticed that it is not this time, and commented on it. Do you miss that information?
Nope ..... they be too busy rockin the racist victim card .....
Race is always included in these sorts of studies and it not being included is simply noticing the dog who didn't bark. The reasonable inference is the decline was not equal across races, but knowing the details would help interpret the results of the study.
No one cares what some conservatives think anymore (than we have to); some conservatives are not worth the effort. These ceaseless, move-less, resolve-less issues are dragging this place down. Funny thought; as I scanned the articles on the site about "Scientists find a way to suck up carbon pollution, turn it into baking soda and store it in the oceans | CNN" and try to get excited enough to comment, I am immediately spun around by "American-IQs-are-dropping-heres-why-it-might-not-be-a-bad-thing." And an adjoining discussion (devolution) into race and politics, the two 'friemies' which can not unchain themselves due to insufferable racist people on the internet!
This is by far a big cause of why this country is failing; its incessant eye on lost causes and trying to 'fall-back' into regressive politics of failed 'applications' which could not stand but some conservatives won't let go. The generations are 'dumbing down' because those who don't learn the lessons TAUGHT (past tense) in the past are doomed, doomed I say, to repeat EVERY LAST ONE of them all over again.
It is a ridiculous notion to pine away about returning to a grand time when democracy only was for the majority of the White population and all others were merely considered to be attached to this nation's underbelly! It was not a great America past - it was merely a 'grand delusion.' Thus, it could not last because delusions can't last forever.
And one should know better to live in a delusion. Get out. Mix. More.
2006 is more or less when social media first took hold. The first I Phone was in 2007 I believe and that is also the time period when Facebook and Twitter got going, as well as You Tube.
Follow the breadcrumbs.
Are you saying that social media contributed to the dumbing down?
You may finally have something.
I attribute it more to the lowered expectations coming from the participation trophy generation. Watching many in the younger generation trying to make change in their head is painful to watch.
They have "apps" that do calculating for them.
Well, you probably have those apps as well but you still can make change without it. Or perhaps you can’t.
basically pay with plastic these days, although i can cipher a little
As a matter of fact, I doubt the cashiers in the supermarket could add quickly any more thanks to the technology of the modern computerized cash register.
No doubt, watch how flustered they get when the cash register locks up.
The whole place would come to a stop. It would be like somebody ordering a Croissant in Brooklyn.
About as flustered as a farmer with a single broke handle on his plow? Tools were designed to make life easier-including a use of calculating machines like cash registers. If and when it becomes necessary to dig and plow with shovels and hoes (again) I feel sure humanity will at the least appreciate how much "back-breaking work" is involved. . .and go buy another ox and plow.
Technology is a good thing and we would never want to go back to the old cash register that simply opened and closed a drawer. We must also recognize that there are certain drawbacks even to desirable changes.
Never fact check a joke.
All this fact checking you're doing is giving another one here competition. We already have someone who loves to google every word I say.
Do we really need two?
No, but too late ..... several times over .....
Your 'jokes' are wanting and there are only two 'conservatives' here worth responding to.
You're right. We must, because everything positive in our lives and our world resides on a spectrum with its opposite and equal negative. Thus, life and circumstances can be measured in degrees. The solution to the 'dumbing-down' of the U.S. starts with putting an end to internecine politics and culture wars which DIVIDE people and displaces even more people on hamper-wheels turning and blowing up the forward direction of their lives!
She didn't send us her best. I'd tell her myself, but she hasn't been here in a long time.
Marxists will give up the fight. That is why we cannot have peace.
I have no idea what you are referring, because that is too pithy. Perhaps you can elaborate.
I remember when people used to judiciously take a photo with a camera and film, just to have a nice photo. Then they put good cameras on cell phones and made the phones smart enough to connect to the internet, and made social media platforms accessible by those cell phones. Now people are so obsessed with themselves that posting selfies and photos of their meals dominates their camera experience. The decline in IQ comes as no surprise. Don’t even get me started on TikTok.
What is causing the downing down of the country and the world, Truth decay. People who want power for power sake to do to others whatever they damn well please: Truth be damned. People fighting last century ongoing political and culture battles and wars, and new generations having to deal with the oppressive fall-out (trash) that is accumulating where unity and understanding should be increasing.
And let's get real. It takes a big set of BALLS to be on the side of proposals and voting blocs which strive to ignore people as a whole for a select group of ideologues and then to be the first to post articles about the 'side-effect' of dumbness spreading around (think canary in a coal mind).
This country is poisoning its own self. What the "h"? What intelligent people coming places and hoping to continue to lead the world ties itself to the past with an "unbreakable bond" - anchor? No! This dumbing down is par for the course for a tired, ignorant, ARROGANT people who some how forget that in fact; y'all butts are not advancing anywhere - none of you - if you don't/are not willing to take all the citizens along with you!