No.
IQ tests measure how well people solve problems presented on paper, either by text or graphics. Neither are Natural problems that humans evolved to solve, so performance is related to training with paper based media, and since the middle of the 20th century, interpreting TV, computer and telephone screens (which are considerably inferior to paper in information comprehension and retention, so we should expect people to be getting dumber as computers take over education!)
IQ testing on paper was useful when the world ran on paper, but now other modalities are resuming their importance.
The Fly
No.
IQ tests measure how well people solve problems presented on paper, either by text or graphics. Neither are Natural problems that humans evolved to solve, so performance is related to training with paper based media, and since the middle of the 20th century, interpreting TV, computer and telephone screens (which are considerably inferior to paper in information comprehension and retention, so we should expect people to be getting dumber as computers take over education!)
IQ testing on paper was useful when the world ran on paper, but now other modalities are resuming their importance.
The Flynn effect can be accounted for by increasing exposure to two dimensional media, especially early in life. Children now see flat screens, billboards, signs and photographs from the time they pop out of the womb so it is not surprising that the bottom of the Bell curve has been rising. I also cite the invention of the paperback book by my grandfather, which increased literacy more than anyone since Napoleon and likely has a substantial effect on bringing up low end IQ scores.
OTOH, people have gotten far dumber at recognizing plants, shaping and using stones and climbing trees, skills that were essential for the vast majority of human existence. Athletic intelligence is down. Most people don’t know how to swim, run or even walk efficiently!
For roughly 40,000 years music was participatory - everyone in the tribe sang, danced and made music together. Musical intelligence has plummeted since the push-button convenience of radio, phonograph and now streaming Internet music.
Current trends in politics indicate that we are losing both emotional intelligence and logic, instead reverting to superstition and tribal identities. These are both more important to societal progress than ability to parse complex sentences and read graphical information in IQ tests.
The industrial food chain, synthetic environment and sedentary lifestyles have also conspired to reduce the proper nutrition and bodily state to grow and maintain intelligence, and introduced poisons that cause brain damage like Lead.
There is something called the “Flynn Effect” - which is that IQ test results have been steadily improving throughout most of the world.
Studies done in the UK showed that when children from the present day took a standardized IQ test from 1942, they scored 14 IQ points higher than the average for children who took the test in 1942.
Of course this doesn’t actually show up in people’s IQ today because BY DEFINITION an average IQ is 100 points. So it doesn’t matter how smart people become - they will, on average, get a score of 100.
Another shocking thing is that we have strong evidence that people
There is something called the “Flynn Effect” - which is that IQ test results have been steadily improving throughout most of the world.
Studies done in the UK showed that when children from the present day took a standardized IQ test from 1942, they scored 14 IQ points higher than the average for children who took the test in 1942.
Of course this doesn’t actually show up in people’s IQ today because BY DEFINITION an average IQ is 100 points. So it doesn’t matter how smart people become - they will, on average, get a score of 100.
Another shocking thing is that we have strong evidence that people who grew up before leaded gasoline was banned lost 4 to 5 IQ points due to lead poisoning.
Since the lead levels that this produced in the environment are slowly declining - people born in the years following the ban have been gradually returning to intelligence levels from before lead was introduced.
But the effect of leaded gas is in addition to the Flynn effect - as is evidenced by the Flynn effect still being present in places where leaded gasoline was never used.
I think they we are getting dumber. I’ve felt this way for a couple decades. Someone crossing the street without looking used to be rare. It happens to me multiple times a week. People just walk across the road without looking. Also, the amount of people believing creepy conspiracy theories. Or people like my neighbor who refuses to read directions or labels. He killed his entire yard by using a bag of grass killer. He came to me wanting to know why his grass died after he poured a green bag on it just like I do. I pointed to the label asked if he read it. He said he didn’t. He just grabbed a
I think they we are getting dumber. I’ve felt this way for a couple decades. Someone crossing the street without looking used to be rare. It happens to me multiple times a week. People just walk across the road without looking. Also, the amount of people believing creepy conspiracy theories. Or people like my neighbor who refuses to read directions or labels. He killed his entire yard by using a bag of grass killer. He came to me wanting to know why his grass died after he poured a green bag on it just like I do. I pointed to the label asked if he read it. He said he didn’t. He just grabbed a green bag because what I use is in a green bag.
Absolutely. With online platforms such as BetterHelp, you are able to speak and work with a licensed therapist in the comfort of your own home.
BetterHelp has quickly become the largest online therapy service provider. With over 5 million users to date, and 30K+ licensed therapists, BetterHelp is here to provide professional, affordable, and personalized therapy in a convenient online format.
By simply taking a short quiz, BetterHelp will match you with an online therapist based on your needs and preferences, all while never leaving the comfort of your own home. You can choose between video, aud
Absolutely. With online platforms such as BetterHelp, you are able to speak and work with a licensed therapist in the comfort of your own home.
BetterHelp has quickly become the largest online therapy service provider. With over 5 million users to date, and 30K+ licensed therapists, BetterHelp is here to provide professional, affordable, and personalized therapy in a convenient online format.
By simply taking a short quiz, BetterHelp will match you with an online therapist based on your needs and preferences, all while never leaving the comfort of your own home. You can choose between video, audio-only, or even live chat messaging sessions making your therapy experience completely customizable to you.
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I think the Flynn effect illuminates a difference in how people think, but not how smart they are.
If it were 1900, and you asked someone, "What do dogs and rabbits have in common," the typical adult might answer, "Well, dogs eat rabbits." Today, if you asked a fifth-grader the same question, he would probably answer, "They're both animals," or even, "They're both mammals." I think people now are probably better at classifying things, but much less adept at identifying relationships.
After all, students didn't used to need all those nice outlines and lecture notes and PowerPoints that teacher
I think the Flynn effect illuminates a difference in how people think, but not how smart they are.
If it were 1900, and you asked someone, "What do dogs and rabbits have in common," the typical adult might answer, "Well, dogs eat rabbits." Today, if you asked a fifth-grader the same question, he would probably answer, "They're both animals," or even, "They're both mammals." I think people now are probably better at classifying things, but much less adept at identifying relationships.
After all, students didn't used to need all those nice outlines and lecture notes and PowerPoints that teachers and professors give us now to show us exactly what's going to happen in the talk and how everything is related. I've had the privilege of working with some of the most distinguished professors out there, both young and old. In my experience, there has been a very striking difference in their lecture styles. Have you ever noticed that? It's like the old professors expect you to be able to connect the dots on your own, and the young ones connect the dots for you. When it's test time, you actually have to think about how prepare for the exam, how everything that's ever happened in the class is connected... instead of just going back over the slides.
If you compared students then and now on something other than IQ, I'm almost certain that you'd think that the "then" students were much smarter. Compare a writing sample. People -- even children! -- used to be so eloquent. Every letter, diary entry, poem and story I've ever read from there just dances off the page! But something's gone wrong since then -- perhaps it's related to technology (chatting online, autocorrect, the ability to pull up 10 synonyms for a word with a single right click, etc.).
If you compared the top graduates from the top grad schools today to those 40 years ago, I can almost guarantee that the then students would outperform the now students. Consider this excerpt from Stuart Brown's Play (available here: http://www.stuartbrownmd.com/purchase.html)
"Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been the United States’ premier aerospace research facility for more than seven decades. The scientists and engineers at JPL have designed and managed major components of every manned and unmanned mission of our time, and have been completely responsible for dreaming up, building, and operating complex projects like the robot vehicles that landed on Mars and explored the planet’s surface for years. You might say that JPL invented the Space Age. No matter how big and ambitious the goal, the researchers could always be relied on to say, “We can do that.”
But in the late nineties, the lab’s management was saying, “JPL, we have a problem.” As the lab neared the new century, the group of engineers and scientists who had come on board in the 1960s, those who put men on the moon and built robotic probes to explore the solar system, were retiring in large numbers. And JPL was having a hard time replacing them. Even though JPL hired the top graduates from top engineering schools like MIT, Stanford, and even Cal Tech itself, the new hires were often missing something. They were not very good at certain types of problem solving that are critical to the job. The experienced managers found that the newly minted engineers might excel at grappling with theoretical, mathematical problems at the frontiers of engineering, but they didn’t do well with the practical diffi culties of taking a complex project from theory to practice. Unlike their elders, the young engineers couldn’t spot the key flaw in one of the complex systems they were working on, toss the problem around, break it down, pick it apart, tease out its critical elements, and rearrange them in innovative ways that led to a solution.
Why was JPL hiring the wrong sorts of engineers? The people JPL brought aboard had earned the highest grades at the best schools, but academic excellence was obviously not the most important measure of the graduates’ problem- solving skills.
The difference between the old and new engineers ended up being childhood play -- the old engineers had spent their childhood building tree forts, taking apart clocks and fixing bikes. The young engineers had spent their childhood... getting really good at flash cards and filling in bubbles and working on problem sets. Childhood has changed, and many of today's engineers are missing critical abilities as a result. (The study also found that the young engineers who had "tinkered" as children were not deficient problem solvers.)
I also think there is just something about the WAY people used to learn that made the information stick better. Half of the people I know can't remember what they learned in a class once they took the midterm/final... but when I talk to 80-year-old men who studied Latin in high school, they seem to remember everything they ever learned. Flawlessly. After 60 YEARS away from the material. But I don't know how to back this up.
The question of whether people are getting smarter is complex and can be approached from various angles. Here are some key points to consider:
- IQ Trends: Research has shown that average IQ scores in many developed countries have been rising over the past century, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. However, some studies suggest that this trend may have plateaued or even reversed in recent years in certain regions.
- Access to Information: With the rise of the internet and technology, people have unprecedented access to information, which can enhance learning and cognitive skills. This has led
The question of whether people are getting smarter is complex and can be approached from various angles. Here are some key points to consider:
- IQ Trends: Research has shown that average IQ scores in many developed countries have been rising over the past century, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. However, some studies suggest that this trend may have plateaued or even reversed in recent years in certain regions.
- Access to Information: With the rise of the internet and technology, people have unprecedented access to information, which can enhance learning and cognitive skills. This has led to improvements in areas such as problem-solving and critical thinking.
- Education: Global access to education has improved significantly, leading to higher literacy rates and educational attainment. This can contribute to overall cognitive development and skill acquisition.
- Cognitive Skills: While some cognitive skills may improve due to technological advancements and educational opportunities, there are concerns about the impact of screen time and technology on attention spans and deep learning.
- Nutritional and Health Improvements: Better nutrition and healthcare over the decades have also contributed to cognitive development, especially in early childhood.
- Cultural Factors: Intelligence is influenced by a variety of cultural and environmental factors, and definitions of intelligence can vary widely.
In summary, while there are indicators that suggest cognitive abilities may be improving in some ways, the overall picture is nuanced, and various factors can influence intelligence across different populations and contexts.
The Flynn effect seems to be about cultural change in modern societies that expose people to progressively more abstract thinking of the sort that IQ tests are designed to measure. Another answer describes this as Scientific thinking. The idea is a familiarity with abstraction and intellectual games. An example Flynn gives is a question that states: There are no Zebras in Germany, Are there any Zebras in Berlin? People familiar with the idea of stipulating conditions and asking about the hypothetical situation that implies will immediately answer No. Berlin is in Germany. IF there are no Zebra
The Flynn effect seems to be about cultural change in modern societies that expose people to progressively more abstract thinking of the sort that IQ tests are designed to measure. Another answer describes this as Scientific thinking. The idea is a familiarity with abstraction and intellectual games. An example Flynn gives is a question that states: There are no Zebras in Germany, Are there any Zebras in Berlin? People familiar with the idea of stipulating conditions and asking about the hypothetical situation that implies will immediately answer No. Berlin is in Germany. IF there are no Zebras in Germany, then there are no Zebras in Berlin. They’re used to thinking like a Venn diagram and playing with hypothetical sets. If more traditional thinking adults are asked that question, they’re inclined to treat it concretely. They know that Germany is a large modern country and likely has zoos and animal parks. It probably has Zebras. They ignore the stipulation that there are no Zebras in Germany as simply not true. They guess Yes, there are probably Zebras in Berlin because of their knowledge and experience that suggests this is actually the case. It’s concrete because it draws on the person’s real experience and full knowledge and tries to address what is really true. The first approach is a game world. People familiar with mental games and “make believe” easily move into that mode. When the questioner stipulates something like There are no Zebras in Germany, they fluidly accept that hypothetical condition and play the game. Traditional adults don’t do this as readily.
Other answers that mention functional grouping of objects is part of this same pattern. Mapping things together with how we use them is concrete. Looking for abstract qualities and grouping them by those is a mental game. The later is also more fluid and can be applied to unfamiliar things though much more readily than the former. Functional grouping is based on experience. If you have no experience it doesn’t provide any guide. Traditional default human thinking is fluid in childhood and settles into concrete learned patterns in adulthood. Modern Societies try hard to preserve child like mental games playing into adulthood. A pretty dramatic example of this is Tech Company culture that builds corporate offices that look like kindergartens with all sorts of toys and games for their adult staff. Our entire culture provides immersion in stories that often require suspension of disbelief and work at abstract games playing.
Much of modern society teaches people to be familiar with hypotheticals and mental abstractions. We actively work at keeping what would be a childlike openness to pretending things into adulthood. That produces higher scores on IQ tests.
I once met a man who drove a modest Toyota Corolla, wore beat-up sneakers, and looked like he’d lived the same way for decades. But what really caught my attention was when he casually mentioned he was retired at 45 with more money than he could ever spend. I couldn’t help but ask, “How did you do it?”
He smiled and said, “The secret to saving money is knowing where to look for the waste—and car insurance is one of the easiest places to start.”
He then walked me through a few strategies that I’d never thought of before. Here’s what I learned:
1. Make insurance companies fight for your business
Mos
I once met a man who drove a modest Toyota Corolla, wore beat-up sneakers, and looked like he’d lived the same way for decades. But what really caught my attention was when he casually mentioned he was retired at 45 with more money than he could ever spend. I couldn’t help but ask, “How did you do it?”
He smiled and said, “The secret to saving money is knowing where to look for the waste—and car insurance is one of the easiest places to start.”
He then walked me through a few strategies that I’d never thought of before. Here’s what I learned:
1. Make insurance companies fight for your business
Most people just stick with the same insurer year after year, but that’s what the companies are counting on. This guy used tools like Coverage.com to compare rates every time his policy came up for renewal. It only took him a few minutes, and he said he’d saved hundreds each year by letting insurers compete for his business.
Click here to try Coverage.com and see how much you could save today.
2. Take advantage of safe driver programs
He mentioned that some companies reward good drivers with significant discounts. By signing up for a program that tracked his driving habits for just a month, he qualified for a lower rate. “It’s like a test where you already know the answers,” he joked.
You can find a list of insurance companies offering safe driver discounts here and start saving on your next policy.
3. Bundle your policies
He bundled his auto insurance with his home insurance and saved big. “Most companies will give you a discount if you combine your policies with them. It’s easy money,” he explained. If you haven’t bundled yet, ask your insurer what discounts they offer—or look for new ones that do.
4. Drop coverage you don’t need
He also emphasized reassessing coverage every year. If your car isn’t worth much anymore, it might be time to drop collision or comprehensive coverage. “You shouldn’t be paying more to insure the car than it’s worth,” he said.
5. Look for hidden fees or overpriced add-ons
One of his final tips was to avoid extras like roadside assistance, which can often be purchased elsewhere for less. “It’s those little fees you don’t think about that add up,” he warned.
The Secret? Stop Overpaying
The real “secret” isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about being proactive. Car insurance companies are counting on you to stay complacent, but with tools like Coverage.com and a little effort, you can make sure you’re only paying for what you need—and saving hundreds in the process.
If you’re ready to start saving, take a moment to:
- Compare rates now on Coverage.com
- Check if you qualify for safe driver discounts
- Reevaluate your coverage today
Saving money on auto insurance doesn’t have to be complicated—you just have to know where to look. If you'd like to support my work, feel free to use the links in this post—they help me continue creating valuable content.
It depends on how you define the word “intelligent”. The classic definition usually involves a person’s ability to solve a problem and find the best solution to that problem. To the MENSA crowd having a proven tested I.Q. of 132 or higher on a standard test puts you at the genius level. The highest score I achieved on an I.Q. test was 120, which qualified me as having “above average intelligence” but not a genius. Any of us, including “geniuses” are capable of doing very stupid, self-destructive things from time to time but a person’s real intelligence, in my opinion, is how any of us reacts t
It depends on how you define the word “intelligent”. The classic definition usually involves a person’s ability to solve a problem and find the best solution to that problem. To the MENSA crowd having a proven tested I.Q. of 132 or higher on a standard test puts you at the genius level. The highest score I achieved on an I.Q. test was 120, which qualified me as having “above average intelligence” but not a genius. Any of us, including “geniuses” are capable of doing very stupid, self-destructive things from time to time but a person’s real intelligence, in my opinion, is how any of us reacts to adversity, so in that respect I think that I’m a little “smarter” than the average person, but I’m a realist. I’m willing to admit that are plenty of things that are beyond my level of comprehension, but there are some things that I know that I’ll go up against anyone and I will prevail. So much for my modesty! LOL
Depends on what you mean by human.
If you mean the human race, then yes, we are accumulating knowledge and the tools to access that knowledge, educate our children, etc., so individual human beings have access to what they need to perform deeds requiring intelligence.
If by human, you mean individual human's potential, genetically encoded, to be smarter when they grow up than in the past, then no. Absolutely not.
Evolution, natural selection is no longer functioning like it was. In the past, people had to be very quick witted, smart, just to survive, let alone raise children. There was no real
Depends on what you mean by human.
If you mean the human race, then yes, we are accumulating knowledge and the tools to access that knowledge, educate our children, etc., so individual human beings have access to what they need to perform deeds requiring intelligence.
If by human, you mean individual human's potential, genetically encoded, to be smarter when they grow up than in the past, then no. Absolutely not.
Evolution, natural selection is no longer functioning like it was. In the past, people had to be very quick witted, smart, just to survive, let alone raise children. There was no real social safety net, no technology to rely on, no machines to do our thinking for us. There were lots of lethal dangers all around us. Today, any really dumb person can survive easily and have lots of children. In fact, a case can be made that smarter people (excluding effects of culture) tend to have less children. Now, the most lethal dangers are self inflicted.
Watch the comedy movie "Idiocracy" to see this demonstrated. Some of the things that old movie shows happening in the future, that were supposed to be so ridiculous they were funny, are happening right now for real.
If you want to write better essays, it’s helpful to understand the criteria teachers use to score them. Instead of solely focusing on the grade you are given, focus on how you are being graded and how you can improve, even if you are already getting a high grade.
Development of Your Thesis
A thesis is the essence of your paper—the claim you are making, the point you are trying to prove. All the other paragraphs in your essay will revolve around this one central idea. Your thesis statement consists of the one or two sentences of your introduction that explain what your position on the topic at ha
If you want to write better essays, it’s helpful to understand the criteria teachers use to score them. Instead of solely focusing on the grade you are given, focus on how you are being graded and how you can improve, even if you are already getting a high grade.
Development of Your Thesis
A thesis is the essence of your paper—the claim you are making, the point you are trying to prove. All the other paragraphs in your essay will revolve around this one central idea. Your thesis statement consists of the one or two sentences of your introduction that explain what your position on the topic at hand is. Teachers will evaluate all your other paragraphs on how well they relate to or support this statement.
Strong Form
A good essay presents thoughts in a logical order. The format should be easy to follow. The introduction should flow naturally to the body paragraphs, and the conclusion should tie everything together. The best way to do this is to lay out the outline of your paper before you begin. After you finish your essay, review the form to see if thoughts progress naturally. Ensure your paragraphs and sentences are in a logical order, the transitions are smooth so that the paragraphs are coherently connected, and that your body paragraphs relate to the thesis statement.
Style
Just as your clothes express your personality, the style of your essay reveals your writing persona. You demonstrate your fluency by writing precise sentences that vary in form. A mature writer uses various types of sentences, idiomatic phrases, and demonstrates knowledge of genre-specific vocabulary, all the while ensuring the writing reflects your authentic voice.
Conventions
Conventions include spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and grammar. Having lots of mistakes suggests carelessness and diminishes the credibility of your arguments. Furthermore, because most essays are written on computers these days, there is a lower tolerance for spelling mistakes, which can easily be avoided with spell-checking tools such as Grammarly. Beyond spelling, Grammarly can also help to weed out other major grammatical errors. Follow up with a close reading of your entire paper.
Support and References
Finally, your teacher will examine your resources. Select information from reliable websites, articles, and books. Use quotes and paraphrases to support your ideas, but be sure to credit your sources correctly. Also, always remember that copying five consecutive words or more from any source constitutes plagiarism. If you are concerned about unintentionally quoting your sources, Grammarly Pro offers a plagiarism detector so you can always double-check your work.
The grades you get on your essays are important, but you can never improve your writing if they are the only things you consider. Focus on improving your essays’ overall structure—the thesis development, form, style, conventions, and support. Learning to master these five elements will cause your scores to soar!
Outside of the United States, yes. Other countries have a far superior education system and are passing the United States in intellect, skills, abilities, and experiences. It has gotten to the point where the American education is something they joke about and present to other citizens of their country for levity.
Until we can figure out how to build a pyramid only using materials that would have been available five thousand years ago, I'd say no.
We are no more clever than the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Indians, Mayans, or Incas. They were very clever people.
We have had the benefit of millennia of discoveries to apply to our achievements, amazing as they are. Our ancient ancestors laid the foundation for us to build upon. That took substantial cleverness.
Until we can figure out how to build a pyramid only using materials that would have been available five thousand years ago, I'd say no.
We are no more clever than the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Indians, Mayans, or Incas. They were very clever people.
We have had the benefit of millennia of discoveries to apply to our achievements, amazing as they are. Our ancient ancestors laid the foundation for us to build upon. That took substantial cleverness.
This will not be popular, but I will answer. First, what exactly IQ means is pretty difficult to nail down, and measuring to any certainty is all but impossible. However, I define intellect as how quickly and accurately you can process information presented to you, and then utilizing that to perform the task at hand. Something like that at least...I also firmly believe intellect/genius is very much a multi faceted thing. By all standards of measure I am a very intelligent individual. I am excellent at Physics and analyzing circutry, good at Calculus (not great), brilliant at debate, terrible m
This will not be popular, but I will answer. First, what exactly IQ means is pretty difficult to nail down, and measuring to any certainty is all but impossible. However, I define intellect as how quickly and accurately you can process information presented to you, and then utilizing that to perform the task at hand. Something like that at least...I also firmly believe intellect/genius is very much a multi faceted thing. By all standards of measure I am a very intelligent individual. I am excellent at Physics and analyzing circutry, good at Calculus (not great), brilliant at debate, terrible meeting new people, some skill with painting, and absolutely zero music talent. So while someone may have little ability in the traditional measuring sticks of IQ, like ,math and sciencertainly, but be able to write amazing using with no effort. IQ is a nearly static trait, you cannot change it substantially through study or any other method.
Also, IQ is independent of education, knowing g or not knowing something does not mention you are smart nor dumb. If u think about that it makes sense, simply because you have never been told a fact why would the effect your IQ? However highly educated people appear to be highly intelligent and the two are often confused.
What causes high intellect in a person? Well, the smell thing that determines all your other traits, the genetics you inherited from your parents. Genetics plays a huge role in determining your capabilities, all research indictates the old nature vs nuture question is pretty much nature all the way.
One interesting note about the genetics of intellectual. Most people of high intellectual the tend to have naturally great health, and develop chronic diseases and other health problems much more rarely than others. So many of your genes have to form up so perfectly to create intelligence it has the byproduct of making you generally healthy.
So, how could we make a reasonable conclusion as to which way our overall averaged IQ is heading aso a people? Fairly simply it turns out, the same way you would predict if a physical trait is going extinct or becoming more common.
So the population has always been increasing, and barring an apocalyptic tragedy we can safely assume it will continue to climb. Nown we need to know how many offspring are produced by high intellect parents and how many by average to low intellect parent. Conveniently there are some numbers we can use to help us. If your IQ is 90 or lower you will average five children over your life, if it is 120 and up you will average ONE HALF a child over your life. We that gives us our fairly depressing answer right there. As our population increases the intelligent are being outbred ten to one! So, our overall intellect will keep declining as time passes, and the rates of change willpower level off the closer we get to the parents IQ. are becoming less intelligent as a whole.
The average American IQ ,for the first time, has fallen below 100.
The process by which any animal becomes stronger/smarter/better adapted, is evolution which is predicated on the idea that the animals that live to breed will pass on the traits that allowed it to survive to its offspring giving it the same survival advantage as its parents. And the animal not well suited to survival will die and not pass on the traits that got it killed.
This will sound harsh, but we as humans don't allow nature to do this. And i dont like saying this, but those chronically reliant on social programs to feed themselves or to provide the other necessities of life are alllowed to pass on their genes, and weaken the overall gene pool. I know this sounds bad and smacks,of elitism, but I am just stating the facts as I know them.
It looks like brains are being trained to take more information in and process it more efficiently, so while performance may increase, it doesn’t mean that it is due to a higher level of intelligence. So there is a trend of getting smarter but while average intelligence may vary over time, taking more for granted is making many appear less capable because they haven’t had the challenges needed to train the brain and appear to lack common sense.
So, some are losing out in this way, but there are opportunities for many to train the brain better and those who are more intelligent could have some g
It looks like brains are being trained to take more information in and process it more efficiently, so while performance may increase, it doesn’t mean that it is due to a higher level of intelligence. So there is a trend of getting smarter but while average intelligence may vary over time, taking more for granted is making many appear less capable because they haven’t had the challenges needed to train the brain and appear to lack common sense.
So, some are losing out in this way, but there are opportunities for many to train the brain better and those who are more intelligent could have some great opportunities to make the world a better place, but things have to be fair and proper to be in the interest of society and not the greed of a few.
1. Overpaying on Auto Insurance
Believe it or not, the average American family still overspends by $461/year¹ on car insurance.
Sometimes it’s even worse: I switched carriers last year and saved literally $1,300/year.
Here’s how to quickly see how much you’re being overcharged (takes maybe a couple of minutes):
- Pull up Coverage.com – it’s a free site that will compare offers for you
- Answer the questions on the page
- It’ll spit out a bunch of insurance offers for you.
That’s literally it. You’ll likely save yourself a bunch of money.
2. Overlook how much you can save when shopping online
Many people over
1. Overpaying on Auto Insurance
Believe it or not, the average American family still overspends by $461/year¹ on car insurance.
Sometimes it’s even worse: I switched carriers last year and saved literally $1,300/year.
Here’s how to quickly see how much you’re being overcharged (takes maybe a couple of minutes):
- Pull up Coverage.com – it’s a free site that will compare offers for you
- Answer the questions on the page
- It’ll spit out a bunch of insurance offers for you.
That’s literally it. You’ll likely save yourself a bunch of money.
2. Overlook how much you can save when shopping online
Many people overpay when shopping online simply because price-checking across sites is time-consuming. Here is a free browser extension that can help you save money by automatically finding the better deals.
- Auto-apply coupon codes – This friendly browser add-on instantly applies any available valid coupon codes at checkout, helping you find better discounts without searching for codes.
- Compare prices across stores – If a better deal is found, it alerts you before you spend more than necessary.
Capital One Shopping users saved over $800 million in the past year, check out here if you are interested.
Disclosure: Capital One Shopping compensates us when you get the browser extension through our links.
3. Not Investing in Real Estate (Starting at Just $20)
Real estate has long been a favorite investment of the wealthy, but owning property has often felt out of reach for many—until now.
With platforms like Ark7, you can start investing in rental properties with as little as $20 per share.
- Hands-off management – Ark7 takes care of everything, from property upkeep to rent collection.
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Now, you can build your own real estate portfolio without needing a fortune. Ready to get started? Explore Ark7’s properties today.
4. Wasting Time on Unproductive Habits
As a rule of thumb, I’d ignore most sites that claim to pay for surveys, but a few legitimate ones actually offer decent payouts.
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We have data going back to the Victorian age and it shows a slow decline in mean intelligence in Western nations. It has been largely ignored because test score gains (the Flynn Effect) have masked the decline in real intelligence. FE gains are not gains in real intelligence (g), but are a combination of gains due to artifacts related to scoring, and changed behaviors that do not reflect real intelligence.
Intelligence has been declining for over a century. This decline is g loaded (meaning it is a Jensen Effect and applies to real intelligence). It has been masked by score gains in IQ tests (F
We have data going back to the Victorian age and it shows a slow decline in mean intelligence in Western nations. It has been largely ignored because test score gains (the Flynn Effect) have masked the decline in real intelligence. FE gains are not gains in real intelligence (g), but are a combination of gains due to artifacts related to scoring, and changed behaviors that do not reflect real intelligence.
Intelligence has been declining for over a century. This decline is g loaded (meaning it is a Jensen Effect and applies to real intelligence). It has been masked by score gains in IQ tests (Flynn Effect), which are not Jensen Effects and have been shown to be due to factors such as increased guessing and artifacts of the test scoring procedure. You can read a detailed discussion of the FE, its causes, and its history here: Williams, R. L. (2013). Overview of the Flynn effect. Intelligence, 41, 753-764.
The decline in real intelligence has been shown by slower reaction times, lower vocabulary, and decreased backward digit span. The rate of decline is smaller than the rate of score changes (Flynn Effect) that have been seen in some nations.
The decline in intelligence is believed to be driven by the negative correlation between IQ and fertility rate and possibly by increased mutation load due to improved medical technology. {Today babies survive with mutations that would have taken them out of the gene pool in the past.}
Here is a list of papers addressing the decline in intelligence:
The decline of the world's IQ; Richard Lynn, John Harvey; Intelligence (2007)
The decay of Western civilization: Double relaxed Darwinian Selection; Helmuth Nyborg; Personality and Individual Differences 53 (2012) 118–125
Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations; by Richard Lynn - Praeger, 1996; review by Marian Van Court
Michael A. Woodley and Aurelio J. Figueredo. Historical variability in heritable general intelligence. Its evolutionary origins and socio-cultural consequences. The University of Buckingham Press, 2013. Buckingham UK. pp. 112.
Is there a dysgenic secular trend towards slowing simple reaction time? Responding to a quartet of critical commentaries; Michael A. Woodley, et al. Intelligence, Volume 46, September–October 2014, Pages 131–147
A Jensen effect on dysgenic fertility: An analysis involving the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Michael A. Woodley, Gerhard Meisenberg; Personality and Individual Differences 55 (2013) 279–282
IQ and fertility: A cross-national study; Intelligence, Volume 36, Issue 2, March-April 2008, Pages 109-111; Steven M. Shatz
New evidence of dysgenic fertility for intelligence in the United States; Intelligence, Volume 32, Issue 2, March-April 2004, Pages 193-201; Richard Lynn, Marian Van Court
A new book that I have not yet read is from one of the brightest and most productive cognitive scientists (MAW) I know:
At Our Wits' End: Why We're Becoming Less Intelligent and What it Means for the Future (Societas) by Edward Dutton (Author), Michael A. Woodley of Menie Yr. (Author) Paperback – 1 Nov 2018.
I'm going to go with a hard yes, at least recently in the United States.
See we used to use lead in everything! It meant children were exposed to it all the time for a few decades. When you are exposed to lead, it causes lead poisoning. Which has all sorts of issues. Many of them cognitive.
So in the US we have a couple older generations that suffered higher levels of lead poisoning, that are passing on. As they get replaced, on average the population of the US will be getting smarter.
The Link Between Leaded Gasoline and Crime
Interesting to note the generation most exposed to lead is basically i
I'm going to go with a hard yes, at least recently in the United States.
See we used to use lead in everything! It meant children were exposed to it all the time for a few decades. When you are exposed to lead, it causes lead poisoning. Which has all sorts of issues. Many of them cognitive.
So in the US we have a couple older generations that suffered higher levels of lead poisoning, that are passing on. As they get replaced, on average the population of the US will be getting smarter.
The Link Between Leaded Gasoline and Crime
Interesting to note the generation most exposed to lead is basically in charge right now…
Many ways to answer this one. I’ll just throw some considerations out there:
- Access to primary education is increasing worldwide.
- The edge of available knowledge is constantly pushed further.
- Poor/uneducated people reproduce at higher rates than educated upper and middle class.
Possible conclusion
The bottom line of intelligence is moving up and so does the upper limit. However, humanity in general is accumulating a significant baggage of barely intelligent people. So, while the current trend is probably positive, we might live to see a time when unintelligent majority suffocates/rejects scientifi
Many ways to answer this one. I’ll just throw some considerations out there:
- Access to primary education is increasing worldwide.
- The edge of available knowledge is constantly pushed further.
- Poor/uneducated people reproduce at higher rates than educated upper and middle class.
Possible conclusion
The bottom line of intelligence is moving up and so does the upper limit. However, humanity in general is accumulating a significant baggage of barely intelligent people. So, while the current trend is probably positive, we might live to see a time when unintelligent majority suffocates/rejects scientific progress and we become homogeneously average with little to no progress.
Was reading about the Flynn effect and have something to add.
Directly from school, I joined the NZ airforce in an engineering program that included the opportunity to obtain a four year civil qualification, roughly equivalent to BE. That course was in high demand so there was a rigourous selection process, including IQ testing. #1
In year two my group was used as a control as a test of the RNZAF internal IQ testing system. #2
After finishing engineering, I applied for flight crew training. Another IQ test#3. By this time they were looking familiar, but crucially, I had figured out the main thing
Was reading about the Flynn effect and have something to add.
Directly from school, I joined the NZ airforce in an engineering program that included the opportunity to obtain a four year civil qualification, roughly equivalent to BE. That course was in high demand so there was a rigourous selection process, including IQ testing. #1
In year two my group was used as a control as a test of the RNZAF internal IQ testing system. #2
After finishing engineering, I applied for flight crew training. Another IQ test#3. By this time they were looking familiar, but crucially, I had figured out the main thing. The tests are designed such that you never have time to answer all the questions, so — go fast and skip the hard ones.
I never made it through the airforce pilot training selection — for other reasons, I think. But I found out much later that I was actually two points over the maximum IQ allowed for airforce pilots.
Yes, there is a bottom AND an upper limit for IQ — they want pilots who can are smart-ish, but not too damn clever — when they're rocketing around in a fighter jet loaded to the gills with bombs, rockets, guns and missiles.
I know very well I wasn't over the limit and they didn't disqualify me for that — but I was getting good at those tests by time I'd seen the third one!
No. The 20th century is over, and most IQ tests are heavily biased for crystallized intelligence.
Fluid and crystallized intelligence - Wikipedia
Higher rates of literacy and easy access to accumulated and up to date facts, information, research, data, media and education is just masking that people are actually getting less innately intelligent due to pollution, pesticides, drugs, and chemicals, many of which didn't even exist in the 1700s or prior.
Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals
So while people back then obviously knew less and were more superstitious becaus
No. The 20th century is over, and most IQ tests are heavily biased for crystallized intelligence.
Fluid and crystallized intelligence - Wikipedia
Higher rates of literacy and easy access to accumulated and up to date facts, information, research, data, media and education is just masking that people are actually getting less innately intelligent due to pollution, pesticides, drugs, and chemicals, many of which didn't even exist in the 1700s or prior.
Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals
So while people back then obviously knew less and were more superstitious because they had less literacy and less access to information, they were more innately intelligent in the way that most humans are more innately intelligent than a dog or gorillas and there things you simply can't even teach to dogs or gorillas no matter how hard you try, but there have actually been gorillas such as Koko that are obviously more intelligent than the dumbest humans.
From the stories and music that are published, we’re definitely losing steam in the intelligence department.
From the technology and infrastructure development, things seem a bit better.
From the way we organise ourselves, it looks like we’re going backwards, but it might be an important step to find footing for a leap forward.
From the way we treat each other, it would be reasonable to say we’re headed downwards on the social intelligence scale.
But if you really want to know where we are headed, ask a young person what question they’re capable of asking. They’ll surprise you.
And give you hope (h
From the stories and music that are published, we’re definitely losing steam in the intelligence department.
From the technology and infrastructure development, things seem a bit better.
From the way we organise ourselves, it looks like we’re going backwards, but it might be an important step to find footing for a leap forward.
From the way we treat each other, it would be reasonable to say we’re headed downwards on the social intelligence scale.
But if you really want to know where we are headed, ask a young person what question they’re capable of asking. They’ll surprise you.
And give you hope (hopefully).
no. that’s not how evolution works.
evolution happens by accident. the most desirable traits aren’t intentionally selected. traits are naturally selected over time, based on what is most conducive to procreation. and that often means evolution favors stupidity. for instance, we are largely incapable of comprehending arguments that challenge our beliefs, due to cognitive dissonance. why this trait would be evolved makes perfect sense when you consider the competitive nature of natural selection: if the result of evolution was the selection of traits that make us rational, honest, and fair, cogni
no. that’s not how evolution works.
evolution happens by accident. the most desirable traits aren’t intentionally selected. traits are naturally selected over time, based on what is most conducive to procreation. and that often means evolution favors stupidity. for instance, we are largely incapable of comprehending arguments that challenge our beliefs, due to cognitive dissonance. why this trait would be evolved makes perfect sense when you consider the competitive nature of natural selection: if the result of evolution was the selection of traits that make us rational, honest, and fair, cognitive dissonance wouldn’t exist. but a selective process that favors elitism, deceit, and selfishness provides a perfect explanation for that sort of mental deficiency. here’s a great article on “the myside bias” and how it fits with evolution:
Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
and, i found this recently:
Gene study shows evolution is making us stupid
also…human evolution is basically over. with plastic surgery giving people physical traits that aren’t in their genes, gene editing promising to give children different genes from their parents, artificial insemination allowing mothers to be impregnated by people they never met, sterilization preventing those who often have the most sex from having any children at all, etc., we have to throw everything we know about evolution out the window. evolution is over. we’re in phase 2.
Nobody knows.
Natural selection is acting on humans (contrary to other answers here), just like other species. We can, and have, measured this: Zen Faulkes's answer to What is the current evolution taking place in humans?
But for something to be changing due to natural selection, it has to be heritable. While at least some aspects of intelligence have a heritable component ( In ‘Enormous Success,’ Scientists Tie 52 Genes to Human Intelligence), nobody has done the serious population genetics that would be needed to show those alleles related to intelligence are changing in the population.
You can
Nobody knows.
Natural selection is acting on humans (contrary to other answers here), just like other species. We can, and have, measured this: Zen Faulkes's answer to What is the current evolution taking place in humans?
But for something to be changing due to natural selection, it has to be heritable. While at least some aspects of intelligence have a heritable component ( In ‘Enormous Success,’ Scientists Tie 52 Genes to Human Intelligence), nobody has done the serious population genetics that would be needed to show those alleles related to intelligence are changing in the population.
You can’t just look at intelligence test scores alone, because those are problematic due to bias, and environmental effects have been driving results for decades (Are we getting smarter). Intelligence has been increasing because education friggin’ works (How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis).
Brain size has been declining in the past 20,000 years (If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?), but evolution by natural selection doesn’t follow trends or inertia. It’s a response to the recent environment (with a healthy does of chance). You can only predict evolution in very broad strokes if you know the selective pressures that will be present in the future (e.g., we know many species will be under a selective regime of increased global temperatures). Even then, you may still get it wrong. That brains have been getting smaller does not mean that will continue. The trend could flip. And there might not be a strong relationship between brain size and intelligence anyway. We might be getting more efficient at packing the same neurons into smaller space.
Not your average text book answer, I assume you are asking this in a curious way and not writing a paper to hand in- ha ha:
From a previous post linked here:
David Kincade's answer to Where are we on the human evolution curve?
<< Intended evolution puts forward that the DNA is essentially an elaborate storage facility that saves WAY MORE information than we thought. A large part of your experience is saved in one way or another depending, of course on what came before, what we were able to store, BUT ALSO based on perceived relevance (i.e. "to the future"- clarified in a second). For example they
Not your average text book answer, I assume you are asking this in a curious way and not writing a paper to hand in- ha ha:
From a previous post linked here:
David Kincade's answer to Where are we on the human evolution curve?
<< Intended evolution puts forward that the DNA is essentially an elaborate storage facility that saves WAY MORE information than we thought. A large part of your experience is saved in one way or another depending, of course on what came before, what we were able to store, BUT ALSO based on perceived relevance (i.e. "to the future"- clarified in a second). For example they have found that traumatic events affect children and grand children. Information is especially saved as it pertains to need and relevance.
Now for sure the huge question here by the scientific mind is this: "What do you mean perceived relevance to the future? Organisms don't know what the future is, how can this be??
The paradox here can be solved by the realization that time and "future" is really just part of the nature of information itself:
David Kincade's answer to Is it possible that everything is made of information?
<<Time: the use of the terms pat- tern and information is the opposite of random which, by definition, is not recognizable to intelligent life: It is a lack of pattern or order.
Anything nonrandom has a temporal aspect to it, because a sequence or arrangement implies that one event occurs after another... which we have defined as time. So all information has our concept of time imbedded in it.
The future: The very nature of information therefore is that it can be used to project the future... a pattern implies usefulness in the future. We could say the value of information (any pattern... which includes everything we can perceive) is in its usefulness in projecting future outcomes... therefore stable and reliable information patterns are the most useful.>>
When we say "the future" it is simply X number of pattern iterations from now (day nite, clock cycles, etc.). So life has always been and continues to be an information processor... useful information is what is valuable to life, and it has generally increased it processing power when it made sense (as needed) resulting in evolution. In todays world there is more information being processed all the time. The big environmental demand in todays world is obviously more processing power:
We can learn faster than ever, and processing power demand is exploding due to our modern environment which not only facilitates it but allows us to differentiate and specialize even more... we can just sit and use our brains all the time (well, too much is not healthy, but you get the idea) because we have homes, cars, and all the things in society taking care of all the other physical stuff. This evolutionary functional demand (need for processing power) will keep getting passed down and humans will keep getting bigger and more powerful brains.
Hasn't this been going along for a long time??
Environmental change drives evolution... so YES, it been going on for a long time. Our perceived environmental change has gone parabolic and once we realize a lot more information than we thought, including the need for processing it, is passed down (Lamarackian), we will realize that evolution has completely changed and accelerated. We an expect the increase in processing power that is easily observable in through evolution of humans will continue, and increase.
Presently it seems the opposite. Actually recently read an article about some studies confirming this, but that doesn’t seem very thorough, yet.
But as a subjective feeling, I think we are getting more stupid.
Supposing it’s true, that needs examination for reasons - is it genetical or just educational? Answering that could also lead to answers on the original question.
Of course that would also require a definition and then a measure of intelligence - which we have too many of, but neither universally acceptable (don’t even come with IQ tests… it does meaure something, but noone really knows wha
Presently it seems the opposite. Actually recently read an article about some studies confirming this, but that doesn’t seem very thorough, yet.
But as a subjective feeling, I think we are getting more stupid.
Supposing it’s true, that needs examination for reasons - is it genetical or just educational? Answering that could also lead to answers on the original question.
Of course that would also require a definition and then a measure of intelligence - which we have too many of, but neither universally acceptable (don’t even come with IQ tests… it does meaure something, but noone really knows what…)
Then when we have a definition, we could analyise if that ability is important in any evolutionary pressure.
My subjective feeling is that humanity needs only a small group to be intelligent in the sense of being able to invent and create new things, and the rest needs to be of average intelligence (which is still very high compared to animals) to be able to use those things. Do you know how your smartphone really works? You can still use it. As can you drive a car, make a spreadsheet for finances, press the buttons on the factory machine in the order they are prescribed to you.
So what I think of as higher intelligence (that of scientists and engineers) is not under a strong evolutionary pressure. In the long term, it may be (think of natural and man-made disasters), but evolution doesn’t care about long term dangers. If something doesn’t make you produce more offspring who are then capable of doing the same, then that thing has not much chance to spread. Being too smart is not such a thing except for a very small number of people (where it is paired with other abilities like ambition, aggression etc). I recommend watching the intro of the satirical film Idiocracy. It’s actually about how people with higher education and life standard etc. are having fewer and fewer kids. (That’s not new of course, see also Demographic paradox.)
Based on the above, I’m not sure if getting more stupid does have an evolutionary advantage, but I’m not excluding the possibility. But I’d say that it’s mostly a social thing, with maybe a little bit of genetic change thrown in, which can only be analysed in the long term (and possibly with future technology only).
I’m going to say less. College enrollment has dropped by 17% over the past two years. From what I can see from my own observations, very few people read. They just watch the boob tube and regurgitate what they see there.
Neither, people are sticking to a normal distribution of intellegence. Many aging people like to key in the the less intellegent individuals of the younger generations and claim the worlds falling apart. Many young people like to key in on the most brilliant of younger individuals and claim humanity is pressing forward in terms of intellegence. Over the past 1,000 years their may be a slight general trend upwards but this is probably due to increased literacy and more readily acsseible education, masquerading as an increase in mental capacity.
On average, almost certainly the reverse.
Population keeps growing exponentially.
As Sturgeon’s Revelation puts it, colloquially, “90% of everything is crap.” (Corollary, 90% of everyone is a moron.)
QED, with exponential population growth, the number of morons grows faster than the number of folks with superior intelligence & critical thinking skills. Thus, the Bell curve shifts to the left.
The stunning epidemic of Dunning-Kruger syndrome, and of folks who succumb to moronic pontifications, is evidence of the trend. Perhaps fatally so - unless COVID-19 is sufficient to induce mass suicide of mor
On average, almost certainly the reverse.
Population keeps growing exponentially.
As Sturgeon’s Revelation puts it, colloquially, “90% of everything is crap.” (Corollary, 90% of everyone is a moron.)
QED, with exponential population growth, the number of morons grows faster than the number of folks with superior intelligence & critical thinking skills. Thus, the Bell curve shifts to the left.
The stunning epidemic of Dunning-Kruger syndrome, and of folks who succumb to moronic pontifications, is evidence of the trend. Perhaps fatally so - unless COVID-19 is sufficient to induce mass suicide of morons, through rejection of vaccination, masks, and social distancing. “Call it Evolution in Action.” (Or… more of us are going to have to start carrying flamethrowers, as self-protection weapons.)
Are humans getting smarter?
From the algorithms that make our social media accounts function to the sleep-tracking technology in our smartwatches, the world has never seemed so technologically advanced and developed. Which is why it would be easy to assume that with each generation, humans are getting smarter. But is this the case?
It’s a question many scientists have pondered, particularly so given that throughout the 20th century the average score on IQ tests around the world increased significantly – especially in the west. This increase was around three IQ points per decade – meaning we are
Are humans getting smarter?
From the algorithms that make our social media accounts function to the sleep-tracking technology in our smartwatches, the world has never seemed so technologically advanced and developed. Which is why it would be easy to assume that with each generation, humans are getting smarter. But is this the case?
It’s a question many scientists have pondered, particularly so given that throughout the 20th century the average score on IQ tests around the world increased significantly – especially in the west. This increase was around three IQ points per decade – meaning we are technically living with more geniuses on the planet than ever before.
This increase in IQ scores and the seeming tendency for intelligence levels to increase over time is known as the Flynn effect (named after the late US-born educator, James Flynn). And improvements in health and nutrition, better education and working conditions, along with recent access to technology have all contributed.
Indeed, in the 19th century, for example, industrialisation created large overcrowded cities with poor health outcomes and premature death. But improved housing, health and parenting, along with greater access to free education and gradual progression from manual to more intellectually demanding jobs, led many to live longer and healthier lives. Research even suggests there’s what’s known as an “IQ-mortality gradient” whereby smarter people often live longer.
Research in countries that have not undergone postindustrial development also supports the idea that improved access to education, housing and nutrition are the main factors that have led to IQ increases. A study of sub-Saharan African countries, for example, found that the Flynn effect has not yet taken hold there. Or in other words, IQ test results have not massively increased because life circumstances haven’t significantly improved for a large number of people.
But that’s not the whole story, because over the past 30 years there have been some reports of decreased performance on IQ tests in some countries. So is it fair to assume that humans in the west have reached peak intelligence?
PEAK INTELLIGENCE?
Intelligence quotient, or IQ tests, are a measure of reasoning and the ability to use information and logic quickly. The tests assess short and long-term memory through puzzles and test a person’s ability to recall information.
While IQ test results have been increasing for some time, research suggesting a “reverse Flynn effect”, indicates this upward trend may now be slowing. A Norwegian study, for example, found that men born before 1975 showed the expected positive “Flynn effect” of a three point gain for each successive decade. But for those born after 1975, there was a steady decline in IQ. This amounts to a seven point difference between generations – with average IQs having dropped by around 0.2 points a year. Other studies carried out between 2005 to 2013 in the UK, Sweden and France have also shown similar results.
These results are hard to explain, but it has been suggested that it may be linked to changes in the way that children are taught in schools. This has been a time that has seen major shifts away from reading serious literature and rote learning – a memorisation technique based on repetition – to a more collective scientific problem-solving approach, which is now taught to most children in the west.
These “student-centred” teaching methods are now combined with interpersonal skills and teamwork along with encouragement for students to understand the emotional insights of others. The overall impact of this approach might encourage smarter and more effective working but places less emphasis on individual skills required in IQ tests. So maybe in that sense, we’re just not as good at carrying out IQ tests any more.
It has been suggested that a decrease in nutritional standards could also play a role. In the UK, for example, many people struggle to meet adequate nutritional guidelines. Immigration of people who grew up in conditions of greater poverty along with the tendency for the more intelligent to have fewer children have also been put forward as possible theories.
“”BIASED AND FAIR"”
Another consideration is that over the past 50 years, questions about the suitability of IQ tests have been raised – described in some quarters as biased, unfair and unappropriate. Indeed, the use of IQ tests for job and school selection has diminished. It’s likely then that this decline in use, coupled with a reduction in coaching for such tests, has led to poorer performance when IQ tests are used.
So, in answer to the question are humans getting smarter – it’s hard to say. But what is certain is that the lower IQ scores are not necessarily a sign that humans are now less intelligent, more just that people are scoring lower on IQ tests. And, in this sense, potential reasons for a declining IQ should be seen in context – one where the prevailing view of IQ tests has changed.
It’s also important to think about what IQ tests actually measure – and what they don’t – along with what we mean when we talk about intelligence. IQ tests, for example, are no good at measuring things like personality, creativity, or emotional and social intelligence – or even wisdom. These are attributes that many of us may well prize over and above a high scoring IQ test result.
👋🏻Ciao!
2020–02–19: Flynn and McGuffey
Nearly everything I know about the Flynn effect I learned just now from reading some of the other answers here. I’m just going to be overly anecdotal, and not really analytical.
I’ve heard college students protesting and seen them interviewed on TV, and I’ve seen others randomly interviewed. I know the one’s I’m thinking of are mostly not in the STEM fields. But they are COLLEGE “students”.
I also have (somewhere) a reprint of an old 6th grade McGuffey reader. (Edit: originally I said 8th grade, but the highest grade I found was a 6th grade McGuffey. That changes no
2020–02–19: Flynn and McGuffey
Nearly everything I know about the Flynn effect I learned just now from reading some of the other answers here. I’m just going to be overly anecdotal, and not really analytical.
I’ve heard college students protesting and seen them interviewed on TV, and I’ve seen others randomly interviewed. I know the one’s I’m thinking of are mostly not in the STEM fields. But they are COLLEGE “students”.
I also have (somewhere) a reprint of an old 6th grade McGuffey reader. (Edit: originally I said 8th grade, but the highest grade I found was a 6th grade McGuffey. That changes nothing.). I think it would be over the heads of many of today’s college students. I’m 75 and I know my grandparents could recite poetry and find bible verses, and knew a lot about how our government worked.
We have a lot more information available and much progress in transportation, business, communication, and information processing, and maybe we are better at certain types of testing. But I can’t believe that on the whole we are smarter than the people who understood what they read in the McGuffey reader.
Judging by the standard of questions we sometimes see on Quora, we may be forgiven for thinking that. I think people areas intelligent as ever they were, but unfortunately, due to things like Lockdowns and hours spent on mobile devices and the like, it is the art of conversation which is dying.
A lack of worthwhile conversation can give the impression that a person is dull as they seemingly have little or nothing to say, but this is not necessarily the case.
Quite the opposite. I think that with all the advances in technology, humans are getting stupider. I saw a man almost get hit by a truck this morning because he was crossing the street while texting on his phone. It's like people lack awareness or just blatantly ignore it because their FB or IG newsfeed is more important than their surroundings. These phones do everything for us. Between GPS and A
Quite the opposite. I think that with all the advances in technology, humans are getting stupider. I saw a man almost get hit by a truck this morning because he was crossing the street while texting on his phone. It's like people lack awareness or just blatantly ignore it because their FB or IG newsfeed is more important than their surroundings. These phones do everything for us. Between GPS and Autocorrect, no one knows how to read a map or spell anymore. Everyone walks around like zombies now and make themselves easy targets for thefts and prone to accidents.
Also, there is now a new Board of Education policy where teachers are not allowed to correct the spelling of their students because it will make them feel bad and lower their confidence. It's like we are encouraging people to be stupid in America. We are living in a society where you get trophies just for participating and those who are smart and/or good athletes are told to dumb themselves down and to score less points for their team so that the other kids won't feel intimidated. Maybe we should encourage the other students and players to work harder instead of discouraging those who are smart and talented to be something less just because it...
Stupidity and smartness, both are relative things and I do not think that there are any precise definitions for stupidity and smartness. So far I know there is no any record of stupidity and smartness of previous generations of human. So how can we compare? After reading this answer some people may take me as a stupid and some may take me as a little bit smart but to be precise what am I, stupid or smart? Thus in my opinion the stupidity or the smartness of a person lasts only till the context lasts and these things cannot be compared being based on time or other variables.
No! Intelligence doesn’t evolve. We certainly have more technology than our ancient ancestors but technology is built one brick upon another. We might have more information but trivia does not make one smart.
I think we would have to define what intelligence is first. If we compare the evolution of intelligence with our ancient ancestors, we would have to consider how intelligent our ancient ancestors would be, given the same set of circumstances. I rationalize that if you took an ancient person, as a baby and transported them to here and now, they would be as intelligent as anyone! Possibly ev
No! Intelligence doesn’t evolve. We certainly have more technology than our ancient ancestors but technology is built one brick upon another. We might have more information but trivia does not make one smart.
I think we would have to define what intelligence is first. If we compare the evolution of intelligence with our ancient ancestors, we would have to consider how intelligent our ancient ancestors would be, given the same set of circumstances. I rationalize that if you took an ancient person, as a baby and transported them to here and now, they would be as intelligent as anyone! Possibly even more so. Here’s what I think; then, less intelligent people died. So, the gene pool was stronger than it is today. Back then, survivors had to compete with other survivors and that made them even sharper. Add to that, that mistakes at any given time we’re lethal. I’m sure the circumstances then would tend to keep survivors sharp at all times. They always had to use their brains!
What’s intelligence? Intelligence is not knowledge gained, as much as it is knowledge potential! If the potential is there, the rest is academic. If you took a today person and transported them to ancient times, how long would they survive?
Intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes and make transformative changes. Afterall, knowledge is useless if it doesn’t serve any tangible purpose. The purest form of intelligence is ones ability to survive without corruption, theft or murder!
No. Humans overall are becoming significantly dumber.
While a few people manage to improve our technology, they do it only in a very narrow area with small improvements over an existing technology.
But there aren’t any more Leonardos, no new Mozarts, not new Shakespeares. Public schools, television and other “stupidity propagators” prevent that.
Some people are becoming more intelligent and smarter and some not.
We are becoming more “smart", which is not good news. Smart is the virtue of foxes, not Homo sapiens.
A great illustration of this is the Sorcerer's apprentice, a good visualization of it is found in Disney’s FANTASIA.
The sorcerer's apprentice (Mickey Mouse) is a smart boy. And lazy, And arrogant. He is asked to fetch water, but hey, that’s menial! He is a magician, remember? He is the ruler, and in an episode, the conductor of the Universe.
So he puts a spell on the broom [robot]. Let IT fetch water. While it does that, Mickey dreams wonderful dreams about how he controls the entire universe. E
We are becoming more “smart", which is not good news. Smart is the virtue of foxes, not Homo sapiens.
A great illustration of this is the Sorcerer's apprentice, a good visualization of it is found in Disney’s FANTASIA.
The sorcerer's apprentice (Mickey Mouse) is a smart boy. And lazy, And arrogant. He is asked to fetch water, but hey, that’s menial! He is a magician, remember? He is the ruler, and in an episode, the conductor of the Universe.
So he puts a spell on the broom [robot]. Let IT fetch water. While it does that, Mickey dreams wonderful dreams about how he controls the entire universe. Everything dances to his baton. [Our wet AI dreams.]
There’s just one flaw; he has only one half of the magic formula. He can start the process (the broom) but he cannot stop it. So the broom fetches more and more water, until we have a catastrophic deluge situation.
So Mickey kills the broom, cuts it in two, but that’s cloning; it only makes matters worse.
Finally the master magician wakes up, sees the mess Mickey has created, utters the magic word (“ENOUGH”), and thus stops the debacle. He saves the day and slaps the boy to teach him an important lesson.
That’s us humans. Smart, advanced, technologically savvy, but also dumb, lazy (let AI and robots do our work), proudly arrogant and not possessing the whole magical formula.
We are unable to stop what we have started (environmental degradation, etc.) Of course we pretend we don’t WANT to stop it. Sour said the fox.
And who is going to save us and teach us a lesson? We are the apprentices without sorcerer.
Sorcerer's Apprentice - Fantasia
Patreon: Ladislaus Horatius is creating The Venusian Peace Project |
I believe through compounding knowledge we as humans have gained so much information over the past 100 years. And I think that knowledge is going to spread and increase exponentially in the next 15-20 years thanks to having information at your fingertips. Now children born today will have information available to them from the moment they put in their first Google search forward, I can't even begin to imagine how far that will push mankind. Compared to the dial up internet I had when I was 15 (if my parents would let me use their computer), or even the baby boomers having to wait until they're
I believe through compounding knowledge we as humans have gained so much information over the past 100 years. And I think that knowledge is going to spread and increase exponentially in the next 15-20 years thanks to having information at your fingertips. Now children born today will have information available to them from the moment they put in their first Google search forward, I can't even begin to imagine how far that will push mankind. Compared to the dial up internet I had when I was 15 (if my parents would let me use their computer), or even the baby boomers having to wait until they're adults to get online. Now kids recieve iPhones at such an early age and that age seems to always be getting younger and younger, I could imagine 3 or 4 year old babies getting their own iPads in the next few years, so I definitely believe that knowledge is spreading and growing and I can't wait to see where we will be in the next 25 years. Do you think people are becoming more clever? To me what seems to be getting worse is the increased lack of common sense that really makes people look dumb, it could get quite annoying as I'm sure some of you feel this way... So, I don't know about becoming more cleverer. Maybe what's going on is -the more knowledge we gain over time, the more that "Quick Witt cleverness" part of our brain in the majority of people is shrinking. Or maybe (like someone has mentioned before or the way I interpreted it)- the more the unclever people who reproduce the more unclever people we have in our society due to the easy survival life mankind has made for us... I'm not really sure what's going on in the evolution of our brain but I am really excited for the future.
No.
Two hundred years ago, most people didn’t have the advantage of attending schools, yet they were able to build a nation, provide for themselves, and deal with adversity in a way people couldn’t handle today.
Dumb people wouldn’t have survived.
Our collective knowledge has increased exponentially, yet individual intelligence has not been able to keep up. You take an average person today and place them in the same situation as people from 200 years ago, and they would look like idiots, requiring others to provide for them.
some r getting and some are becoming fools
my dad and i read now read all day on our phones of medical science and, theology n history
some people see porn, politics and, social media all day
ask older people about health and diet.
they mostly know nothing about carbs AND beta blockers…they know nothing Of nutrition
like never before we choose to be smart or dumb
believe wut u want
People are becoming more stupidier these days just because of the crazy things they do.
If current events are any indication, that’s a big no!
Original Question: Do you believe the human race is becoming more or less intelligent?
I think that we, as a species, are about as smart as we’ve been for at least the last 50,000 years.
Natural selection is a slow process. It hasn’t had time to boost or dim our brain power during a historical span of time.
Sorry, unless you are taking a “seventh generation” perspective, nothing in the way of biological evolution is happening at a noticeable pace.
However, Flynn has a TED talk on youtube explaining we’re IQ-er than we used to be, say, last century.
It’s a more interesting question if you frame it without the word “evolve.” With it, well, we artificially select each other for features like smarts and that might eventually accrue…but here once again there’s no accounting for taste.