Those who claim that all times in the past were better now have a reason, supported by a scientific study, to cling to this belief: this study, prepared by the Norwegian Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research , estimates, after gathering a sophisticated group of evidence experimentalists, that their IQ scores have slowly but inexorably declined in recent decades.
Does that mean that the human is getting ‘dumber’ as time goes by? It depends on what we mean by intelligence. For the moment, what the study shows is that modern humans, at some point in the history of the last century, began to become ‘less intelligent’ as measured by IQ tests. Specifically, since 1976.
The study consisted of analyzing the results of the IQ tests of a group of young men, those who entered the Norwegian national service (which is compulsory) between the years 1970 to 2009.
In total, 730,000 results were posted. When studying the data, the researchers found that the scores decreased by an average of 7 points per generation – a clear decrease in the results of the tests, which have been running for about 70 years.
The ‘Flynn effect’ has ceased
Previous studies have shown that people who grew up in the first half of the 20th century had higher IQs than their ancestors, a trend known as the ‘Flynn effect’.
Although a clear conclusion was never reached regarding the reason for this growing trend, several factors were speculated to improve the quality of life, such as better nutrition, health care, an improvement in education …
However, the growing trend is over, according to the new study.
Less books and more screens
The researchers found some differences between the family groups, suggesting that part of the decline in results could be due to environmental factors. But they also suggest that lifestyle changes could also explain part of the decline, such as changes in the educational system: children reading less and interacting more with screens.
Similar investigations
Unfortunately, other researchers have found similar results. A British team found that IQ test scores fell 2.5 to 4.3 points every decade since around the end of World War II.
For its part, in December 2017 another group from the US discovered that children who grow up eating a lot of fish tended to have higher IQs and also slept better, which is another factor involved in adult intelligence levels.
A change in the way intelligence is measured
What can we conclude from these results? To affirm that the human being is inexorably becoming ‘dumber’ over the decades would perhaps be misleading, since it is a statement subject to a single measuring stick , which has been used for generations: the coefficient test. intellectual.
If the scores on this test are getting lower and lower, one wonders if it would not be necessary to establish a change in the way in which educational systems and researchers have to measure human intelligence. While this appears to be changing, it may not mean that the change is significantly ‘for the worse’.
It may be that, simply, the intelligences (which are multiple in the human being), capacities and areas of human operation are changing with the simple passage of evolution, and that this trend is neither better nor worse than the comparison with previous generations.
Is the disuse of books in favor of the massive use of screens indicating lower cognitive capacity? Is the decrease in concentration times a detrimental element for the modern human life?
Aren’t researchers choosing outdated intelligence measurement models?
Source: Bernt Bratsberg et al. ‘Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1718793115
