Scientists have recorded a steady decline in IQ scores. Why is the world intellectually degrading?
Futurists at one time predicted: people will grow smarter and increase the volume of the brain. As a result, our descendants will become wise and big-headed. Perhaps someday this will begin to happen. But so far scientists are observing the opposite trend: namely, global stupidity. It is expressed in a drop from year to year in IQ indicators on a global scale.
The test results can be found in the archives and compare the results of past years with the present. This is what, for example, Richard Lynn, a psychologist at the University of Ulster, did. At his disposal were the intellectual indicators of Americans, Europeans and Australians.
Richard determined the average values - a kind of world levels of intelligence over the years. And I found that by 2014 IQ had dropped by almost 3 points from the 1950 level. And if the stupidity continues at the current pace, then by 2110 the IQ of humanity will fall below 84 points. This will mean that it will become mentally mediocre.
Intellect, as they say, is rolling downhill …
Lynn's colleague Michael Woodley of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium recently pulled up the response rate data. And it turns out to be declining. A hundred years ago, people in experiments pressed a button when they saw a light signal on the screen, on average after 194 milliseconds. The latency is now 275 milliseconds. A delayed reaction indicates a decrease in the speed of transmission of nerve impulses.
The IQ data used for the analysis did not affect Russia, where intelligence tests have always been less popular than in the West. Therefore, one can only guess how things are with us. And hope that the process of global stupidity has not affected the Russians. And who knows, suddenly we have become smarter at all. At least on average.
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The sages died out long ago
Naturally, scientists are trying to understand the causes of the phenomenon. And the most sane suppose: where they get stupid, something is wrong with education. But there are other ideas as well.
For example, Professor Jan te Nijenhuis of the University of Amsterdam believes that a person's intellectual level is limited by a certain genetic limit. And humanity has already reached it. And now it only degrades. This is mainly because the smart do not reproduce as actively as the stupid.
Let's check the intelligence? The correct answer is under the picture
(The authors of this test claim that the 1st shape is an extra piece, since it does not have unique distinguishing features from the rest of the shapes.)
The professor found the guilty ones. These - women who have received a good education - give birth to fewer of their less intellectually developed sisters. Here "wise" genes are gradually disappearing.
At Stanford University, the reason for the decline in intelligence is seen in the fact that the law of natural selection, discovered by Darwin, has ceased to work. And people do not need to fight for survival as they did in ancient times. Scientific and technological progress has relieved most of humanity from the need to strain the brain in order to get food and clothing, to find where to hide from animals and enemies. Similar thoughts that developed the brains of our ancestors have now left us.
- The genes responsible for the development of intelligence began to develop rapidly due to mutations provoked by harsh conditions, - says one of the authors of the study, Dr. Gerald Crabtree.
Further, "in connection with the development of agriculture and urbanization, it has become much easier to live" - the intellectual power of a person began to decline. And the current mutations only weaken it.
“We reached our peak several thousand years ago and have been rolling downhill ever since,” Crabtree is convinced.
The most original hypothesis came from German researchers from the University of Erlangen. They believe that people began to rest often. This is the reason for the decline in intelligence. After all, just two weeks spent lazily by the sea in idle bliss can reduce IQ by 20 points at once due to partial atrophy of cells in the frontal lobes of the brain. The situation is aggravated by numerous holidays, which workers turn into additional vacations.
The loss of intelligence is, of course, restored over time. But not all of them fully.
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Or maybe he's not such a fool?
Intelligence tests were invented by the British psychologist Hans Jurgen Eysenck. In tests, you need to solve logic puzzles, skillfully manipulate letters and solve abstract charades in a certain time. For correct answers, points are awarded, which together give the intelligence quotient - IQ.
People with a mediocre intelligence score below 80 points, with an average - from 90 to 115. An IQ of 120 is considered high. But how true is this division of people into fools and geniuses?
In an experiment conducted by scientists from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the Natural Science Museum in London, volunteers were tested while in a tomograph. They were monitored for brain activity. And we saw that during the solution of different tasks different areas of the brain are activated.
Perhaps intelligence tests are useless
“Human intelligence is not a single entity, but is formed from many components,” concluded the head of the study, Professor Adrian Owen. He - intelligence - is a set of independent and different types of thinking abilities. A person can be strong in one of these areas, but weak in others. Therefore, attempts to measure the level of intelligence as a single indicator is the deepest delusion.
So maybe the conclusion that the world is increasingly obsessed with stupidity is worth arguing?