US IQ Scores See Historic Drop After Nearly 100 Years
A new study from the journal Intelligence found that IQ scores in the United States have dropped for the first time in nearly 100 years.
The researchers did not disclose how much the decline was. However, they noted that the biggest decrease was in people aged 18 to 22 and the less-well-educated.
They conducted the study before the pandemic that disrupted schools worldwide, so the lockdowns may have exacerbated the issue.
Why did US IQ scores drop?
IQ scores in the US DROP for first time in nearly 100 years https://t.co/IkurwxryBo
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 9, 2023
Scientists from the University of Oregon and Northwestern wanted to prove the “Flynn effect” coined by James Flynn in 1994.
He was a professor from New Zealand who believed each generation tended to become smarter than the previous.
Consequently, Elizabeth Dworak, William Revelle, and David Condon checked 400,000 online IQ tests conducted between 2006 and 2018.
Surprisingly, they found the United States was undergoing a “reverse Flynn effect.” It seems young Americans have lower IQ scores than previous generations.
They were flunking in verbal reasoning, numerical series testing, and visual problem-solving. On other hand, only 3D spatial reasoning tests showed an uptick.
The journal from Intelligence concluded the results “indicate a change of quality or content of education and test-taking skills within.”
Moreover, the quality of education or the perceived value of specific cognitive skills may have shifted because the scores were lower for more recent participants.
However, professor Jim Al-Khalili warned that the internet and social media have been making people “dumber.”
The Life Scientific presenter on BBC elaborated, “When I say people may be getting dumber, I don’t mean less clever but rather perhaps less willing to focus or think things through.”
Technology brings a torrent of information via social media that the “brain cannot cope” with it. Consequently, Al-Khalili said, “we get our information chopped up into little bite-sized morsels…”
“…work out what believe or don’t believe in a flash, then move on to something else because we don’t have the time to focus,” he added.
Verbal reasoning, numerical series testing, and visual problem-solving were the factors in the US IQ score drop.
Notably, these are also skills that require “thinking things through,” the skill Al-Khalili says we are allegedly losing due to technology.
