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IQ is rising in many parts of the world. What's behind the change and does it really mean people are cleverer than their grandparents?
It is not unusual for parents to comment that their children are brainier than they are. In doing so, they hide a boastful remark about their offspring behind a self-deprecating one about themselves. But a new study, published in the journal Intelligence, provides fresh evidence that in many cases this may actually be true.
The researchers - Peera Wongupparaj, Veena Kumari and Robin Morris at Kings College London - did not themselves ask anyone to sit an IQ test, but they analysed data from 405 previous studies. Altogether, they harvested IQ test data from more than 200,000 participants, captured over 64 years and from 48 countries.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RedBear on Thursday March 05 2015, @05:36AM
I watched a Ted talk a while back about this exact thing. I couldn't remember who it was who gave the talk. Turns out it's the researcher who the "Flynn Effect" was named after: James Flynn. Pretty good talk. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
James Flynn: Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents [ted.com]
The quote that I particularly remember was Flynn talking about discussing the mistreatment of black people with family and friends decades ago (he's white). He would say to them (paraphrasing), "Imagine if you were black, is this how you would want to be treated?" and they would simply reply, "Son, that's the dumbest thing you've ever said." Or something of that sort. They literally couldn't think abstractly in such a way as to be capable of thinking of themselves as not being white. To their brains, that's just not how the universe works. There was simply no discussion to be had over such a silly idea.
Fast forward a couple of generations later and nearly every person he talks to now is capable of imagining themselves as not being [ white | black | male | female | straight | gay | etc ], and capable of having a discussion about whether they would like to be treated a certain way "if they were X". In other words, abstract thinking, in some ways, has actually measurably improved in just a few short generations. Except of course among those who score very high on the Right Wing Authoritarian scale. High RWAs continue to exhibit a remarkable lack of abstract thinking capability and an inability to identify logical fallacies. [umanitoba.ca]
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 05 2015, @06:05AM
This is exactly what I was referring to in my comment above [soylentnews.org], I didn't mention the name which is the "Flynn Effect".
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday March 05 2015, @01:55PM
I posit that TV and movies may have been significant contributors to the improvement in abstract thought.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:53PM
Fans of Survivor, American Idol, and Fox News are significant examples to the contrary.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Balderdash on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:38PM
I had a dream about being a crippled black lesbian atheist.
I don't know how it is in real life, but in the dream world you get like $10,000.00 per month in EBT to spend on noodles and diet sodas.
It was pretty sweet except for the morbid obesity and constant influx of daytime television and talk shows.
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