Study claims humans are becoming less intelligent

cbsnews ^ | November 13, 2012, 10:47 AM | By Tia Ghose

[dennisw]

Humans may be gradually losing intelligence, according to a new study.

The study, published today (Nov. 12) in the journal Trends in Genetics, argues that humans lost the evolutionary pressure to be smart once we started living in dense agricultural settlements several thousand years ago.

"The development of our intellectual abilities and the optimization of thousands of intelligence genes probably occurred in relatively non-verbal, dispersed groups of peoples [living] before our ancestors emerged from Africa," said study author Gerald Crabtree, a researcher at Stanford University, in a statement.

Since then it's all been downhill, Crabtree contends.

The theory isn't without critics, with one scientist contacted by LiveScience suggesting that rather than losing our smarts, humans have just diversified them with various types of intelligence today.

Life or death situations

Early humans lived or died by their spatial abilities, such as quickly making a shelter or spearing a saber-toothed tiger. Nowadays, though almost everyone has the spatial ability to do ostensibly simple tasks like washing dishes or mowing the lawn, such tasks actually require a lot of brainpower, the researchers note.

"A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his/her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate. Clearly, extreme selection is a thing of the past," the researchers write in the journal article.

[tsowellfan]

Less “informed” would be a better word.

[Vigilanteman]

Tuesday of last week was proof positive of this thesis.

[dennisw]

A “low information” humans can do quite well in America when they have a patron Saint Obama

[yldstrk]

the ones here are that is for sure

[An Old Man]

I suppose that I really needed something like this.

[RoosterRedux]

You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude, so that's what you call me. Or maybe His Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

Mary Jane kills the brain!

Don't do it!

[allmendream]

Only due to overpopulation in the third world.

The trend in developed nations is upwards in IQ every year.

This is largely due to better nutrition and less childhood disease leading to larger and smarter people on average.

In the USA the trend is upwards.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The last “election” here in this country is proof of that.

[Terry Mross]

Of course, humans are becoming less intelligent. And they join the democrat party. Conservatives aren’t getting more intelligent either. That’s why RINOs get elected and nominated.

[hinckley buzzard]

Two potential trends which deserve consideration:

1) The gene pool becomes shallower as the survival value of intelligence is diluted by communal support for the incompetent, who unfortunately are rather fertile.

2)The new genetics explores the "turning on and off" of genes according to adaptive requirements in the environment. This neo-Lamarckianism offers the promise that novel intellectual challenges, specifically based on the burgeoning of digital technology, may activate and energize genetic capacities unknown to previous generations.

The possibility exists that the next generation or two may interact and relate to their world in ways very different than what we understand today. The proliferation of the digital age will likely have consequences for cognitive development that are essentially unforeseeable, and may make current understandings of intelligence obsolete.

[Hardraade]

IQ levels are actually plunging. It’s not difficult to see.

Look at the literacy rate. Half the people are hardly human.

[bigbob]

I’ve seen evidence that as the density of habitation increases, the intelligence level goes down

[MarkL]

It certainly explains the results of the last 2 presidential elections... Obamba is a master of the Jedi Mind Trick against those weak minded fools!

Mark

[SC_Pete]

As soon as I put down my stone axe and traded my bark canoe for a Denali, I have felt so much less clever. /s

Obviously, people in the bush are so much smarter than we are. Even though that is not reflected in standardized tests, the tests are wrong.

[dennisw]

1) The gene pool becomes shallower as the survival value of intelligence is diluted by communal support for the incompetent, who unfortunately are rather fertile.

[nothingnew]

All this means is the OBAMABOTS are taking over. As you all know, we are too stupid to understand his magnificence and superior intelligence.

FMCDH(BITS)

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Tuesday of last week was proof positive of this thesis.

I knew this would be one of the first remarks on this thread.

[maro]

I have read the same thing. But my nonscientific sense is that our culture is getting dumber each year. Just look at TV and newspapers. Newspapers were written for 12th graders 25 years ago. Now, they are aiming a few grades lower. So my conclusion, again nonscientific, is that the uptick in IQs is due to a raising of the left hand side of the curve.

[PGalt]

Conversation on a zerohedge thread...

Water Is Wet(poster), “E’ERY BODY IN CLE’LAND GOT OBAMAPHONE!”

cnmcdee (poster), “LMAO but we have created a new subset language consisting of tonal clicks, pops, hyphenated abbreviations and digitized text messages....

:-)

In three or four generations the vocal cords of the texters should be atrophied enough that they can no longer speak, and when they do it will be primal utterances and inflections...”