Researchers say Western IQs dropped 14 points over last century

Yahoo! News ^ | May 24, 2013 | Eric Pfeiffer

[Slings and Arrows]

A new study from researchers in Europe claims that the average IQ in Western nations dropped by a staggering 14.1 points over the past century.

"We tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were cleverer than modern populations using high-quality instruments, namely measures of simple visual reaction time in a meta-analytic study," the researchers wrote in the study, which was published online in the journal Intelligence on Thursday. "Simple reaction time measures correlate substantially with measures of general intelligence and are considered elementary measures of cognition."

-snip-

The results were measured using data from 1889 to 2004 and were analyzed by Michael A. Woodley of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, Jan te Nijenhuis of the University of Amsterdam and Raegan Murphy of the University College Cork in Ireland.

So why has there been such a steady drop? As UPI notes, previous research studies have found that women of higher intelligence tend to have fewer children on average, meaning that population growth may be driven by those with a lower IQ. And over time, the abundance of less intelligent offspring would affect the overall IQ average.

On average, the general intelligence of those populations measured dropped by 1.23 points per decade.

"These findings strongly indicate that with respect to general intelligence the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations," the study says.

[tbw2]

IQ tests were often given by the schools. I don’t know if standardized tests today often include a formal “IQ” test anymore.

[Sherman Logan]

All these, as you are no doubt aware, pull up the low end of the scale. They allow those who in previous centuries would not have been able to get close to their genetic potential, to actually do so.

I don’t buy “better nutrition for everyone.” I don’t believe that the children of upper or middle class people ever suffered from nutritionally imposed failure to develop mentally.

Poor people, sure. And since through almost all human history most people have been poor, slight improvements in diet for them made huge differences in average IQ.

[dennisw]

Steve Sailer is one of the best commentators on IQ and like matters plus good people comment on his blog

[boop]

That is true about EQ. I've noticed that a large % of people in IT do have low EQs, but I'd bet that their IQs are off the charts.

I remember one guy who would help with my computer at my office, who was really friendly, but he just wouldn't stop talking about Star Wars/Fantasy/Star Trek.

Now I like Star Trek, but this guy didn't know when to give it a rest.

My non-verbal cues went right over this guy's head.

[23 Everest]

Thank you, I feel smarter already, in a metaphorical kind of way. :-D