Dysgenic decline of average IQ

[mlw]

"The Population Cycle Drives Human History - from a Eugenic Phase into a
Dysgenic Phase and Eventual Collapse". By Volkmar Weiss, German Central
Office for Genealogy, Leipzig.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6557/1/pearson-publishedcycleJSPES32-3Weiss.pdf

See also the following article according to which the average genotypic
intelligence level of Victorian Era individuals was higher than that of
people today, by 14.1 IQ points.
http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2013/05/the-victorians-substantially-cleverer-modern-populations/

"Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general
intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple
reaction time". By Michael A. Woodley, Jan te Nijenhuis, Raegan Murphy.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613000470

M. Winther
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/

 

[theHawk]

Why should we be surprised?

Societies now reward stupidity and punish the successful.

Progressivism, ain't it great?

 

[DGS49]

Consider the intellectual circumstances of a typical American 200 years ago. Probably 8-10 years of public or religious schooling, in which the three "R's" are emphasized, along with study of the Bible. No TV, no Radio, no Internet, no phone, no "sports." Probably the only book in the house is the Bible, but maybe a book or two of the Classics (Homer) or poetry. No electricity (think, electric light). No indoor plumbing.

The local Church was the main gathering place. When people got together socially, the focus was on conversation, drinking, and music.

Life was hard. Most jobs were 6 days a week, 12 hours per day, or you were working similar hours on a farm. If you were lucky enough to go to university, you went there at age 13-14 (corresponding with Confirmation or Bar Mitzvah), or otherwise started working full-time at the same age as an apprentice, or on your family farm. What we now call "adolescence" did not exist.

For entertainment, they would read the Bible, make music, or converse. When the sun went down, generally so did they. When the sun came up so did they. 10 hours of sleep per day was the norm - reading by candle-light is very tiring.

We are certainly more stimulated today, but most of that stimulation is to the detriment of intellectual development - it is intellectually lazy and spoon-fed.

More recently, in the 1930's only about 25% of the population were HS grads. Today a similar percentage of the adult population is college grads.

Do you honestly think we are that much smarter?

I don't.

 

[BobPlumb]

How can we accurately compare the IQs of people today to those over a hundred years ago? Its not like we can administer an IQ test to dead people. Samples of writing can be analyzed to estimate IQ, but this will have skewed results. People with low IQs that did little to no writing will be left out of the sample group while those with higher IQs, perhaps highly educated for the time, and highly skilled will have left behind documents that can be analysed to estimate IQ.

 

[BobPlumb]

The studies use reaction times to estimate IQ!

 

[rightwinger]

Idiocrisy lives!

 

[ScienceRocks]

The knowledge is easy to get and open to everyone


Sadly, we have become a society of lazy violent fucks that don't try hard.

 

[DGS49]

Bullshit. I exert a great deal of effort to be lazy.

And I succeed, day in and day out!