Is everyone getting a bit thicker?

15-06-2018 05:01AM #1

Yes............but we still have some people smart enough to point it out which is a relief, right?

Since the Second World War, the IQ of young people was observed to be steadily rising. Dubbed the Flynn effect — named after the work of New Zealand intelligence researcher James Flynn — it described a phenomenon in which humans’ intelligence quotient was rising at a rate of about three IQ points per decade in the 20th century.

However, that has been shown to have topped out around 1975 with IQ scores now falling. “Recent years have seen a slowdown or reversal of this trend in several countries,” researchers wrote in a new paper, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/the-reverse-of-the-flynn-effect-science-suggests-we-might-be-getting-dumber/news-story/ce3475a0817e65bd6e7710cca8b55074

Researchers from the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Norway studied the IQ scores of about 730,000 Norwegian men born between 1962 and 1991. They found that scores grew by nearly three percentage points every decade for people born between 1962 and 1975. But among those born after 1975, scores fell.

The cause of the IQ decline is due to environmental factors, and not genetics

http://time.com/5311672/iq-scores-decline-environment/

Here is the paper

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/06/05/1718793115

Peregrinus · 15-06-2018 05:13AM

We're not getting thicker. We're just getting less adept at taking IQ tests, which is not the same thing at all.

wexandproud · 15-06-2018 05:16AM

and to compound the problem , with the development of social media platforms there are more and more ways to show just how much thicker people have become

Fr_Dougal · 15-06-2018 05:53AM

444b7d23577af87568222c35641d32dd--father-ted-british-humour.jpg

15-06-2018 06:28AM

Peregrinus wrote: »

We're not getting thicker. We're just getting less adept at taking IQ tests, which is not the same thing at all.

Have to agree. Since they've fallen out of favour and people realise they're pointless, no one looks at them anymore or knows what types of questions come up.

begbysback · 15-06-2018 06:31AM

Based from the data sample of people I meet on a daily basis, I concur

Peregrinus · 15-06-2018 06:34AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Have to agree. Since they've fallen out of favour and people realise they're pointless, no one looks at them anymore or knows what types of questions come up.

Yup. In the 1950s and 60s they were all the go, and taken very seriously, and kids got quite a lot of exposure to IQ tests, and other similar tests, and had much practice in taking them. Also exposure to teaching methods derived from them.

But kids born from 1975 onwards are entering formal education from about 1980, and are being tested (in the context of army recruitment) from about 1993. They've had quite a different learning environment, which hasn't fostered the skills required to perform well in IQ tests to the same extent.

Basically, IQ tests are old-fashioned.

TheValeyard · 15-06-2018 06:35AM

Yeah everyone is getting dumbering butz me

Allinall · 15-06-2018 06:38AM

Will the sugar tax not sort it out?

jim salter · 15-06-2018 07:32AM

People are thick as fůck and getting thicker.

The inability to construct a sentence without using 'like' multiple times and 'super' to express fůck knows what.

Thank you X-factor, Live Island and all them dumbass shows that brain dead people are glued to.

https://youtu.be/BBvIweCIgwk

Mongfinder General · 15-06-2018 07:36AM

jim salter wrote: »

People are thick as fůck and getting thicker.

The inability to construct a sentence without using 'like' multiple times and 'super' to express fůck knows what.

Thank you X-factor, Live Island and all them dumbass shows that brain dead people are glued to.

https://youtu.be/BBvIweCIgwk

Add Friends to the list.

jim salter · 15-06-2018 07:38AM

jim salter wrote: »

People are thick as fůck and getting thicker.

The inability to construct a sentence without using 'like' multiple times and 'super' to express fůck knows what.

Thank you X-factor, Live Island and all them dumbass shows that brain dead people are glued to.

https://youtu.be/BBvIweCIgwk

Irony or what? ⬆️

topper75 · 15-06-2018 09:14AM

jim salter wrote: »

Irony or what? ⬆️

Or is it a clever joke that flew over your head?
I'm paranoid as heck inside this thread.

El_Duderino 09 · 15-06-2018 09:23AM

Peregrinus wrote: »

We're not getting thicker. We're just getting less adept at taking IQ tests, which is not the same thing at all.

Exactly this. IQ tests have been refined to more accurately test IQ.

They were actually a fairly blunt instrument when they were first created. Like anything else, they’re changing

Graces7 · 15-06-2018 09:26AM

I remember them from the 11 plus/Scholarship exams in the UK to see which secondary school you were headed for.

I rather enjoyed them...They were organised and... safe.

endacl · 15-06-2018 09:28AM

Graces7 wrote: »

I remember them from the 11 plus/Scholarship exams in the UK to see which secondary school you were headed for.

I rather enjoyed them...They were organised and... safe.

The exams, or the schools?

RobertKK · 15-06-2018 09:28AM

I'm glad I am in my 40s

The research showed that IQ levels have been found to be falling in younger people.

Graces7 · 15-06-2018 09:29AM

jim salter wrote: »

People are thick as fůck and getting thicker.

The inability to construct a sentence without using 'like' multiple times and 'super' to express fůck knows what.

Thank you X-factor, Live Island and all them dumbass shows that brain dead people are glued to.

https://youtu.be/BBvIweCIgwk

Your post would suggest the truth of this; if I could fathom it as English /

Certainly written English skills have nose-dived.:rolleyes:

CalamariFritti · 15-06-2018 09:29AM

Id say half the population are thick anyway. And another 35% aren’t very bright. Just look at what most people do for entertainment. Reality tv and posting thick posts on Facebook etc.

Before social media we could live in blissful ignorance. But now we can see on a daily basis what everyone else is at. Scary stuff.
Puts a serious dampener on the idea of democracy and everyone has an equal vote. Half the people don t know what they’re voting about or what’s going on at all.
And yes I know. Who knows what’s really going on anyway? But I mean not having a clue whatsoever.

Boom_Bap · 15-06-2018 09:30AM

boobies uhuhuhuh

Hector Bellend · 15-06-2018 09:35AM

The vast majority of the human race has always been particularly stupid.

Nothing new there.

To quote Albert Einstein, “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”

BobMc · 15-06-2018 09:35AM

thick not sure, ignorant, self centered, obnoxious YES

15-06-2018 09:39AM

It would appear so..

Boom_Bap · 15-06-2018 09:43AM

My sensible thought out post of the day.

People are becoming too reliant on technology and are not exercising their brains, hence the drop in IQ.

Now for some related It's Always Sunny pics

3305f591b96d84b8bcfb7de482047378--its-always-sunny-its-always.jpg

3305f591b96d84b8bcfb7de482047378--its-always-sunny-its-always.jpg

endacl · 15-06-2018 09:45AM

Graces7 wrote: »

Your post would suggest the truth of this; if I could fathom it as English /Certainly written English skills have nose-dived.:rolleyes:

They certainly have!

dr.fuzzenstein · 15-06-2018 09:48AM

With right wing extremism IQs have definitely taken a sharp fall over the last 20 years.
Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjuNuqIev8M

This man is a cabbage. Sadly it seems turning to te extreme right does that to a person.
Just look at Trump, Fox, Brexit, the AfD, the Austrian government and the right wing scene in Eastern Europe.
This has nothing to do with people not being able to take IQ tests.
This is the sharp decline of intelligence in the masses till there's nothing left but thick-browed, knuckle-dragging, drooling skinheads and their leaders who manage to look like a shaved ape stuck in a suit and even manage to utter a few sentences coherently.
I wish Idiocracy was true, the people in it are stupid, but harmless. Sadly people are becoming more hateful and fearful and they are becoming the majority. It was nice when humanity looked like it might turn to a more positive path in the 90's, but instead we are getting fear, hate, ignorance and bile and it looks like it's getting worse.

15-06-2018 10:00AM

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

With right wing extremism IQs have definitely taken a sharp fall over the last 20 years.
Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjuNuqIev8M

This man is a cabbage. Sadly it seems turning to te extreme right does that to a person.
Just look at Trump, Fox, Brexit, the AfD, the Austrian government and the right wing scene in Eastern Europe.
This has nothing to do with people not being able to take IQ tests.
This is the sharp decline of intelligence in the masses till there's nothing left but thick-browed, knuckle-dragging, drooling skinheads and their leaders who manage to look like a shaved ape stuck in a suit and even manage to utter a few sentences coherently.
I wish Idiocracy was true, the people in it are stupid, but harmless. Sadly people are becoming more hateful and fearful and they are becoming the majority. It was nice when humanity looked like it might turn to a more positive path in the 90's, but instead we are getting fear, hate, ignorance and bile and it looks like it's getting worse.

That's cheery!!

Wibbs · 15-06-2018 10:07AM

They found that scores grew by nearly three percentage points every decade for people born between 1962 and 1975.

But among those born after 1975, scores fell.

Permabear · 15-06-2018 10:14AM

This post has been deleted.

15-06-2018 10:17AM

Peregrinus wrote: »

We're not getting thicker. We're just getting less adept at taking IQ tests, which is not the same thing at all.

That's a handy cop-out for the thickos!

Although attention spans are gone to sh...

Wibbs · 15-06-2018 10:22AM

CalamariFritti wrote: »

Id say half the population are thick anyway. And another 35% aren’t very bright. Just look at what most people do for entertainment. Reality tv and posting thick posts on Facebook etc.

There can be a large dollop of snobbishness going on too. What people like tends to have a strong demographic influence. They could have the same smarts, but kids coming from generational wealth are more likely to be into opera and other "high brow" pursuits compared to kids from a sink estate. The latter are also less likely to be exposed to or encouraged into more education. Can change over time too. IE opera was very much a populist art form in the past. Shakespeare's stuff was aimed at a wide audience and populist with it.

People also have different priorities. Some prioritise more obviously "intellectual" stuff, while others don't. I have known a fair number of people who wouldn't be considered "too bright" by the general metrics, but who were more capable and more successful in their lives than others I've known with massive IQ's. I'd personally reckon that on average things like high mental and physical energy, determination and mental and emotional stability trump higher IQs.

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

With right wing extremism IQs have definitely taken a sharp fall over the last 20 years.
Case in point:

You tend to get idiots pooling at the extreme ends of anything. Simple answers are appalling to simpletons.

QV: Left wing, "progressive" moron, a while back.

Is everyone getting a bit thicker?

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