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Intelligence has been strongly linked with physical fitness, specifically cardiovascular fitness. Is it any surprise as humans have become less active that our

Intelligence has been strongly linked with physical fitness, specifically cardiovascular fitness. Is it any surprise as humans have become less active that our intelligence has suffered as well? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/quilted-science/200912/cardiovascular-fitness-is-linked-intelligence https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/quilted-science/2009... https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201312/can-physical-activities-improve-fluid-intelligence https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785721/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785721/ https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes...

deleted 7y ago
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toasterlovin 7y ago
Correlation does not allow you to draw conclusions about causation. And there are other plausible explanations. Intelligence is highly heritable and negatively correlated with fertility. Also, there has been an overall increase in measured intelligence since IQ tests were first invented. Nobody really knows why. But this could be a reversal of that trend. And, importantly, people have been getting more sedentary during the entire extent of the increase. So it would be hard to square that with the hypothesis that this recent decrease being caused by less activity.
- swsieber 7y ago
  I dont thin the top parent actually drew a conclusion. I read it as "These two things are highly correlated. Given that one went down, should we be surprised that the other wnet down?" Given that there was no concerted effort to move either of them, my answer is "of course not! They are correlated"
  - michaelmcmillan 7y ago
    Not sure if I agree. This is how I parsed it: humans have become less active → our intelligence has suffered as well
    - shados 7y ago
      Not a direct correlation, but its pretty easy to see how it can happen, or at least partially. Eg: Less active = more weight gain = higher likelyhood of GERD and sleep apnea = less sleep = lower attention span and memory. Boom, lower IQ because of lower fitness.
      - michaelmcmillan 7y ago
        I never said I couldn't see how... Just pointing out that we need more data to know cause and effect.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > Intelligence is highly heritable and negatively correlated with fertility. More accurately, intelligence is negatively correlated with fertility in women in the Western world. The correlation is still positive for men. Generally it's believed that the negative effect on fertility is due to intelligent women getting more education, rather being a direct negative effect of intelligence.
michaelmcmillan 7y ago
How do you know that the causality is flowing in that direction and not the other way? It could also be that we are getting physically worse because our IQ is declining.
- kazinator 7y ago
  That's along the lines of hypotheses like lung cancer being the common cause behind smoking and yellowed fingertips.
  - michaelmcmillan 7y ago
    No, not really.
- delecti 7y ago
  Or perhaps even more likely, that both are caused by things like good nutrition.
  - bjelkeman-again 7y ago
    I don’t follow. Good nutrition doesn’t lead to poor fitness afaik.
    - nicoburns 7y ago
      The parent is possibly commenting on how nutrition standards in western countries have (arguably) declined recently.
- StillBored 7y ago
  Or even that there is a 3rd confounding factor.. say amount of sleep...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

toasterlovin 7y ago

Correlation does not allow you to draw conclusions about causation. And there are other plausible explanations. Intelligence is highly heritable and negatively correlated with fertility. Also, there has been an overall increase in measured intelligence since IQ tests were first invented. Nobody really knows why. But this could be a reversal of that trend. And, importantly, people have been getting more sedentary during the entire extent of the increase. So it would be hard to square that with the hypothesis that this recent decrease being caused by less activity.

swsieber 7y ago
I dont thin the top parent actually drew a conclusion. I read it as "These two things are highly correlated. Given that one went down, should we be surprised that the other wnet down?" Given that there was no concerted effort to move either of them, my answer is "of course not! They are correlated"
- michaelmcmillan 7y ago
  Not sure if I agree. This is how I parsed it: humans have become less active → our intelligence has suffered as well
  - shados 7y ago
    Not a direct correlation, but its pretty easy to see how it can happen, or at least partially. Eg: Less active = more weight gain = higher likelyhood of GERD and sleep apnea = less sleep = lower attention span and memory. Boom, lower IQ because of lower fitness.
    - michaelmcmillan 7y ago
      I never said I couldn't see how... Just pointing out that we need more data to know cause and effect.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> Intelligence is highly heritable and negatively correlated with fertility. More accurately, intelligence is negatively correlated with fertility in women in the Western world. The correlation is still positive for men. Generally it's believed that the negative effect on fertility is due to intelligent women getting more education, rather being a direct negative effect of intelligence.

michaelmcmillan 7y ago

How do you know that the causality is flowing in that direction and not the other way? It could also be that we are getting physically worse because our IQ is declining.

kazinator 7y ago
That's along the lines of hypotheses like lung cancer being the common cause behind smoking and yellowed fingertips.
- michaelmcmillan 7y ago
  No, not really.
delecti 7y ago
Or perhaps even more likely, that both are caused by things like good nutrition.
- bjelkeman-again 7y ago
  I don’t follow. Good nutrition doesn’t lead to poor fitness afaik.
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    The parent is possibly commenting on how nutrition standards in western countries have (arguably) declined recently.
StillBored 7y ago
Or even that there is a 3rd confounding factor.. say amount of sleep...