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> Since the intelligence test was invented more than 100 years ago, our IQ scores have been steadily increasing. Even the average person today would have been c

• OscarCunningham 6y ago
  Why do you think people haven't gotten smarter?
  • Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
    Brain requires a lot of energy to work, so better nutrition will certainly not hurt. However, I believe that if there is some improvement to intelligence due to better nutrition, its effect is negligible compared to improvements due to education, better teaching techniques and near-universal literacy.
    • KMag 6y ago
      I hope other non-educational improvements in child rearing have also had a significant effect. In particular, the widespread acceptance of the idea it's not okay to strike children has hopefully greatly reduced the number of children trying to learn with varying degrees of PTSD.
      • wisty 6y ago
        Instead, parents feel bad about telling their children what to do, and without rules and structure anxiety and depression seem pretty high.
• mvanaltvorst 6y ago
  People have gotten taller and healthier because of better nutrition, there is no reason to believe people haven't gotten smarter as well.
  • 29athrowaway 6y ago
    Some important factors in recent times are the awareness of iodine deficiency and the adverse effects of lead exposure.
  • avmich 6y ago
    > there is no reason to believe people haven't gotten smarter as well. Null hypothesis? By default we don't assume presence of changes, in the absence of reasons for that, and those reasons - that nutrition is causing IQ growth - need to be explained. There shouldn't be no reasons not to assume something, it's not enough. Sorry for triple negative.
    • dragonwriter 6y ago
      > By default we don't assume presence of changes, This isn’t a by default issue, this is claiming counterevidence to increase in intelligence that justifies rejecting the validity of IQ in measuring intelligence because it is increasing. The null hypothesis doesn’t support that, only independent evidence of intelligence not increasing would.
    • porb121 6y ago
      by default we assume nothing, not a lack of change or interaction. to do the latter is to assert.
  • creddit 6y ago
    It's important for many people's belief systems that intelligence is unaffected by physical/evolutionary factors.
    • jpxw 6y ago
      It’s impossible to be politically correct these days unless you buy that theory. The idea that evolution stops at the neck seems completely laughable to me.
• azornathogron 6y ago
  > People have not gotten smarter so whatever these tests are measuring and however well they predict success, they're not measuring intelligence. This is obviously true, except other changes have happened. People have got taller. I'm no expert but I believe that's mostly down to better nutrition. Is it possible that better nutrition has also led to people getting smarter? I'm not sure. I wouldn't bet on it, but it doesn't seem completely impossible either.
  • KMag 6y ago
    > Is it possible that better nutrition has also led to people getting smarter? If you count lead paint "wall candy" chips, nutrition definitely has improved intelligence.
• dragonwriter 6y ago
  > People have not gotten smarter Why do you assume this to be the case? All kinds of early-environment things have adverse, lifelong cognitive effects, and both society at large and aware individuals for their own kids have tended to direct energy at reducing exposure to them. People getting smarter is a pretty predictable effect.
• heavyset_go 6y ago
  > Hard to see this as anything but an indictment of IQ tests. Careful, there are a lot of people who have an emotional attachment to IQ tests and their implications for determining intelligence. Implying that IQ tests don't measure intelligence usually brings them out of the woodwork.
  • ghgdynb1 6y ago
    Careful, there are a lot of people who wish IQ tests didn’t have anything useful to say about intelligence. Implying that IQ tests can be useful tools and that their results might bear some relation to intelligence usually brings them out of the woodwork.
• ghgdynb1 6y ago
  People have definitely gotten smarter. Here’s a small case which might help illustrate how this happens in general: We know infection with hookworms and other soil-transmitted helminths will do nasty things to the intelligence of the patient, especially for children. Since humanity got rich enough to build sewer systems and shoes and anti-parasitic drug companies, soil transmitted helminths have become a lot less of a problem (and the same goes for their cognitive effects).
  • nwah1 6y ago
    Iodine deficiency and leaded gasoline are other examples.
    • wcarss 6y ago
      I just learned about the awful effects of iodine deficiency and how incredibly widespread it once was the other day from a youtube suggestion[1] about iodized salt. Previously I had thought iodization was mostly for preventing thyroid issues in the event of nuclear fallout, but no! It was a way bigger deal. For example, I had no idea it was the origin of the term "cretin"[2]. 1 - https://youtu.be/B00K66HivcI https://youtu.be/B00K66HivcI 2 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretin
      • LukeShu 6y ago
        TIL that "cretin" and "Cretan" aren't the same word. I guess I'm glad to know that the etymology is ableist instead of racist.
      • mrfusion 6y ago
        Sadly a lot of salt in the stores now boasts iodine-free. I actually had to buy the cheapest 99 cent salt shaker to get one with iodine and I add a few sprinkles to most of my kids meals. Just to be safe.
  • slibhb 6y ago
    My dismissal was too strong but the article says "even the average person today would have been considered a genius compared to someone born in 1919". I find that incredibly hard to believe. Even if average intelligence has climbed up, genius is about the absolute top of the heap and I doubt that has changed.
• dv_dt 6y ago
  > People have not gotten smarter so whatever these tests are measuring and however well they predict success, they're not measuring intelligence. Another contributor might be that the model of intelligence that the IQ tests is close to a model that is used by education and development experts, and that kids are getting pre-educated in skills that allow them to do better on IQ tests.
• slightwinder 6y ago
  Seems this is mostly about average people. On average people today have far better food, medical treatments, education and also chances for mental training. Which means on average people today have better chances to utilize their potential and maintain their individual peak.
• bsder 6y ago
  > People have not gotten smarter This flies in the fact of lots of evidence to the contrary: 1) High-school students now understand mathematics that only advanced degrees would have understood in 1919. 2) High-school musicians now regularly play pieces that were considered meant only for "virtuousos" in 1919. I can go on and on. At the very least, your hypothesis that people haven't gotten smarter is quite suspect and demands evidence. The fact that IQ tests (whatever they measure) have shown an aggregate increase is also evidence against your hypothesis.
  • max1984_2 6y ago
    > This flies in the fact of lots of evidence to the contrary Your examples are not evidence of higher IQ. They are examples of human progress. > 1) High-school students now understand mathematics that only advanced degrees would have understood in 1919. Being the first to do something and following in their footsteps is two very different things. Sure but that is just because it is better understood now. All this this means is that the idea / technique is better understood and understood by more people. > 2) High-school musicians now regularly play pieces that were considered meant only for "virtuousos" in 1919. Again this is just evidence that more people understand how to play the pieces. Doing something novel and unique is much more difficult than understanding something that is already understood. That is why scientists sometimes say they are standing on the shoulders of giants > The fact that IQ tests (whatever they measure) have shown an aggregate increase is also evidence against your hypothesis. You are oversimplying the findings, I made the same mistake when I first heard of the flynn effect. What you are referring to is the Flynn effect. This is where the average IQ increases each generation. While there is an increase of ~3 points every decade, it is on the low end of the distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Rise_in_IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Rise_in_IQ > Some studies have found the gains of the Flynn effect to be particularly concentrated at the lower end of the distribution. Teasdale and Owen (1989), for example, found the effect primarily reduced the number of low-end scores, resulting in an increased number of moderately high scores, with no increase in very high scores. In another study, two large samples of Spanish children were assessed with a 30-year gap. Comparison of the IQ distributions indicated that the mean IQ scores on the test had increased by 9.7 points (the Flynn effect), the gains were concentrated in the lower half of the distribution and negligible in the top half, and the gains gradually decreased as the IQ of the individuals increased. Some studies have found a reverse Flynn effect with declining scores for those with high IQ. In other words the people with the lowest IQ scores are increasing more greatly and pushing the average up. The whole distribution itself is not moving with it though. I dislike the whole idea though of IQ as a test of intelligence (which is a nebulous concept in itself). I've seen people with high IQs believe in very ridiculous things and engage in behaviour which most would consider to be stupid. As someone that did 2 proper IQ tests back in the 90s because my school thought I mentally handicapped (I am dyspraxic so technically I am). The tests are good at identifying whether you are good at abstract reasoning. There are other forms of thinking that I am very bad at even though I am on the higher end of the IQ scale (I was graded at 142 at the time).
• hellbannedguy 6y ago
  Or, have we just gotten better at test taking, and seen similar test questions while killing time at Barns & Noble before taking the test?