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Per the Flynn Effect, people are getting smarter. The source of the problems mentioned in the article is not increasing stupidity, it's a breakdown of the relat
by slibhb 5y ago
Per the Flynn Effect, people are getting smarter. The source of the problems mentioned in the article is not increasing stupidity, it's a breakdown of the relationship between the elites and the masses.
You see this clearly in the article where the author complains about sharing a country with deplorables with nutty beliefs. You see it in the elite turn against free speech: elites wonder aloud "is free speech a good idea if it leads to Trump or Brexit?" For their part, the masses seem determined to de-rail the train out of boredom or to spite the elites.
Increasingly, people view their countries or cultures as farcical or unjust, without a legitimate claim to exist at all. Civic virtue has either disappeared or is no longer recognized. Someone like Robert Mueller represented the old school. The reward for his diligent work was ridicule by both political factions, with Trump's attacks and Democrats' insinuations of senility. The politicians we apparently prefer are those who can reliably generate viral content.
- beefield 5y agoFlynn effect has stopped during the last few decades. I have been wondering why. What are the environmental things that have happened in the last decades as oppoesd to most of last century? There is only a handful of possible explanations that I have been able to come up: 1. We might want to do more research on the effect of increasing CO2 on cognitive skills. 2. Wealth disparities have been increasing. There seems to be some research on poverty causing decline on cognitive skills. Maybe it is relative, not absolute poverty that does it? 3. We have reached (local?) maximum and are not going to get any more intelligent any time soon. 4. IQ is a flawed measure that comes up with random nonsense. Not so sure which of those I would pick most likely.
- ZeroGravitas 5y ago> The politicians we apparently prefer are those who can reliably generate viral content. By prefer, you presumably mean elect, which in the US means using a voting system that has been shown to increase partisanship, because you can get elected by being loved by a minority even if also hated by a minority. Other voting systems encourage you to work for every voters vote and avoid a whole bunch of problems as a result.
- titzer 5y agoThere are plenty of reasons to question whether the Flynn effect (rise in IQ test scores) actually reflects increases in general intelligence rather than testing skills. Just now, reviewing the Wikipedia article on the subject, I don't see how the Flynn effect is incompatible with the mass psychosis induced by political polarization. People can excel at their jobs and yet rant absurd conspiracies as soon as they get triggered by the wrong political BS.
- vorpalhex 5y agoHere's a meta-analysis of 281 studies that found very strong support for the Flynn Effect: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4152423/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4152423/
- titzer 5y agoI am not disputing the numbers. Read my comment again.
- vorpalhex 5y ago> There are plenty of reasons to question whether the Flynn effect (rise in IQ test scores) actually reflects increases in general intelligence rather than testing skills. The Flynn effect appears to reflect increases in general intelligence unless you believe world wide testing scores all have the same bias, across different tests.
- marcosdumay 5y agoHum, there is very clearly a test taking skill that is independent of the tests contents. As tests were less important a few generations ago, it's perfectly possible that people were unprepared for them.