3 ms·
This should be easy to answer: we are not smarter in the recent decades (the opposite is likely true due to the leaded petrol). The natural selection for smart
by d0mine 4y ago
This should be easy to answer: we are not smarter in the recent decades (the opposite is likely true due to the leaded petrol). The natural selection for smartness is too weak in humans (it does not take much brain to reproduce nowadays).
The hypothesis in TFA is much more likely (regular exposure to bright daylight in children)
- delecti 4y agoOn the contrary, IQ has been increasing decade-over-decade basically since IQ was invented. So we are smarter in recent decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect (Though because IQ is standardized around a mean of 100, it's probably more accurate to say that the IQ of people in the past has retroactively gotten lower)
- d0mine 4y agohttps://www.newscientist.com/article/2311082-leaded-petrol-may-have-lowered-the-iq-of-over-half-the-us-population/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2311082-leaded-petrol-m...
- delecti 4y agoThe flynn effect is well documented. The negative effect of leaded gas on intelligence just means that average IQ "should" have been raising even more throughout the 20th century.
- ByteJockey 4y agoIt's considered to have ended (and possibly started reversing) in developed countries starting in the mid 1990s. Your link even covers it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_progression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_p...