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This paper feels methodologically iffy. I'd be willing to bet money that, if you don't stratify by education level, the decline is not stat-sig, or IQ even grew
by curiousllama 4y ago
This paper feels methodologically iffy. I'd be willing to bet money that, if you don't stratify by education level, the decline is not stat-sig, or IQ even grew. This trend, and the way they reported it, screams Simpson's paradox to me. I.e. the headline should be "more lower-IQ people went to college" not "college graduates' IQ is dropping"
Who the heck wouldn't report a number like "Since 2006, average IQ has dropped X%"?
- iosono88 4y ago[dead]
- onos 4y agoIf we don’t stratify, is the avg IQ not by def 100? Or rather… what sets the def of 100?
- thfuran 4y agoIt's renormalized every so often because the average has been going up for decades.
- technothrasher 4y agoDoes that mean my IQ has been dropping all this time because I took the test a long time ago, like putting cash under my mattress in an inflationary economy?
- eptcyka 4y agoYes.
- thfuran 4y agoOnly if your last IQ test result is a cause of rather than measure of IQ.
- curiousllama 4y agoYea pretty much. Those darned kids are just too smart. But your IQ percentile relative to your age group doesn't change.
- curiousllama 4y agoYes, but the authors of this paper hold the test constant, so if people get smarter, it’ll show IQ rising