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It's always frustrating when a headline says exactly the opposite of what the article itself does: Headline: > American IQs Are Dropping Article: > Dworak s
by sgbeal 2y ago
It's always frustrating when a headline says exactly the opposite of what the article itself does:
Headline:
> American IQs Are Dropping
Article:
> Dworak stressed that the decline in scores doesn't necessarily mean Americans aren't as intelligent as their grandparents or great-grandparents were. "It doesn’t mean their mental ability is lower or higher; it's just a difference in scores that are favoring older or newer samples," she said in a press release. "It could just be that they're getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests."
- bryanlarsen 2y agoThe headline is accurate, it says "IQ" is dropping. If it said "intelligence" was dropping it would be less accurate. (But still probably accurate. IQ and intelligence have a good but not perfect correlation.)
- sgbeal 2y agoFWIW, i already regret my above comment. In common, everyday English there is an undeniably strong correlation between IQ and intelligence, to the point that the two are often used as synonyms. The article's author certainly knows that and needlessly provokes the reader with the assumption that the average reader (myself included!) will _not_ know that the two terms are _not_ interchangeable.