Are we getting more stupid?

[Kasz216]

haxxiy said:

Yeah, no doubt. For a while the trend will be masked by higher standards of living and then the IQ tests themselves will become easier, but after that?

The only thing I can think of to prevent this is to keep those with less... cognitive abilities to only a single child and massive incentives for those in the opposite camp to have three or more. Like, otherwise they would have taxes that would make the french president proud. Better than giving away money with this economy :P

That's argueably already happening.  There is some research out there suggesting that the Flynn effect is decreasing or no longer exists in western countries... and that like you said... it more or less did mask a negative correlation between intellegence and fertility.

 

Which just makes sense afterall, since a lot of people are having kids while others are still in college.    You could be in your 30's before you finish your degree at the top of the spectrum.

 

EDIT: Fyi these studies are mostly conducted in the Scandanavian countries and Austrlia, so such research isn't being effected by the US Drop in school scores or failing schools or anything.

Additionally some researchers blame immigration and the kids of immigrants instead of the intellegence/fertility negative correlation.