A photo from open sources
Scientists have recorded a steady decline in IQ. Why is the world intellectually degrading?
Futurists predicted in due time: people will grow wiser and increase brain volume. As a result, our descendants will become wise and big heads. Perhaps someday this will begin to happen. But while scientists are observing the opposite trend: namely global stupidity. It is expressed in the fall year by year IQ indicators on a global scale.
Test results can be found in the archives and compare the results. past years with the current. What did, for example, Richard Lynn (Richard Lynn), psychologist at the University of Ulster (psychologist at the University of Ulster). At his disposal were intellectual indicators of Americans, Europeans and Australians.
Richard defined averaged values - such world levels intelligence over the years. And found that by 2014, IQ fell by almost 3 points from the level of 1950. And if the stupidity continues at the current pace, then by 2110 the IQ of humanity will drop below 84 points. And that will mean that it will become mentally mediocre.
Intelligence, as they say, is rolling downhill …
A photo from open sources
Lynn’s colleague – Michael Woodley of the Free University of Brussels (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) recently raised data on the speed of reaction. And she turns out to be declining. A hundred years ago, people in experiments pressed button, seeing a light signal on the screen, on average after 194 milliseconds. Now the delay is 275 milliseconds. A slow reaction indicates a decrease in transmission rate nerve impulses.
The IQ data used for the analysis did not affect Russia, where intelligence tests have always been less popular as in the West. Therefore, one can only guess how things are business with us. And hope that the Russians are a global process stupidity is not affected. And who knows, suddenly we all became smarter. At least on average.
The sages died out long ago
Naturally, scientists are trying to figure out the causes of the phenomenon. AND the most robust suggest: where they get stupid, something is wrong with education. But there are other ideas.
For example, Professor Jan te Nijenhuis from University of Amsterdam believes that the intellectual level of a person is limited by a certain genetic the limit. And humanity has already reached it. And now only degrades. This is mainly because smart reproduce less actively than stupid ones.
Check intelligence? The correct answer is below the picture.
A photo from open sources
(The authors of this test claim that the 1st figure is an extra figure, since it does not have unique distinguishing features from other figures.)
Professor and found guilty. These are women who received good education – give birth less than their not so intellectually developed sisters. That “wise” genes are gradually leaving.
At Stanford University, the reason for the decline in intelligence is seen in that the law still open by Darwin stopped working natural selection. And people don’t have to fight for survival so as they did in ancient times. Scientific and technical progress relieved most of humanity from the need for much strain the brain in order to get food and clothes, to find, where to hide from animals and enemies. Similar thoughts that developed the brain of our ancestors, now we have left.
– Genes responsible for the development of intelligence have become rapidly develop due to mutations provoked by severe conditions, – says one of the authors of the study, Dr. Gerald Crabtree.
Further “in connection with the development of agriculture and urbanization life has become much easier “- the intellectual power of man went to recession. And current mutations only weaken it.
– We reached a peak several thousand years ago and have since been rolling downhill, ”Crabtree said.
The most original hypothesis among German researchers from University of Erlangen. They believe that people have become often relax. This is the reason for the decline in intelligence. After all, only two weeks spent idly by the sea in idle bliss can reduce IQ immediately by 20 points due to partial atrophy of the frontal cells lobes of the brain. The situation is aggravated by numerous holidays, which workers turn extra vacations.
Loss of intelligence over time, of course, is restored. But not all fully.
BTW
Or maybe he’s not such a fool?
Intelligence tests invented by British psychologist Hans Jurgen Eysenck. In tests, you need to solve logic puzzles, skillfully manipulate letters and solve abstract charades for a certain time. For the correct answers, points are awarded that in total, they give an intelligence coefficient – IQ.
People with mediocre intelligence gain less than 80 points, with average – from 90 to 115. An IQ of 120 is considered high. But how much Is such a division of people into fools and geniuses true?
In an experiment conducted by scientists from Western University Ontario in Canada and the Museum of Natural Sciences in London, volunteers passed tests while in the tomograph. They were watched tracking brain activity. And they saw that during the decision of different tasks activate different areas of the brain.
Intelligence tests may be useless
– Human intelligence is not a single entity, but formed from many components, – concluded the head Studies Professor Adrian Owen. He – intellect – is a set independent and different types of mental abilities. Human can be strong in one of these areas, but weak in the rest. therefore attempts to measure the level of intelligence as a single indicator is the deepest error.
So maybe with the conclusion that the world is more obsessed stupidity, is it worth arguing?
Time
