Exactly why are I.Q. rates falling

It is something of a mystery why intelligence quotient rates are in decline and in developed countries too.

You could say we are getting dumber which is a fact, but that it is happening in leading industrialized countries is even more concerning and does not bode well for the future.

IQ tests are still relevant as a measure of intelligence having stood the test of time despite criticisms of cultural bias in some quarters.

Apparently researchers do not know what to make of this, current IQ tests are designed to measure core cognitive skills such as short-term memory, problem-solving speed and visual processing, and rising scores show that these cognitive capabilities can actually be sharpened by environmental factors such as higher-quality schools.

A range of studies using a variety of well-established IQ tests and metrics have found declining scores across Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, France and Australia.

The broad pattern has become clear: Beginning around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations experienced a decline in IQ scores.

Initial explanations were that that lower I.Q. families were having more children also immigration from culturally disparate countries was lowering the host nation’s average.

However, those reasons are not the case and this is important, this is happening across the board, with IQs not only dropping across societies but also within families, which means the IQ’s of children born to high IQ parents is slipping.

So then, we left with the conclusion that environmental factors are the cause of this.

Many people would blame the poor standard of public education as a major environmental factor and they make a valid point.

Ever heard the phrase; high tech, low information, so maybe technology is not our friend, or maybe the fault lies in the way we use it, whether a tool to access information or just prop up our confirmation biases.

Some studies show the average IQ of westerners has plunged 10 points other studies say 14 points, since Victorian times and will keep decreasing.

Still, others believe humans have reached their intellectual peak so it is all downwards from here anyway.

Tests carried out in Britain in 1980 and in 2008 showed that the average 14 year old was two IQ points cleverer in 1980, according to a study published in 2009.

Scientists found that performance dropped the most dramatically in teenagers in the upper half of the intelligence scale, according to The Telegraph.

Brighter teens who took part in the study in 2008 were on average six IQ points less intelligent than their counterparts tested 28 years earlier, with the results attributed to a less intelligent youth culture.

The consensus seems to be we are not only dumber but dumbed down.