Bad news; humans are getting dumber. At least that is what a Northwestern University study showed. And no, this isn’t just applicable to the Gen Z-ers and their dang phones; nor is it strictly due to the boomers who think a little too old school. It is everyone. IQ scores are declining, and scientists don’t know why.
For most of the 20th century, IQs have been steadily rising due to the introduction of formal education by the Early Compulsory Education Laws in 1852. Since 1917, scientists have been keeping track and determined that IQs consistently rise between two to five points each decade starting in the 1930s. They named this phenomenon the Flynn Effect.
However, over recent years, analysts have noticed an alarming shift in that trend; IQs have been going down. This is known as the Reverse-Flynn Effect.
While this has many meanings, it is important to note what it does not mean. This does not mean humans are becoming completely inept, nor does it mean that humanity is doomed because our doctors, our electricians, our engineers are going to rapidly decline.
While IQs and IQ tests are important indicators of intelligence, they are not the end-all be-all. They are designed to test certain components of intelligence dealing with the digestion of logic and information to answer questions. Often, they fail to fully measure other factors that determine intelligence, like creativity, rational thinking in real life situations and sound judgement.
Furthermore, IQ test results are multilayered and split into domains. While domains in logic, vocabulary, visual and mathematical problem-solving and analogies are going down, one is going up: spatial reasoning– a set of problems that measure the mind’s ability to analyze three-dimensional objects.
Basically, declining IQ scores in America are not concerning in the way that it would first indicate. Instead, it brings up worries of the cause of this strange trend.
To that question, scientists don’t have an answer, but there is no shortage of theories.
Some scientists link the decline to technology. Since the introduction of technology, humans have been met with solutions to almost every problem with a swift click of a button.
“We’re all getting super lazy in our cognition because it’s getting super easy to do everything,” psychologist Ruth Karpinski said.
Search engines, AI chatbots, Siri; all these tools, while helpful, don’t allow the mind to actually think. Reading and writing comprehension skills are going down because most information is told through apps like TikTok and text culture allows for too many abbreviations. It seems that phones are more appealing than books.
Or of course, it could be possible that human intelligence has simply reached its maximum. Known as the ceiling effect, when something reaches its limit, it plateaus. While this might be hard to admit, it is just as possible as any other theory.
IQ tests are important for figuring out where humanity lies on the scale of intelligence; however, results of declining scores are not detrimental to the system as a whole. While it is concerning, there is no need to worry… yet.
