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UK loses 14 IQ points (average per capita decline) in a century; welfare and immigration?
Mass immigration (and welfare, allowing poorer less intelligent people to have more children than richer more intelligent people) is the elephant in the room on this one;
It was an era of glorious scientific discovery.
And the reason for the Victorians unprecedented success is simple – they were ‘substantially cleverer’ than us.
Researchers compared reaction times - a reliable indicator of general intelligence – since the late 1800s to the present day and found our fleetness of mind is diminishing.
They claim our slowing reflexes suggest we are less smart than our ancestors, with a loss of 1.23 IQ points per decade or 14 IQ points since Victorian times.
While an average man in 1889 had a reaction time of 183 milliseconds, this has slowed to 253ms in 2004.
They found the same case with women, whose speed deteriorated from 188 to 261ms in the same period.
The research team from Umea University, Sweden, the University of Amsterdam and University College Cork said IQ scores are excellent predictors of job performance and those with higher intelligence are both more productive and creative.
But the scientists were unable to directly compare IQ from different eras as earlier generations had limited access to education, improved nutrition and hygiene, which would have boosted modern results.
Instead, they compared reaction times, which they claim ‘can be used to meaningfully compare historical and contemporary populations in terms of levels of general intelligence’.
The figures indicate a decline in brainpower since the Victorian era, which contradicts the so-called Flynn effect, which has found a worldwide increase in measured IQ scores of three points a decade since the Second World War.
Researcher Dr Michael Woodley said: ‘They actually indicate a pronounced decline in IQ since the Victorian era, three times bigger than previous theoretical estimates would have us believe.’
The report found: ‘The Victorian era was characterized by great accomplishments. As great accomplishment is generally a product of high intelligence, we tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were actually cleverer than modern populations.
‘We used a robust elementary cognitive indicator of general intelligence, namely measures of simple reaction times.’
And with the research looking at historical reaction time data, the scientists claim the drop in modern IQ could be even more dramatic than predicted.
‘It should also be emphasized that whilst our value of a −14.1 IQ point decline is an estimate based on the best meta-analytical data available, a simple inspection of our figure shows there is a non-negligible amount of scatter around the regression line.
‘The real magnitude of the effect might therefore be several IQ points lower or even higher,’ they wrote.
‘In conclusion however these findings do indicate that with respect to "genetic g" [general intelligence] the Victorians were indeed substantially cleverer than modern populations.’
Commenting on the study, Dr James Thompson, honorary senior psychology lecturer at UCL and member of the British Psychological Society, said: ‘This is a very intriguing paper, which seems to give the lie to the comforting notion that we have all been getting brighter for the last three or four generations.
‘Reaction times are a real measure, with a reasonably large correlation with IQ, so this is an alarming finding and needs further investigation.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz2TDRK9gjy
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Originally Posted by Anglojew
United States
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