Why IQ levels are falling

Study shows young people’s intelligence
scores have been dropping since the 1990s

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Average IQs had risen by roughly three percentage points every
decade since the Second World War, in a poorly understood trend
known as the Flynn effect.

However, the new study, by Norwegian researchers, found
that men’s IQs are measurably lower today than the
scores of their fathers at the same age. Ole Rogeberg
and Bernt Bratsberg, of the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic
Research in Oslo, analysed the scores from a standardised IQ
test taken by more than 730,000 Norwegian men who reported for
national service between 1970 and 2009.

The results, published in the journal Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
or PNAS, show that those born in 1991 scored about five
points lower than those born in 1975.

“This is the most convincing evidence yet of a reversal of the
Flynn effect,” said Stuart Ritchie, a psychologist at the
University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the research. “If
you assume their model is correct, the results are impressive, and
pretty worrying.”

The reasons for the Flynn effect and its apparent reversal are
disputed. “Scientists have put the rise in IQ down to better
teaching, nutrition, healthcare and even artificial lighting,” says
The Times.

But “it is also possible that the nature of intelligence is
changing in the digital age and cannot be captured with traditional
IQ tests”, adds the newspaper.

An international study at the end of last year pointed towards
the onset of technology as hindering the development of young
people.

Researcher Michael Shayer, who co-authored the report,
told Euronews that since 1995 a “large social
force has been interfering with children’s development of thinking,
getting larger each year”.

This “social force” includes the development of technology, such
as game consoles and smartphones, “which have altered the way that
children communicate with each other”, he explained.

“Take 14-year-olds in Britain. What 25% could do back in 1994,
now only 5% can do,” Shayer added, citing maths and science
tests.

Robin Morris, professor of neuropsychology at King’s College
London, told The Times that IQ scores probably had hit a ceiling in
the West, but there was not yet any reason to be unduly
concerned.

“I think the reverse Flynn effect is real but would urge caution
about generalising based on one sample,” he said. “Probably the
tailing off is a general effect in high-income countries in which
the contributor factors generally stabilise.”