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  4.  » Young people really ARE getting more stupid: IQs have started to fall by seven points per generation

Isabella Fish — Daily Mail June 12, 2018

  • IQs had risen every decade since World War II but have now begun to fall again
  • Scientists say the trend, started by those born after 1975, is ‘pretty worrying’
  • Study comes after earlier research showed eating fish increases IQ levels 

world-iq

Young people’s IQ scores have started to deteriorate after climbing steadily since World War Two, a new study has found.

The fall, which equates to about seven points per generation, is believed to have begun with those born in 1975, according to the first authoritative study of the phenomenon.

The drop in scores marks the end of a trend – known as the Flynn effect – which has seen average IQs rise for the past 60 to 70 years by roughly three points a decade.

Scientists have described the results as ‘impressive’ but ‘pretty worrying’, according to the Times.

The decline is to do with a difference in technique in the way languages and maths are taught in schools, scientists have suggested.

However, it could also be down to people spending more time on technological devices instead of reading books.

Stuart Ritchie, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh who did not take part in the research, told the newspaper: ‘This is the most convincing evidence yet of a reversal of the Flynn Effect.

‘If you assume their model is correct, the results are impressive and pretty worrying.’

However, IQ scores might have fallen since the turn of the millennium, according to previous studies.

Two British studies suggested that the fall was between 2.5 and 4.3 points every ten years.

But due to limited research, their results were not widely accepted.

In the latest study Ole Rogeburg and Bernt Bratsberg, of the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo, found that Norwegian men’s IQs are lower than the scores of their fathers when they were the same age.

The pair analysed the scores from a standard IQ test of over 730,000 men – who reported for national service between 1970 and 2009.

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