This might not come as a shock to anyone who has to navigate through traffic, is exposed to social media or deals with that barista who rolls their eyes every morning your name is misspelled on your coffee cup: scientists say IQs are dropping in this country.
From 1932 through the 20th century, people globally on average got smarter — something that was coined The Flynn Effect in 1994, in honor of researcher James R. Flynn.
However, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine say from 2006 to 2018, Americans’ scores showed a “reverse Flynn Effect.” Scores declined in three extremely important cognitive categories: logic and vocabulary; visual problem-solving and analogies; and what’s known as letter and number series, i.e. math.
The only place we’ve improved are our scores dealing with spatial reasoning, known as 3D rotation — the ability to manipulate a shape in one’s own mind, sort of like a mental Tetris.
While your anecdotal experiences may lead you to conclude the latter, study author Elizabeth Dworak insists we shouldn’t see these results and assume Americans are getting less intelligent.
Instead, she explains, “It could just be that they’re getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests.”
No duh.