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Doesn't it seem like the world is getting dumber with every passing year? Well, maybe it is!

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If population IQ and wealth remain constant, the average IQ of the world should then fall over time, since a larger portion of population growth will occur in low IQ countries.

Global IQ: 1950-2050

Richard Evans Lee
May 31, 2004 •
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From Garth Zietsman: I think two things are inaccurate. Firstly he mentions the Flynn Effect. What he doesn’t mention is that it doesn’t occur on all types of intelligence test. It is marked on abstract non-verbal tests but virtually non-existent on culturally dependent verbal tests. Scores on high level verbal tests such as the SAT in the US have been showing a significant DECLINE over the same period covered by the Flynn Effect. So it is difficult to say what is happening with IQ in individual countries (without migration). The safest assumption (given contradictory movements in scores and grandparents not being retards) is that intelligence is relatively constant if breeding rates in different classes remain constant. Almost by accident the writer has made that assumption. Secondly it is only partially accurate to say those with low IQ outbreed those with high IQ. A variety of phenomena show a curvilinear relationship to per capita income e.g. breeding rates, pollution levels. It seems that there is a POSITIVE relationship between breeding rates and income below a certain income and a NEGATIVE relationship above that income. In rich countries (where the quoted research was done) almost the entire population is above the turning point income. So what is likely to happen is that there will be a decline in intelligence in rich countries and an increase in poor countries (the faster breeding lot) for a while. In the short term I expect global intelligence to rise and national IQ differences to narrow somewhat. A phenomenon he doesn’t discuss is the main point of the Bell-Curve - high and low IQ people are being increasingly separated from one another within each country. These groups are likely to find common political cause against one another in time.

Posted by: rcrawle | June 1, 2004 5:22 AM

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My thanks,
Richard

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