In the 20th Century, the average IQ rose, in a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect. But over the last 15 years, the trend has reversed, and people are getting dumber.
A Spring 2023 study indicates that, for the first time in a century, Americans’ average IQ is falling. The academics who conducted the study hypothesize that a declining quality of education may be reversing the IQ gains experienced by earlier generations.
The recent study, published in the journal Intelligence, measures IQ test results among 18- to 60-year-olds to examine the inversion of the phenomenon first described by philosopher James Flynn.
Professors from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon explain the Flynn effect: starting in 1932, average IQs rose around three to five points per decade. In other words, “younger generations” were “expected to have higher IQ scores than the previous cohort.”
Recent data from American adults, however, find a reverse Flynn effect. From 2006 to 2018, they generally experienced declines in the IQ test used by the study, the International Cognitive Ability Resource (ICAR).
All age groups had overall declines, after controlling for educational attainment and gender, but the loss in cognitive abilities was sharper for the youngest age cohort. “The greatest differences in annual scores were observed for 18- to 22-year-olds,” the study observed.
Exposure to education seemed to mitigated the loss of IQ points somewhat. But not for the youngest age group. “Exposure to education may only be protective for certain age groups,” suggested the authors of the study.
They hypothesize that “a change of quality or content of education and test-taking skills” may explain the differential impact of education on the IQs of younger versus older Americans.
Millennials–the largest age cohort getting both their K-12 and college education during the study– experienced a very different education system than their elders. They learned to read — often poorly — using an influential but defective curriculum that devalues phonics, and massive grade inflation at the college level. Grade inflation is partially a response to the idea that all students–no matter their ability or preparedness–must attend college, and it helps keep underqualified students from failing out of college.
The study also reflects differences in younger participants’ skill set. The study says “scores were lower for more recent participants across all levels of education. This might suggest that either the caliber of education has decreased across this study’s sample and/or that there has been a shift in the perceived value of certain cognitive skills.”
College students are learning less and less. People’s vocabularies are shrinking at a time when more and more people have college degrees. As Zach Goldberg noted, people’s mastery of hard words has been falling for well over 20 years, and their mastery of easier words has been falling for 15 years. Meanwhile, a higher proportion of Americans have college degrees than in the past, and their average amount of education in years has grown. These trends are illustrated on his graph, “WordSum Scores Overtime.”
Going to college no longer expands people’s vocabularies the way it once did: Since 1970, there has been a steady decline in the correlation between years of education and people’s personal word stock.
Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates learn almost nothing in their first two years in college, according to a 2011 study by New York University’s Richard Arum and others. Thirty-six percent learned little even by graduation. Although federal higher-education spending has mushroomed in recent years, students “spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago.” The National Assessment of Adult Literacy also shows that degree holders are learning less.
