←back to thread

American IQ scores have rapidly dropped, proving the 'Reverse Flynn effect'

(www.popularmechanics.com)
256 points hirundo | 2 comments | 10 Apr 23 13:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.593s | source
Show context
iamerroragent ◴[10 Apr 23 13:20 UTC] No.35511931[source]▶
They say scores in spatial reasoning went up while analogies, vocabulary, and numerical reasoning declined.

Hmmm I wonder if an increase use of videogames paired with a decrease in the amount of time parents can spend communicating with their children might be related.

Note that over the last 30 years it's vastly transitioned from one parent staying home raising children to both parents working.

replies(5): >>35512882 #>>35515514 #>>35517815 #>>35518043 #>>35520123 #
skywhopper ◴[10 Apr 23 14:39 UTC] No.35512882[source]▶
Not sure where you got your data, but from what I can find, the rate of stay at home parents has mostly stayed unchanged between 1989 and 2018: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-hom...
replies(2): >>35513530 #>>35513700 #
1. iamerroragent ◴[10 Apr 23 15:31 UTC] No.35513530[source]▶
Huh that is interesting.

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/estimate...

Here is a pretty clear indication that people are just not having children.

Maybe the percentage of stay at home parents has stayed the same but the number of stay at home parents has shrunk because the number of all parents has just shrunk as well.

None of that really helps indicate why IQ in certain metrics related to communication would be in decline. Since the percentages are the same you would think outcomes would be similar then.

So are kids getting dumber or are parents just getting worse?

Or other factors in our environment are contributing to this. An increase in smart devices autocorrecting and doing 'math' for us for example.

replies(3): >>35514289 #>>35514517 #>>35525768 #
2. watwut ◴[11 Apr 23 14:36 UTC] No.35525768[source]▶
What about this: stay at home parenting comment was as pure attempt on pushing ideology as can be. There were so many changes in the meantime - parenting is more intense, kids read less, kids watch videos more, kids socialize differently, school system is more demanding and kids finish more years of schooling, that taking a single aspect and making conclusions off it is unlikely to end up with reasonable results.