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256 points hirundo | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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rahimnathwani ◴[] No.35514446[source]
This blog post asserts that IQ scores didn't drop for the population as a whole, and that the drop for each individual group is due to changing composition of that group:

https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/2023/03/new-study-didnt-really-...

For example, if the % of people who do a postgraduate degree goes doubles, it's no longer such a select group, so you'd expect the average IQ of postgraduate degree holders to go down. This doesn't mean IQ scores are going down for the population as a whole.

One more thing: why do so many papers that present charts that show how a mean or median changes over time, without also presenting charts that show how the distribution has changed over time?

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tptacek ◴[] No.35517739[source]
It's worth looking up whose blog this is before trusting any of its analysis.
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rahimnathwani ◴[] No.35517966[source]
I'd never heard of this person before finding this blog post via Google. So I trust the post as much as I trust any random blog post that seems to make a reasonable argument :)
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tptacek ◴[] No.35518077[source]
Now you have. Adjust accordingly. I'm not telling you how to adjust, only that you're likely to want to.
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1. rahimnathwani ◴[] No.35518090[source]
Yup. 100% agree :)