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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: 0s | source
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rahimnathwani ◴[10 Apr 23 16:58 UTC] 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 ◴[10 Apr 23 21:42 UTC] No.35517739[source]▶
It's worth looking up whose blog this is before trusting any of its analysis.
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ZeroGravitas ◴[10 Apr 23 21:56 UTC] No.35517869[source]▶
A summary:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Emil_O._W._Kirkegaard

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cubefox ◴[11 Apr 23 11:49 UTC] No.35523758[source]▶
RationalWiki is partly written by highly biased political activists and sometimes borders on defamation, at some point they also attacked people like Scott Alexander, Scott Aaronson, or Eliezer Yudkowsky. Here is what Kirkegaard has to say about the main author of this page: https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/inaccuracies-in-rationalwikis-o...
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1. radip2 ◴[11 Apr 23 18:36 UTC] No.35529324[source]▶
Does not seem to be a reliable source. The outcome of the lawsuit emil kirkegaard filed against the main author was the author winning and Kirkegaard owing him tens of thousands in legal costs. https://www.scribd.com/document/535708866/Emil-Kirkegaard-29... Kirkegaard does not mention the lawsuit outcome on his website because he lost and was shown to be a liar in court.
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2. cubefox ◴[12 Apr 23 01:26 UTC] No.35533924[source]▶
... writes a brand new account with zero prior comments. Surely no affiliation with Oliver Smith.
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