Study: “Human Intelligence is on the Decline”

 Daniel Doherty | May 26, 2013

Yah don’t say. Setting aside the fact that literacy rates are generally higher today than they were, say, a hundred years ago, can there be any doubt that people are becoming increasingly less intelligent? A new study merely “suggests” human intelligence is in free fall, but I don’t think it takes a social scientist or dedicated academic to reach that conclusion. Do you?

Our technology may be getting smarter, but a provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the decline. In fact, it indicates that Westerners have lost 14 I.Q. points on average since the Victorian Era.

What exactly explains this decline? Study co-author Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis, professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam, points to the fact that women of high intelligence tend to have fewer children than do women of lower intelligence. This negative association between I.Q. and fertility has been demonstrated time and again in research over the last century.

But this isn't the first evidence of a possible decline in human intelligence....To Read More...