IQ is falling for first time EVER.... our map reveals average scores in every US state

Is it the use of tech as the study suggests, or the negative attitude (especially among populists) towards education, especially higher education? Not surprisingly the people in the Southern States have the lowest IQs

Exactly half of US states have an average IQ of 100 or above, with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont coming in the top four while North Dakota and Wyoming tied for the fifth spot.

Researchers have also suggested that US IQs started slipping at the turn of the millennium as people adopted more technology into their everyday lives which has only increased in recent years.

Meanwhile, those ranked in the bottom five include New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Nevada, according to World Population Review.

• Average IQ levels in the US dropped to 98, falling below the national standards
• Experts believe the drop in IQ levels is due to increasing technology use

IQ is falling for first time EVER.... our map reveals average scores in every US state
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13380029/average-iq-score-states-us.html

Average IQ by State Yellow=Low IQ, Blue=High.

 

Glossing over the effects of illegal immigration?

 

might be caused by several factors including the fact that those in high tech, high education jobs tend to have less children than those cohorts with much lower levels of education. My 25th reunion in college (average age was 46-4 was filled with people who had children under the age of 12. I did an informal investigation of a few dozen of my friends who were "late blooming" parents and I heard this sort of reason a fair amount

1) I didn't consider starting a family until I made Partner at Goldman Sachs or Sullivan and Cromwell
2) I didn't have time to have a baby until I had completed my residency in radiation oncology at Sloan-Kettering

On the other side of the coin involved the victim of a well known "suicide by cop" case where the mope had more than a half dozen kids with three different women.

 

I can believe it. Technology use does not encourage deep thought.

 

I spent many years taking many standardized tests, and it's absolutely true that performance changes with how mentally engaging current hobbies are, even beyond actually studying for the tests. This is something that's highly multifactorial, but definitely a decline in reading could account for a decline in scores. Reading has been displaced by technology for many people.

Is it also possible smart people are having fewer kids? Yes... Frankly, I'm encouraged the dip hasn't been more dramatic.

 

I don't think that is a new trend among people with higher education / high scoring careers. The reduction in IQ is new, so its probably caused by something else. Maybe having a smart phone and all the information in the internet lessens the burden of having to figure things out on your own. Do millennials know how to read a map, for example, or do they just ask Siri for directions?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bi1nkD1qd1k

 

I would suggest that the blame lies in lousy public education. One part of it is the Covid school closures and the loss of in person teaching. Now that kids are back in school there is a chance the IQ will rise without doing anyting.

 

It was not a study of school kids, but the nation as whole, and I doubt 6 months od remote learning would make a dent in national IQ levels.

THIS would explain something: "College student enrollment has generally declined over the past 12 years".

The cost and demonization of higher education is taking its toll

College Enrollment Statistics in the U.S.
https://www.bestcolleges.com/resear...=In 2022, about 62% of,over the past 12 years.

 

well you have a good point-I ask my wife what she has going on say tomorrow and she has to look at her phone. I don't know if that is a cause but it might be

 

Dang, that's a sad map especially for the Southern states...more transfer payments needed focused on education, etc.?

 

I live in an area which is saturated with restaurants, but my wife can't find one without studying the ratings in her phone.

 

I can't believe that a lefty actually believes there is something called "IQ"


Next thing you know they will start accepting sex differences between male and female.

 

Don't feed the trolls folks!

 

You have a point there. It seems people want college to be career training but it isn't and never has been. Post graduate education does that. And, of course, career training outside of college also does that. I think the enrollment decline is likely a result of the cost of higher education more than anything else.

The public primary and secondary schooling ranks poorly for us as well. I taught high school for a year and a half before being drafted into the Army. I taught in a suburban public high school. When I compared the quality of education overall there with the quality in the private high school I attended, there was a noticeable difference. High school was similar to college for me. Not so in the public high school. We can and should do it better.

 

The Southern states have the highest non-white population. It is not surprising they have the slowest average IQ.

 

I know three high. School sophomores who made Mensa. College has nothing to do with IQ

 

Who is it that takes IQ tests?

 

Cost is one thing, but declining birth rate is said to be the biggest cause

College enrollment could take a big hit in 2025. Here’s why.
The nation’s declining birthrate could hurt enrollment numbers.
https://thehill.com/changing-americ...f young Americans,the U.S. has been shrinking.

• College enrollment numbers have been declining for years, taking a hit during the pandemic.

• Colleges saw the first bump in enrollment since the beginning of the pandemic in 2023, but experts worry those numbers will drop again soon.

• That’s because the number of Americans of traditional college-going age is expected to dramatically drop in 2025.

 

I have always thought that tech and laziness leaching into our society would lead to lower IQ

The end of cursive and penmanship being taught.
Using calculators while learning math-- instead of figuring out problems by long hand as you work through.
Using phone navigation rather then learning to read a map.
Being over-protected as children instead of allowing them to figure things out.
Buying things instead of fixing what is broke.

Our children are being raised in a modern world where they don't have to think or grow the brain. Same for adults actually.

 

Testing was pre-covid, but education could be part of it.

True, but the largest drop was in 'kids' 18 to 22. That would suggest something about the trends in education prior to the testing.

 

This was from the op article

I would love to see the full data if it includes results for sub tests. That would give an indication of a potential relationship with technology or hints as to a particular deficit that might be causing lower IQ.

(I'm a developmental psychologist, but got out of testing five or six years ago)

 

It's true. You don't need to think so much anymore but just digest.

 

We would need to see the original Oregon study. Do you have it?

 

You could be spot on:

- Whites: 103
- English-speaking Asians: 106
- Hispanics: 89
- Blacks: 85

Easy to test this theory by looking at different districts and seeing if there's a correlation between demographics and IQ. Of course nobody's going to do that.

But it does mitigate the cheap shot of saying that the southern states are dumb, particularly if a liberal makes that comment.

 

For a long time in human history IQ and the development of our cognitive abilities raised by

1. better nutrition, medicine, etc., which will leads to most individuals to use their potentials which were wasted before due to malnutrition, illnesses, etc. This effect will reach a maximum, because its about healthy conditions, it doesnt work the way the more you eat the more intelligent you get. I think we as human kind in general and especially the developed country are relatively close to the maximum, no huge steps to be expected in the future.

2. challenges we faced which lead to a survival of the fittest in within the "fittiest" cognitive abilities were one important factor, due to which statistically more intelligent people were more likely to survive and have an offspring in the next generation. That also has come almost to an end.

I dont wonder we are getting a bit more stupid.