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IQ Scores Increases By 3% Per Decade
Just found an excellent book review at The New Yorker. It tells about rising of IQ scores and IQ ratings from generation to generation.
In short, the story of the finding is the following: In November, 1984, James Flynn, a social scientist from the University of Otago, New Zealand, found a large package in his mailbox. The package contained the results of IQ tests given to two different generations of Dutch eighteen-year-old teenagers. After having looked through the data, Flynn discovered an amazing thing. He found, that the Dutch teenagers from the 1980s scored much better than their counterparts from 1950s.
After that Flynn began to collect IQ test results from Europe, North America, Asia, and the developing world -- from all around the world (from about 30 countries in general). And he saw that in each and every case, the situation was almost the same. Flynn discovered that IQ scores appeared to be rising by 0.3% per year, or 3% per decade, for as far back as the the valid statistical results had been received. So, human beings seemed to be getting smarter.
This phenomenon was called Flynn effect in the name of the scientist. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to make sense of the Flynn effect in the practical field. For example, if an American born in the 1930s has an IQ of 100, his children should have IQs of 108, and his grandchildren -- of about 120 (according to the Flynn effect). But it's a bit higher than a standard deviation. If we turn it in the opposite direction, we see that grandparents of a typical teenager with an IQ of 100, would have the average IQs of 82 which is below the threshold necessary to graduate from high school.
Perhaps, the reason of such a rise in IQ scores is not linear. It's likely to have started to increase during the information revolution and from year to year it will increase faster and faster. It's just the brain development acceleration, I think.
But do not wait until your children become geniuses spontaneously. You can increase your IQ up to 180 yourself and then teach your children the same. It's not that hard.
