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According to many posts on the internet, humans are getting dumber. For example:

People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

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.

Is it really true? Today's kids can count at least up to 100 at the age of 4 and they can even read. When I was at that age I was only drawing circles. Lol. We have young kids who are entrepreneurs or science prodigies.

The technology enables are to study faster and more efficiently. Youtube or google gives us so much material to learn about anything and to become an expert in any area. This was not possible for our parents and we can see that now many of them can't catch up with the today's technology.

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    That would seem to be a contradiction of the Flynn effect
    – poizan42
    Mar 22, 2017 at 17:53
  • related 1 2 3. @poizan42 not really, if you take the whole world as your base, gains in Asia might be greater than in Europe.
    – user36688
    Mar 22, 2017 at 17:57
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    I won't make an answer till I read the article, but average IQ (of the entire testing population) cannot decrease. It is by definition 100. So, it appears to be a statistics thing. Also, who is "Westerners"? Who are "non-Westerners"? Also, IQ tests are not universal. So what distribution of people are taking IQ tests? This reeks of statistical issues.
    – sharur
    Mar 22, 2017 at 17:57
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    I think the definition of "dumber" may be too subjective. The quote seems to use it in place of lower-IQ-scores, but your question mentions things other than IQ scores. Are you asking, 'have people's IQ scores gone down?' (probably answerable), or 'are people actually "dumber"?' (probably too subjective)?
    – Batman
    Mar 22, 2017 at 17:58
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    @sharur "Average IQ" is a fairly questionable metric, though it's worth noting that it can change over time. While you're correct that the average IQ is 100 by definition, the average can be defined as the average over a time span, such that averages at certain times can vary.
    – Nat
    Mar 22, 2017 at 21:25

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