The upward trend by now has reversed
qualia@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Evidence that may contradict your claim is that the average worldwide IQ increases by 3 points every 10 years. So the species appears to slowly be getting smarter. Dumbness may just be more noteworthy in our culture.
crandlecan@mander.xyz 1 week ago
KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
I presume you’re talking about the Flynn effect. Posts like these are usually based in Western Anglo-sphere nations, where the society as a whole is clearly getting dumber. Not shaming OP though - I feel all of this too as a USAmerican.
For the majority of the world, the last several decades have centered on expanding schooling of children, supporting women (half the population) in education, promoting small businesses of women, supporting small businesses in undeserved areas, and reversing the damage of colonialism.
The majority of the world has been steadily growing more intelligent as access to education has increased, and medical access has mitigated the toll of life on people. Undoubtedly, the USA and UK and many EU nations has been growing stupider, and supposedly in 2024 the rate had slowed to 1.2 IQ points per decade. It may also be that Western systems favor dumber people, but coming from the USA, I don’t think that those sociopolitical systems changed recently.