American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped, Proving the 'Reverse Flynn Effect'

IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries ( Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, France and Australia). Around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations began experiencing some kind of decline in IQ.<p>We can rule out some explanations:<p>- US only explanations don&#x27;t work.<p>- Not genetics. It&#x27;s not immigrants or low IQ people having more children. Norwegian studies show that children of high-IQ parents are also having lower IQ.Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pnas.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;pnas&#x2F;115&#x2F;26&#x2F;6674.full.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pnas.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;pnas&#x2F;115&#x2F;26&#x2F;6674.full.pdf</a><p>So its environment somehow. Nutrition, exercise, education, activities, pollution, ...

Incredibly, one of the study&#x27;s authors chooses to single out STEM as a possible cause. STEM -- when there are so many other issues that could be contributing. For example:<p>- Less physical activity, more obesity. Both have known effects on memory and cognition.<p>- Childhood screen time, which has been linked to poor sleep, worse communication skills, and developmental delays.<p>- Easy, anonymous access to infinite novel pornography, which may affect the development of gray matter and the functioning of the prefrontal cortex.<p>- The decline of community and communal spaces and the detrimental mental effects of isolation.<p>Getting people suspicious that more science education will decrease IQ is about the last thing we need. (And I wasn&#x27;t a STEM major, for the record.)

It&#x27;s always frustrating when a headline says exactly the opposite of what the article itself does:<p>Headline:<p>&gt; American IQ Scores Have Rapidly Dropped<p>Article:<p>&gt; Dworak, a research assistant professor at Northwestern University and one of the authors on the study, is very clear that these results don&#x27;t necessarily mean Americans are getting less intelligent. &quot;It doesn&#x27;t mean their mental ability is lower or higher; it&#x27;s just a difference in scores that are favoring older or newer samples,&quot; she said in a press release. &quot;It could just be that they’re getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests.&quot;

Humans are naturally curious about the world about them. But I think there is a difference between going and finding out, versus having it spoon fed. The latter increases knowledge but I don&#x27;t think it exercises the brain.