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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:53 am Post subject: British teenagers IQs lower than 30 years ago |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4548943/British-teenagers-have-lower-IQs-than-their-counterparts-did-30-years-ago.html
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British teenagers have lower IQs than their counterparts did 30 years ago
Tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period.
Among those in the upper half of the intelligence scale, a group that is typically dominated by children from middle class families, performance was even worse, with an average IQ score six points below what it was 28 years ago.
The trend marks an abrupt reversal of the so-called "Flynn effect" which has seen IQ scores rise year on year, among all age groups, in most industrialised countries throughout the past century.
Professor James Flynn, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, the discoverer of the Flynn effect and the author of the latest study, believes the abnormal drop in British teenage IQ could be due to youth culture having "stagnated" or even dumbed down.
He used data gathered in IQ tests on UK children to examine how the country's cognitive skills have changed over time.
He found that while children aged between five and 10 saw their IQs increase by up to half a point a year over the three decades, teenagers performed less well.
"It looks like there is something screwy among British teenagers," said Professor Flynn. "While we have enriched the cognitive environment of children before their teenage years, the cognitive environment of the teenagers has not been enriched. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:03 am Post subject: |
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This may not explain it, but if I had to guess I'd say immigration likely has a hand in this. Children of immigrants, or kids who were not born in-country but immigrated later, do not typically do as well on IQ tests given in their adoptive country.
Seems plausible to me. If I was born to American parents, and we moved to Korea when I was 8 years old, I'd probably score pretty low on a Korean IQ test even years later.
Or maybe Brits are just getting dumber. I dunno. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, I thought that too. But how would immigration account for the drop among middle class kids, which is even worse. It's the telly - I say! |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
Intelligent people make the intelligent choice to hold off on having kids. Etc.
And TV. BigBird and I can find some agreement there. |
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Beeyee
Joined: 29 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| So they are successfully dumbing down the population then. Good work New Labour. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Dumb single girls keep popping out kids.
Immigration from lower-IQ demographics.
The "everyone is a winner" culture. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
Dumb single girls keep popping out kids.
Immigration from lower-IQ demographics.
The "everyone is a winner" culture. |
How does any of this explain the 'dumbing down' of the middle class? |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
Dumb single girls keep popping out kids.
Immigration from lower-IQ demographics.
The "everyone is a winner" culture. |
How does any of this explain the 'dumbing down' of the middle class? |
Couldn't some immigrant families be considered 'middle class'? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
Intelligent people make the intelligent choice to hold off on having kids. Etc. |
The birthrate in the UK is 1.66/couple.
Damn, Great Britain, greying, getting stupider, and in bankruptcy. Think its time to lose the superiority complex?
Ha ha ha, yeah, like that has Iceland's chances of solvency of ever happening. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
Dumb single girls keep popping out kids.
Immigration from lower-IQ demographics.
The "everyone is a winner" culture. |
How does any of this explain the 'dumbing down' of the middle class? |
Couldn't some immigrant families be considered 'middle class'? |
Yeah, but generally immigrants start at the bottom of the ladder. And the small proportion of those that can be considered middle class surely would not be enough to bring down that pool of the population by 6 points - would it? And we've always had immigrants. Irish. Pakistanis. Poles. Whathaveyou. There were also many immigrants running about the gaff 30 years ago.
Maybe it's the recent influx of Aussies and Kiwis we've been hit with? Hohoho |
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Thewhiteyalbum
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| caniff wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
Dumb single girls keep popping out kids.
Immigration from lower-IQ demographics.
The "everyone is a winner" culture. |
How does any of this explain the 'dumbing down' of the middle class? |
Couldn't some immigrant families be considered 'middle class'? |
Yeah, but generally immigrants start at the bottom of the ladder. And the small proportion of those that can be considered middle class surely would not be enough to bring down that pool of the population by 6 points - would it? And we've always had immigrants. Irish. Pakistanis. Poles. Whathaveyou. There were also many immigrants running about the gaff 30 years ago.
Maybe it's the recent influx of Aussies and Kiwis we've been hit with? Hohoho |
Actually I think it's definitely a follow on effect of the amount of intelligent middle class poms who are migrating to the 'colonies'. We are being swarmed!
I mean, you must be pretty stupid to stay in the shitness that is limeyland when you could go to the lucky countries, right? |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| mises wrote: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
Intelligent people make the intelligent choice to hold off on having kids. Etc. |
The birthrate in the UK is 1.66/couple.
Damn, Great Britain, greying, getting stupider, and in bankruptcy. Think its time to lose the superiority complex?
Ha ha ha, yeah, like that has Iceland's chances of solvency of ever happening. |
I think the British superiority complex that yanks very often seem to go on about is very much a myth of American Films and TV. I've heard all sorts of nonsense about the Brits from people who have never been exposed them (like my Korean students) and finally it comes out that their strange concepts of Brits comes down to what they've seen in American movies. My students were often amazed to learn I was British - "but you're so kind and happy, teacher! Not strict and cold!"
Granted there are nationalistic morons, but they've never struck me as being more disproportionate to our population than in other nations. If anything, I find the Brits are generally fairly modest and humble and prone to saying negative things about their country. It's the yanks who wank on about the US being a light to other nations and all that sort of bollocks. On quite a few occasions I've had to sit and listen to some horrible yanks, really full of themselves, really swallowed the nationalistic propaganda crap about the US being the greatest nation on Earth, and just quietly bitten my tongue and waited for my escape... Fortunately, I've also met some great septics, of whom I am rather fond.
If you've met Brits having a go at you for being a yank, you might not have understood that they were taking the piss - a national sport of ours. Or they might have just met one too many stuck up yank, and thought they'd take a pot shot. |
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Thewhiteyalbum
Joined: 13 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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^^^^
Exactly. I find most brits to be very self deprecating, and any superiority they may feel towards Americans is done far too subtley for it to ever be picked up on by our oblivious cousins from the north. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Thewhiteyalbum wrote: |
^^^^
Exactly. I find most brits to be very self deprecating, and any superiority they may feel towards Americans is done far too subtley for it to ever be picked up on by our oblivious cousins from the north. |
hehe - too right!
And the way some of these yanks so often go on and on about how superior the Brits think they are - it makes one kind of wonder if the root of this is actually a secret inferiority complex on the part of the yanks...
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| mises wrote: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
Intelligent people make the intelligent choice to hold off on having kids. Etc. |
The birthrate in the UK is 1.66/couple.
Damn, Great Britain, greying, getting stupider, and in bankruptcy. Think its time to lose the superiority complex?
Ha ha ha, yeah, like that has Iceland's chances of solvency of ever happening. |
I think the British superiority complex that yanks very often seem to go on about is very much a myth of American Films and TV. I've heard all sorts of nonsense about the Brits from people who have never been exposed them (like my Korean students) and finally it comes out that their strange concepts of Brits comes down to what they've seen in American movies. My students were often amazed to learn I was British - "but you're so kind and happy, teacher! Not strict and cold!"
Granted there are nationalistic morons, but they've never struck me as being more disproportionate to our population than in other nations. If anything, I find the Brits are generally fairly modest and humble and prone to saying negative things about their country. It's the yanks who wank on about the US being a light to other nations and all that sort of bollocks. On quite a few occasions I've had to sit and listen to some horrible yanks, really full of themselves, really swallowed the nationalistic propaganda crap about the US being the greatest nation on Earth, and just quietly bitten my tongue and waited for my escape... Fortunately, I've also met some great septics, of whom I am rather fond.
If you've met Brits having a go at you for being a yank, you might not have understood that they were taking the piss - a national sport of ours. Or they might have just met one too many stuck up yank, and thought they'd take a pot shot. |
When you wrote that post, it surely never occured to you that I might be taking the piss out of you.
No, I guess I'm just too American to figure it out.
Seriously, Big Bird, I know the British style quite well. But from your response, its quite clear who's feeling inferior tonight. |
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