Undergraduates' average IQ has fallen 17 points since 1939. Here's why | Hacker News Reader

Undergraduates' average IQ has fallen 17 points since 1939. Here's why

bigthink.com

14 pointsonychomys12 comments

What's the point of this article?

1939 was a radically different world and country from 2024.

In 1939, most Universities were there for the elite and the exceptional.

In 2024, most Universities are "High School 2: Away from Home".

The article basically says as much, but the headline really smells like it's trying to make the "people are getting dumber" case.

> the headline really smells like it's trying to make the "people are getting dumber" case.

It's from Big Think, so it's likely clickbait.

There's so much clickbait on HN lately that I've started checking the domain name before clicking through.

It would be cool if there was a setting on HN to exclude a list of domains.

It seems like many people have a similar wish.

I would also like to be able to automatically hide anything that ends with "study finds" or similar

There are also a number of studies that observe similar trends in the general population.

I think it's also because there are now lots of colleges in the US that have almost no minimum academic requirements to get into and because of this, they also need to water-down the curriculum so they don't have high failure rates.

I'd go further and say that among the intellectual elite, having a degree is more based on whether or not your interests overlap with things that colleges have to offer than some default for very smart people. It is not the default now.

TLDR: More people go to college now

I thought IQ measured intelligence and not knowledge?

IQ still measures the same thing...

Correct, hence why more people going to college (instead of just the top 50% or whatever) brings the college-goers' IQ closer to average.

I had a brain fart, apologies. I forgot the article was about undergraduates.

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