Why are we getting dumber and dumber?
13 Nov, 2025 at 18:05 | Posted in Politics & Society | Leave a comment
It probably shouldn’t worry us if some pocket of the population saw a decline in IQ as things like education and diet affect IQ and these factors can vary from one group or time to another. But according to this new study it doesn’t appear to be some small segment of the population whose IQ is going down. It appears to be the entire nation of Norway.
When scientists from the Norway’s Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research analyzed some 730,000 IQ tests given to Norwegian men before their compulsory military service from 1970 to 2009, they found that average IQ scores were actually sinking. And not just by some miniscule amount. Each generation of Norwegian men appear to be getting around seven IQ points dumber.
That’s pretty horrifying news for fans of progress, but it also begs one incredibly important question: Why? What’s causing IQ scores to start heading in the wrong direction?
Some have proposed that our tech obsession might be to blame, but as the decline started in the 1970s, well before everyone spent their days staring at screens, that can’t be the whole story.
Other proposed explanations are unhealthy modern diets, increasingly trashy media, or a decline in the quality of schooling or the prevalence of reading …
The bottom line, however, is that the cause of the decline remains a mystery. Whatever it turns out to be, however, we should all probably start worrying about what our sedentary, screen addicted, junk food-munching lifestyles might be doing to our brains.
The intelligence quotient (IQ) is often — and rightly — criticised for being too narrow, yet it remains a fascinating attempt to quantify human intellect. Its limitations are well-documented: the tests primarily assess logical reasoning, linguistic ability, and pattern recognition, overlooking crucial facets like creativity, emotional awareness, and social intelligence. These omissions prevent IQ from capturing the full depth and diversity of human cognitive ability.
Nevertheless, IQ retains its intrigue because it offers a unique glimpse into how our minds process information, helping to highlight specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Despite its flaws, the concept continues to challenge our very understanding of what it means to be “intelligent.” It fuels enduring debates on nature versus nurture, social fairness, and the value we assign to different kinds of intelligence. In the end, IQ remains both questionable and deeply compelling — a flawed but enduring window into the workings of the human mind.
In recent years, yours truly has started to wonder what the growing obsession with mobile phones is doing to people’s — especially young people’s — ability to cope with all the complexities of modern society. Lately — while walking to work or taking the dog out — not a day goes by without being almost run over by someone staring intently at their phone. The danger of mobile fixation isn’t that it makes us “stupid” in any straightforward way, but that it gradually erodes the very cognitive capacities that intelligent thought relies upon: sustained attention, strong memory, creative reflection, and subtle social awareness. Consequently, it actively undermines the slower, deeper, and more reflective intelligence essential for genuine understanding and analytical rigour (this is also one of the main reasons why I have, for several years, argued in the public Swedish debate on education in favour of banning mobile phones in schools).
