This is a classic. Here are the first few lines of a story from The Mirror:
"WATCHING TV shows can boost your IQ, experts claimed yesterday. Cultural critic Steven Johnson says the complex storylines in shows such as Coronation Street and the Sopranos get our brains working, while other shows bombard us with facts. Taking the results of IQ tests between 1943 and 2001 he found average intelligence had gone up by 17 per cent."
I am hoping for the sake of Steven Johnson's book that The Mirror story has grossly misrepresented his position.
By the same token I could argue that the birth of George Harrison caused the global rise in IQ. Well, on this evidence, The Beatles have almost certainly done more for our IQ than The Mirror.
And apart from all that IQ is a load of rubbish anyway.
The Mirror
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