The study suggests a way to stay smarter for longer.
Low IQ is linked to this parental experience.
Researchers videoed people taking an IQ test to see how they behaved.
Researchers videoed people taking an IQ test to see how they behaved.
Scientists have long argued about what IQ tests are really measuring.
Research finds that people with higher motivation have superior IQs.
At least, people who are motivated to do well on an IQ test tend to try harder and consequently get a better score.
The inference is that what an IQ test is partly measuring is how well a person wants to do on an IQ test.
People who get low scores on IQ tests may just be lacking in motivation.
In fact, research finds that when people with lower motivation are given a larger incentive, they get a higher IQ score.
The scientists argue that it is really motivation that is a strong predictor of success in life — perhaps more so than IQ.
The conclusions come from a study in which adolescents were videoed taking an IQ test.
People then watched those taking the test to assess how hard they were trying.
The results showed that those who appeared to be trying harder got the highest IQ scores.
Professor Angela Duckworth, the study’s first author, said:
“IQ scores are absolutely predictive of long-term outcomes.
But what our study questions is whether that’s entirely because smarter people do better in life than other people or whether part of the predictive power coming from test motivation.
Could it be that part of the reason doing well on this test predicts future success is because the kinds of traits that would result in you doing well –compliance with authority, self-control, attentiveness, competitiveness — are traits that also help you in life?
This means that for people who get high IQ scores, they probably try hard and are intelligent.
But for people who get low scores, it can be an absence of either or both of those traits.”
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Duckworth et al., 2011).
Those exposed to more endocrine-disrupting chemicals during the first trimester gave birth to children with lower IQs.
Stereotypes about men and women have seen massive changes in the last 70 years.
IQ tests across almost three decades reveal a worrying trend.
IQ tests across almost three decades reveal a worrying trend.
Average human IQ has been dropping over the last few decades, new research concludes.
Potential culprits are worsening nutrition (particularly eating less fish), poorer education and the rise of new technologies.
The trend is surprising as in the early part of the 20th century, people were getting smarter.
The IQ boost that humans previously enjoyed is called the ‘Flynn effect’, after the psychologist who researched it.
But now that trend has stopped and gone into reverse.
In the last twenty or thirty years, humans have started getting dumber, researchers in Norway now suggest.
Their data come from compulsory IQ tests given to young men entering military service in Norway between 1970 and 2009.
The 730,000 test results suggest people are dropping around 7 IQ points, on average, each generation (around 25 years).
This is not the first study to find that average IQ is dropping.
Data from the UK and Scandinavian countries including Finland, Norway and Denmark also suggest IQ is dropping.
The Flynn effect was sometimes put down to improved nutrition, better education, improved social environment, and so on.
In a word: progress.
So, what do we say now that IQ scores seem to be dropping again?
This study looked for the cause in genetic factors, but found that these could not explain the change.
The study’s authors write:
“…we show that the increase, turning point, and decline of the Flynn effect can be recovered from within-family variation in intelligence scores.
This establishes that the large changes in average cohort intelligence reflect environmental factors…”
That leaves us with the possibility that after progressing up until around the 1970s, society has started regressing.
Poorer nutrition, worsening education, coarsening media and new technologies could all be to blame, the authors write:
“…our results remain consistent with a number of proposed hypotheses of IQ decline: changes in educational exposure or quality, changing media exposure, worsening nutrition or health…”
In other words, the human race could be making itself more stupid with its lifestyle.
The studies were published in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Intelligence (Bratsberg & Rogeberg, 2018; Flynn & Shayer, 2018).
Brain scans measured the total surface area of the cortex and its thickness.
Brain scans measured the total surface area of the cortex and its thickness.
Taller people are more intelligent, on average, new research finds.
The reason is that taller people have proportionally larger heads.
A larger head generally gives people higher cognitive ability.
Of course shorter people with smaller heads can also be highly intelligent, however they are slightly rarer.
Dr Eero Vuoksimaa, the study’s first author, said:
“Even though taller individuals have, on average, bigger brain compared to shorter people, the size of any given individual’s brain cannot be determined by their stature alone.
Further, cognitive ability is not simply determined by brain size.
The findings do, however, shed light on the biological mechanism underlying the association between height and cognition.”
The study used brain scans to measure both the total surface area of the cortex and its thickness.
Participants were 534 middle-aged men, around half of whom were identical and non-identical twins.
The results showed that taller people had greater surface area of their cortex, but not a thicker cortex.
Dr Vuoksimaa said:
“These observations are in line with recent MRI studies of cortical development suggesting that cortical surface area increases until approximately the age of 12, whereas thinning of cortex occurs across the childhood and adolescence.”
Genetics is the major factor in cortical size, cognition and health, although environmental factors play a part Dr Vuoksimaa said:
“For example, childhood malnutrition has an impact on both height and brain growth, and affects also cognitive development.”
The study was published in the journal Brain Structure and Function (Vuoksimaa et al., 2018).
The clothes to wear, body language to use, hairstyle to adopt and how to talk.
The clothes to wear, body language to use, hairstyle to adopt and how to talk.
Wearing more clothing makes you look more competent, a study finds.
Something as simple as taking off a sweater is enough to make you look less competent, the researchers found.
The finding applies to both men and women.
The effect occurs because seeing more flesh encourages us to think about a person’s body, rather than their mind.
Maintaining eye contact while talking is one of the easiest ways to appear smarter, research finds.
Indeed, intelligence tests revealed that people who maintained eye contact were actually smarter.
Other common ways to appear smarter include speaking pleasantly, clearly and quickly, having a self-assured expression and being responsive.
Medium-length casual-looking styles are judged as making women look more intelligent, a survey finds.
These styles are also linked to being good-natured.
The hairstyle that gives an intelligent sheen to a man was medium-length side-parted hair.
The bad news for men with these haircuts is that they were also seen as narrow-minded.
Getting more sleep makes people look more intelligent because of how it affects their resting or neutral facial expression.
People who are better rested open their eyes wider and do not have a slight frown on their face.
After restricted sleep, people tend to display a slight frown and their eyes are not as wide open as they are normally.
This makes them look less intelligent.
Speaking slowly makes people sound more intelligent, research finds.
The study had people trying to intentionally change their voices to embody different traits.
They tried to sound more sexy, confident, intelligent and dominant.
Both sexes had no problem sounding more intelligent and more dominant.
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The parental behaviour that lowers children’s IQ.
The parental behaviour that lowers children’s IQ.
Children who were spanked in childhood have lower IQs, a study finds.
The more children were spanked, the lower their IQ, the research also found.
The probable reason is that spanking is highly stressful for children.
It can leave them with post-traumatic stress disorder.
An ongoing fear of terrible things happening — being easily startled — is linked to a lower IQ.
Parents who continue to use corporal punishment into the teenage years may hamper their children’s brain development even more.
Professor Murray Straus, the study’s first author, said:
“All parents want smart children.
This research shows that avoiding spanking and correcting misbehavior in other ways can help that happen.
The results of this research have major implications for the well being of children across the globe.
It is time for psychologists to recognize the need to help parents end the use of corporal punishment and incorporate that objective into their teaching and clinical practice.
It also is time for the United States to begin making the advantages of not spanking a public health and child welfare focus, and eventually enact federal no-spanking legislation.”
The results come from research that followed 704 children from the ages of 2 – 4 until they were 5 – 9 years-old.
The IQ of children who were not spanked between 2 and 4-years-old was 5 points higher when tested four years later than those who were spanked.
Professor Straus said:
“How often parents spanked made a difference.
The more spanking the, the slower the development of the child’s mental ability.
But even small amounts of spanking made a difference.”
The psychologists also found that countries in which spanking children was more common saw stronger links between corporal punishment and IQ.
Professor Straus said:
“The worldwide trend away from corporal punishment is most clearly reflected in the 24 nations that legally banned corporal punishment by 2009.
Both the European Union and the United Nations have called on all member nations to prohibit corporal punishment by parents.
Some of the 24 nations that prohibit corporal punishment by parents have made vigorous efforts to inform the public and assist parents in managing their children. In others little has been done to implement the prohibition.”
The study was published in the Journal of Aggression Maltreatment & Trauma (Straus & Paschall, 2009).
Amazingly, it also makes women appear more faithful.
Amazingly, it also makes women appear more faithful.
More revealing clothing can actually make women appear more intelligent and more faithful, new research finds.
The study conflicts with previous research finding dressing sexy has the opposite effect.
The research may demonstrate changing stereotypes about women.
The study’s author, said:
“Contrary to our predictions it was the sexualised clothing which resulted in higher intelligence and faithfulness ratings.”
For the research, 64 people were shown pictures of a fashion model dressed in two different ways.
In one picture she had on a very short skirt, a low-cut top and a jacket.
In the second picture the skirt was longer and the top covered more flesh.
Study participants ranked the woman for intelligence, personality, faithfulness, perceived job status, morality and intention to have sex.
There was no difference in the ratings between the two styles of dress except for intelligence.
Dr Alfredo Gaitan, the study’s first author, said:
“Have attitudes changed so much that people are not making negative judgments based on a woman’s dress?
We think there are still negative attitudes out there, but perhaps people are seeing the sexy look more positively.”
The study was presented at the British Psychological Society’s conference in Nottingham (Gaitan & Worrell, 2016).
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