“In a way, the world−view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.” 1984, George Orwell
The 2013 National Assessment of Education Progress has shown marked improvement in public school performance in math and reading. Now, only 58% of 4th graders and 64% of 8th graders are below grade level in the two areas. When the majority is below the benchmark, does that mean the majority of children in America are, to some degree, stupid? The real question is whether or not America as a whole is stupid, and if so, are we getting dumber?
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 31% of American college graduates can read a complex book with good comprehension. This is particularly troubling in a world where the only limits to knowledge are the knowledge of where to find it and the literacy to understand it. While technology allows us to access the collective knowledge of humanity with ease, there is some research that suggests humans as a whole are actually becoming dumber.
One study published in Intelligence re-evaluated the “Flynn Effect”, which suggests that human I.Q. has been increasing in the past 50 or so years. It found that human I.Q. actually declined about 14 points since the Victorian Era. Gerald Crabtree of Stanford University suggests that a decline of human intelligence is an evolutionary inevitability, given our current circumstances.
In Our Fragile Intellect, published in Trends in Genetics, Crabtree suggests that humans reached their intellectual peak about 2,000 to 6,000 years ago. “The expansion of the human frontal cortex and endocranial volume, to which we likely owe our capacity for abstract thought, predominately occurred between 50,000 and 500,000 years ago…” Crabtree says. Selective pressures of survival required ancient hunter-gatherers to develop the intellectual capacity capable of an intuitive understanding of the aerodynamics of a spear and making snap life-or-death judgments when hunting large, dangerous animals. Inventing the bow and arrow may have required more intelligence and innovation than landing on the moon.
These pressures, which Crabtree suggests formed and maintained our intellectual capacity, are absent in structured society. He believes that living in high density society after the invention of agriculture began the decline of human intelligence, as each individual no longer had to rely on their intellect as much to survive and procreate. Supportive societies allow for lapses in judgment and failures of comprehension. Community life in general reduces “the selective pressures placed on every individual, every day of their life,” Crabtree says. “A hunter–gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his/her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate. Clearly, extreme selection is a thing of the past.”
CNS News, Nation’s Report Card: Only a Third of 8th Graders Can Read, Compute At Grade Level: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/nations-report-card-only-third-8th-graders-can-read-compute-grade
Chalcedon, A Review of Stupid in America: http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/a-review-of-stupid-in-america-how-we-cheat-our-kids/
Scientific American, Homo (Sans) Sapiens: Is Dumb and Dumber Our Evolutionary Destiny? http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/2012/11/26/homo-sans-sapiens-is-dumb-and-dumber-our-evolutionary-destiny/
Psychology Today, Is Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)? http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mr-personality/201305/is-technology-making-us-stupid-and-smarter
National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Performance Across International Assessments of Student Achievement: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/analysis/2009-index.asp
Time, How to Use Technology to Make You Smarter: http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/29/how-to-use-technology-to-make-you-smarter/
Discovery News, Techs That Make Us Stupid: http://news.discovery.com/tech/technology-brain-intelligence-20130319.htm
The Atlantic Wire, American Kids Aren’t Getting Dumber; They Were Just Never That Smart: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/02/american-kids-aren-t-getting-dumber-they-were-just-never-that-smart/17783/
The New York Post, U.S. Adults Are Dumber than the Average Human: http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/us-adults-are-dumber-than-the-average-human/
Psychology Today, Are Americans Getting Dumber? http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201103/are-americans-getting-dumber
The Huffington Post, People Getting Dumber? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html
Truth Dig, The Logic of Willful Ignorance: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_logic_of_willful_ignorance_20120706
Psychology Today, How Technology is Changing the Way Children Think and Focus: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201212/how-technology-is-changing-the-way-children-think-and-focus