

Are People Getting Dumber?  - omnisci
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-11/are-people-getting-dumber-one-geneticist-thinks-so

======
tokenadult
First comment, by the OP, asked,

 _I'm curious as to what HN thinks about this._

Since you asked, I'll say that Crabtree has certainly mastered the Science
News Cycle

<http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174>

by making a press release that has had uptake from dozens of news outlets. But
none of those news outlets seem to have reporters on staff who are competent
to judge the genetics issues involved, or who even know sources in the
Behavior Genetics Association. (The article you have kindly submitted has
better sourcing and analysis than most of the previous articles based on the
same press release that I have seen, as the reporter took more care before
rushing to print.) I have friends in the Behavior Genetics Association (I'm
part of the Facebook group for the association), and I've already asked them
about this. Gerald Crabtree has some interesting institutional affiliations
and previous accomplishments,

<http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/crabtree_bio.html> but he is not
leading researcher on the genetics of human intelligence--I have met most of
those at a meeting of the International Society of Intelligence Research. If I
saw more discussion of this idea in the actual science online sites rather
than just in gee-whiz popular articles, I would think that there is more
"there" here.

Have you seen reviews of James R. Flynn's new book Are We Getting Smarter?
Flynn's book deals with much more recent times (just the last century) but has
the advantage of being based on actual IQ tests.

<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1107609178>

[http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6835805/Are%2...](http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6835805/Are%20We%20Getting%20Smarter/?site_locale=en_US&?site_locale=en_US)

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044403240457800...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578006612858486012.html)

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/28/are-we-
getting-s...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/28/are-we-getting-
smarter-review)

Flynn is very well respected among behavior geneticists for his careful
research work.

------
omnisci
Link to the actual paper here:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952512...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952512001588)

I'm curious as to what HN thinks about this.

