777 Comments

  1. You forgot to add the impact of all this man-made RF radiation (wireless technology) is having on man's cognitive abilities.

    1. Yes, this is something that is not receiving significant attention. Many neurosurgeons will not hold cell phones to their ear. We are flooded in RF radiation and this is unprecedented in our natural history. I believe it may be related to the increase in autism, marked increase over just 20 years. However, I have not looked deeply into it.

      1. DiggFerkel says:

        No, it's not radiation. It's lower standards. In today’s schools they must lower the intelligence bar to the point that everyone is equal. 100% non-discrimination. Funny that it's "discrimination" that made man rise above animals in the first place.

      2. Phil Bickel says:

        I believe the increase in Autism is related to the fact that we don't spank children and they spend to much time with televisions and video games. Oh but no! It has to be something we can barely control or BHT's cell phones, or cat dander. Oh also Doctor like to prescribe medications for Autism, and parents and teachers prefer their raowdy children medicated.

        1. Delia Harrell says:

          I believe you are confusing Autism with Attention Deficit Disorder.

    2. So you're saying that intelligence in underdeveloped countries where RF is minimal is rising?

      1. Those countries are awash in RF. In fact, cell phone usage is greater there.

    3. Also on the map is the change in ratio of omega 6 to 3 fatty acids in the diet. It was at 3 to 1 and even less in some very healthy societies but now going out of control at 20 to 1 or worse. That affects which genes get expressed. So while genetic modification takes a long time turning on and off various genes can happen in a generation or two. We've been getting worse for more than 50 years so it could as long to undo the damage.

      1. Phil Bickel says:

        You folks are just downright scary with all your theorys and no proof. Remember how we came to cyclamates causing cancer, and the coming ice age. We live in a time of the theory of the week and the diet of the week..

    4. No, what they forgot is history. They forgot God, The King James Bible and sin. Any time you abandon those things (especially the words of God) and elevate sin this will happen. Or at least that is how history has worked out for 6,000 years. And, God told you this but you were just too dumb, ignorant and lazy to read it. It is a remarkable thing today that people cannot understand 6th grade english (AV of 1611).

    5. than why pray tell are we living longer if our enviroment is so toxic, it does not add up.

    6. it is obvious that man is becoming dumber. I knew this in 2008 when obama got elected, and 4 years later, we were even dumber to re-elect him a second time. Its obvious to me our intelligence is declining. I believe there is a direct correlation between increased stupidity, and the increase in democrat voters.

      1. An even greater proof of people getting dumber is the likes of Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney even considering they should run for VP or President (based on the feedback they got from the dumb masses).

    7. The proof of declining intelligence is that Obama has been elected TWICE!

      1. Barry was elected six times: Three times to the IL legislature, once to the US Senate, and twice as President.
        I can understand him winning a seat in the IL legislature. The district he represented is quite corrupt. And I can understand how he won a Senate race – his operatives cheated and made public the divorce proceedings of his opponent, who was a truly gifted person.
        It's hard to stomach his ascension to the throne of the USA however.

    8. shemafish says:

      I observe many that graduate from university have little ability to contextualize events…In other words "Critical Thinking" may be foreign to many that have university diplomas. Why this is so should come from those much smarter than I. On the other hand I observe many average "Joe", a journeyman in construction, plumbing, or whatever that have a better grasp of government, economics, world politics (Critical Thinking) than graduates of university. Again, someone much smarter than I needs to answer these questions….but remember, we all drink the same water, eat the same food from the supermarket.

      1. Scientist says:

        hahahaha … keep telling yourself that 🙂
        So called "Critical Thinking" is nothing without a mechanism to test & validate ideas, to filter out spurious correlations and theories (ideas) contradicted by empirical observations or data (e.g.: the Scientific Method is such a tool).
        None of the "Average Joes" could master such concepts (otherwise they would not be average), thus they are doomed to fail when trying to understand world politics, economics, etc.
        What Average Joes really do is trying to convince themselves that they have some understanding when, in reality, they only have shallow opinions.

    9. You get flooded with more RF during a thunderstorm than you'll receive your entire life time from a cell phone.

      1. Watch "Resonance – Beings of Frequency" the full documentary on youtube is available to watch anytime. There is a huge difference between the earth's natural frequency (7.83 hz Schumann resonance') and man made artificial frequencies from a cell phone.

    10. Ban "reality" TV and rap music and IQ's would shoot within a couple years.

    11. Also, SOY is in just about every processed food now… SOY in large doses is a poison!

    12. uh, what does diminished mean?

    13. Phil Bickel says:

      This theory of his is based on what evidence exactly? More "I wish it is true, so ti is science." For expample the part about the genetically superior not being favored for selection. Elitist, leftist propaganda. What he's saying is the state, to truly bright people should find and select the people who succeed and reproduce. Someone like Dave Thomas, with a third grade education, amking billios off of ground animal remains is obscene to these elitist. People who think like this is how you end up with China's one child policy, and Magaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood. Read this and then go out be a success in spite of there hoity toity made up science.

    14. Retired Officer says:

      They're not counting the primary cause which is the inordinate numbers of liberals that the universities and public schools have pumped out into society that think they're owed a good grade because the ENROLLED (didn't show up) in a course of study.

    15. Don't forget to mention all that sodium fluoride that's in our water. It's a neurotoxin.

    16. Brianattitude says:

      Forgot to mention the mixing of the races. Some are just stupider than others. Mixing them just dumbs down everyone.

    17. Hmmm. I suspect that we graphed the decline of intelligence that it would be the exact inverse of a curve representing the government's intervention and control of the public school system

  2. It's the culture, stupid. Multiculturalism drags us all into a lowest-common-dnominator culture. "No child left behind" really means dragging down the exceptional students (unless, of course, they are non-white, in which case they will be given red-carpet treatment.) The goal is to destroy white people and western civilization.

    1. Oh my Gawd you must be eating a steady diet of fluoride HFCS sandwiches because your statement is by far one of the top 3 stupidest things I've read in all my 35 years on earth…..

      1. Rick in PA says:

        Toy, Ron is right on. You must be a very immature 35, I have known this for 40 years. Multiculrialism=diversity=anti-white, it is all code, kinda like that code progressives so commonly through out as "dog whistles". Grow up! I aint gonna take this anymore.

        1. I bet black people know that you spell through as THROW. If only they'd focused more attention on YOU instead of the black kids!

        2. Logic Skeptic Critic says:

          How is diversity == anti-white? It's no more "anti-white" than it is "anti-black" or "anti-vegetarians". Get your head out of your arse. All you have "known" for the past 40 years is a healthy opinion based on asserion. Which has less weight than a non-factual assertion in logical conversation.

          1. Flechette says:

            “Diversity”, in the political arena, essentially means “affirmative action”, which really means promoting “minorities” over white people even if they are more qualified for the job, scholarship, etc.
            Race should not be a factor for any of these decisions, but thanks to the “diversity” crowd it is.

    2. I used to think the same; however, I realize intelligent people almost always rise. You will find intelligent people in the slums, from the farms, etc. The person with the highest or second-highest IQ in the U.S. is from nowhere Montana and grew up under very adverse conditions, i.e. those that would not favor developing a high IQ.

      1. "I realize intelligent people almost always rise. "
        While that may be true, it is also a fact that dumb people produce children at a faster rate.

    3. It’s people like you, who are to blame.

  3. You also seem to forget that hundreds of years ago with whom you bred was as important as anything else. It was the serfs and slaves that spread their seed willy nilly without thought for tomorrow, and seeing as how their lives were brutish and short it didn't matter much. Now, unfortunately, the weakest among us are able to procreate and further deplete the human genome.

    1. theweakinherit says:

      Unfortunately? The human race's greatest hope is darwinistic elitists like you continue to average 0-1 children and die off..

      1. BrunoTaTa says:

        Sure, let the dummies take over. That'll be the ticket.

      2. Robbzilla says:

        Ever see Idiocracy? You're an example of it already.

        1. One of the greatest cult movies of our times, and the scariest – considering its plausibilty

    2. In the small towns in Europe many of the people are related to one another if you go far enough back. They weren't moving around as much as we are today, so there was a sort of inbreeding going on. You were likely to be breeding with a distant relative, even if you didn't know it.

      1. thinkingdownstream says:

        Izzy – Here in America, we have very real inbreeding problems that we don't speak of directly because to do so would be un-PC at the very least. Ask yourself what happens when women have multiple children fathered by multiple men in a geographically constrained area; and very often the children have no idea who their father is.. so also do not know who their half-siblings are.
        One consequence is that many people are closely related and don't know it. And these people repeat the same behavior as their parents, compounding the genetic problems.
        The probability of closely related persons producing off-spring is very high in areas where such behavior is rampant.

        1. Sperm donors present a problem as well. There have been cases where siblings have married w/o realizing it, only to discover this fact upon having a child with a significant pervasive developmental disorder.

        2. Sorensist says:

          thinking downstream– the problem with your theory is that, taking the rise in developmental disorders like autism and severe mental illness among children, the highest rates of these mental disabilities are among affluent whites and lowest among African Americans and Hispanics, which seems to be the groups you're alluding to. This is changing somewhat as the CDC has been hellbent to raise vaccination rates amongst minorities and as Medicaid has began pushing happy pills on pregnant minority women.
          The irony is that high IQ might lend a degree of susceptibility to brain injuries from environmental oxidative stress potentially due to high rates of transient immune insufficiency found among "precocious" children. The brain and gut– where 70% of the immune system if located- tend to vie for metabolic fuel in developmental stages, which might theoretically explain the added susceptibility. Couple this with the fact that naturally occurring testosterone– which gives both male and female athletes and leader-types a certain edge– increases susceptibility to oxidative stress and we may have to import our future rocket scientists and Olympic athletes from less "technologically developed" countries. Whether modern medicine, pollution, toxic food or a combination is the culprit, it appears we're destroying our future brain trust with "progress."

        3. thinkbigorgohome says:

          Isn't that the rationale behind the NRA? Give them guns and hopefully they bump each other off, rapidly?

          1. Wrong (as usual…doesn't it get tiresome?) The NRA promotes the idea that people should have guns for self-protection so the predators being bred in the inner cities and elsewhere cannot overwhelm us.

        4. Strider55 says:

          Recall that famous "joke" (actually a fact) from The Longest Yard*:
          Q: Why do you (blacks) all call each other "brother"?
          A. Half of you don't know who your fathers are, so you might just be brothers.
          * – the original, with Burt Reynolds as Crewe

    3. Exactly. The sole reason for a population decline in IQ (which is largely genetically determined) is the differential fecundity between high and low IQ people coupled with the artificial suppression of natural selection by humanist society.

      1. Too many big words. Remember, we R gitting dummer as tyme goze bye.

    4. Hybrid vigor – counts for a lot. But I'm betting on the effects of worldwide television, which stifles analytical thought and substitutes images that flow in one eye and out the other, to mix a Minotaur.
      That's my guess – maybe I can get it published as an "article in the scientific journal Trends in Genetics."

    5. Wm. R. Schulte says:

      We will be able to manipulate the genome in future years to the benefit of our species, but true competition for survival exists in other species – indicating advances competing with our own ultimate dominance and survival.

    6. Agreed. There was a time when a female would assess the work and earnings ability of her potential mate. Now that the government will pay for her and her kids, she doesn't need to be so discerning.

      1. You mean you and me pay for their food, health care and drug addiction. Why put the effort in if it will get done for you? It's disgusting

    7. ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. In the US, the main groups of "takers" skew our collective score downward. They keep pumping out their fatherless, bastard imbeciles, and we actually pay them to do it. We give them money to "raise" criminals, and welfare queens. Then, when they turn 18, Democrat "organizers" teach them to steal the REST of our money by voting for more freebies. It's sickening.

      1. really? I come from a broken home, where food was scarce and love and attention were only ideas. When I got to University I realized that students who grew up in easy, comfortable homes were weak and lazy. So, congrats on potentially being a middle class earner. In college it's guys like me that will eat your kids alive, crush the course, and confine them to the cube farms they so richly deserve for the remainder of their lives.

    8. You are 100% correct and elitism has nothing to do with it. It's just a fact. This is especially true in the U.S.

    9. "unfortunately, the weakest among us are able to procreate". That quote shows you have no moral compass. You would be right at how in the Third Reich.

    10. AbleWitness says:

      One's I.Q. is as genetic as their potential height and hair color. However efforts at eugenic engineering most often fail. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore wanted the educated men of his country to marry educated women and have children, this to keep the country's I.Q. high. One thing about the lowering IQ thingy, is that what is actually being seen is an IQ bimodal curve (not a bell curve). There is this gap between those with high IQs and those lacking. Higher IQs speak to getting high-tech jobs. Low-tech jobs are disappearing. The only way to feed huge populations is to develop industrial/high-tech farming; old modes of farming are obsolete and the land cannot be wasteed like that. Therefore, with the IQ gap, one sees a widening gap in incomes. If governments intervene to redistribute wealth, the national economies fail (the European Union is failing and soon the U.S. dollar is going to crumble; "quantitative easing" = printing false currency). So really, there are no answers that work. Historically these things end in genocidal wars and/or famine.

    11. Supercool says:

      The problem with this thinking is that it usually leads to nothing good. It was used to justify racism and to justify the slaughter of millions of people through abortion and mass extermintations. Who gets to decide who's fit for breeding and who is not? How important is intelligence when selecting a mating partner? Good looks, a sense of humor and a host of other traits will trump IQ.

    12. Sieg Heil, I see you are a fan of Darwin, so, when do you slaughter the crippled and the mentally disabled?

    13. JOHN T. FOX says:

      THE ROYALS CREATED DISEASE THROUGH INBREEDING! THEY ARE EVEN MORE GUMPISH THAN THE SERFS! YOU CAN HIDE MORE IN A TREE THAN IN A BUSH!

    14. Sorensist says:

      You actually believe that slaves were enslaved because of their naturally inferiority? I hear banjos…

    15. I imagine you don't get out often… Since you don't I would suggest any of you sharing this same premise to watch some videos called "HUMANS ARE AMAZING"
      There is a simultaneous explosion of super intellect, super athletic humans. While it would be great for everyone to use Socratic logic in their normal pursuits, it can't happen. Worry about your own.

    16. No_BlahBlah says:

      No information voters, easily propagandized that exchange their birthright, their vote for a few crumbs, a loaf of bread, an oBammie phone.
      Each person is responsible for the way they live their own life and as you put it, "unfortunately" many choose the easy path, the one that leads to squalor, ruin and slavery.

  4. Geraldine Adams says:

    only a small percentage of the human race resides in USA so generalising about the human species based on fluoride and poor diet on the USa is hardly fair. Personally , I am sure that these things are harming children, maybe some diet related problems are reversible. How can we know that overall IQ is reducing? IQ tests have been suspect for a long time. Surely there were slaves and the subjugation of women in Athens 1000 BC was that an intelligent way to live? Surely not. Bet those slaves didn't eat well. I teach teenagers they are amazing human beings.

    1. "During their whole lives, those ancient slaves drank pure water "
      You romanticize the life – and diet – of slaves in ancient times.

      1. People do not realize that clean drinking water, especially in cities has only been around about 100 years.

      2. Take it easy man romanticize? Another problem with people is that hey respond on BLAST rather than reason gompers

        1. Travis, I truly believe that anyone who postulates that ancient slaves had access to high-quality and pure food and water is indeed romanticizing the past. To challenge that notion does not represent an over-the-top blast.

    2. You teach teenagers; that could contribute to the problem.

    3. "Surely there were slaves and the subjugation of women in Athens 1000 BC was that an intelligent way to live?"_They could probably have written a grammatically and syntactically coherent sentence.

    4. I don't disagree with your assertions. But, I think you missed the point.

    5. BrunoTaTa says:

      You've obviously never hired a modern teenager. LOL

    6. read up on a possible reason for the fall of Rome… lead in their dishes… it is well documented.

    7. Geraldine, your exactly the type of human being this article is talking about, Low IQ, Low information voter. You go from fluride to slaves to subjugation of woman??? My dear Geraldine, feminism and the uncognitive belief in it is a great byproduct of this disease

      1. Johnny B Goode says:

        Exactly, feminism, womens rights, affirmative and any initiative that places the weaker in a position they would not otherwise attain without social engineering is likely to be causal to this phenomenon. Why don't you just face the facts. Women required MEN to move society & technology to a point where automation was ubiquitous and social engineering applied before women could seriously get involved. What a joke. What would happen if a great war came upon us? Who will you feminist cry to when all your social support systems break down. No more women owned business subsidy, gender quotas, sex discrimination laws, etc…

    8. Will Killyou says:

      "Surely there were slaves and the subjugation of women in Athens 1000 BC was that an intelligent way to live? Surely not." Really? I think it was incredibly intelligent very low cost basis for production with FREE labor. Slavery is a wonderful thing for the masters! You whiny, wimpy PC Buffoon!

    9. That IQ test 'have been suspect for a long time' is nonsense. There is little doubt among nonPC brain scientists that IQ tests are among the most valid (they accurately measure general intelligence) and reliable (the results are consistent upon repetition, over time, and across different formats) psychometrics. The counter-arguments offered up by the ideological Left have (predictably) proven specious.

      1. True. Ghetto blacks, for example, insisted that the tests were designed so as to NOT fit into their worldview and the questions didn't relate to the "black experience"…which was (and is) nonsense. Knowing what an "alley apple" is, doesn't make one intelligent–merely one with a vocabulary that is wildly different from that of the rest of society.

    10. I call BS on this article as well. It has more to do with a slide in discipline and morality in today's cultures. The dumbing down of classical school topics is to blame as well.

    11. I will take the Doc's wager. I await his proof, and when time travel is invented we will know for sure who is going to pay off. I also teach teens, from sixth grade up to twelfth and can confirm Geraldine's assessment. The current educational system tends to suppress their mental development — dull and inept teachers and administrators, boring baloney content. I am 72, and continue to do substitute teaching for three reasons: it is fun, it is satisfying when the light clicks on and a student "gets it", and I meet interesting and valuable people before their value becomes evident.

    12. On the contrary, before all the modern conveniencies slaves were employed by the more intelligent and successful people and probably most of them were much better off than in the tooth and claw jungle. They enabled a higher survival rate for the more intelligent and successful. The women who were selected to breed were the physically superior who were smart enough to appreciate their social role and excel in it.

    13. Me_in_Canada_Eh says:

      Sorry, but equating intelligence with moral or cultural behaviour is a non-starter. There have been some extremely evil people that were quite brilliant. Just because you don't personally like how a society functions doesn't determine the overall intellectual capacity of its population.

    14. Saddlemomma says:

      Actually, slaves in Athens were treated and ate quite well. In fact, Athenian slaves could become policemen (so to speak) because the Athenians were too lazy to want the job. I know this because as a homeschool mom, I am teaching Ancient Civilizations to my kid. Regarding subjugation of women, yes Athenian women didn't enjoy much freedom. However, Spartan women trained for war, fought, and hunted right alongside the men. They could vote too.
      I think our intellectual decline has many reason. However one really stands out – our total reliance upon technology. Our brains aren't trained to work or "remember" anything anymore. Why should it? We have so many gadgets that will do the work for us. And to think, whole epics like the Iliad and Odyssey were passed down verbally from generation to generation without a hiccup during Ancient times. Now we can barely remember what daily appointments we have without our iPhones, blackberrys, etc…

    15. Bet those slaves did eat better b/c they didn't have all the processed crap we have now, only natural, real food

    16. Doctorate says:

      Why?
      They are not…but for a handful.

    17. Being intelligent has nothing to do with how moral a person is.

  5. Matt Dubuque says:

    I think all the mercury from the tuna we eat and in our tooth fillings are not helping.
    Remember the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland? Madness caused by mercury exposure has been documented for quite a long time…. the dyes used by hatters in the 19th century contributed to their dementia.

    1. Mercury hasn't been used in dental fillings since the mid-70's.

      1. wrong.
        dental amalgam is 50% mercury, and is still widely used.

        1. 26% avg, and FDA says its safe for 6yr olds /shrug

          1. Because it's chemically bound. The mercury will no more leak out of amalgam than the oxygen will out of a glass of water.

      2. Mercury Fillings says:

        Not true- they are still used in some circumstances. In Canada, mercury fillings continued to be the filling used by dentists, unless you paid double for the composite, until 2005.

    2. They dont even make Mercurys anymore, so we're safe.

    3. Matt:
      It was the glue in the mercury in the making of hats (to attach the brim to the main component . . . .

    4. Fish yes, fillings no. Unless you're in an incinerator, mercury is not coming out of your amalgam fillings. Period.
      My theory is that the intelligence results have a lot more to do with simple breeding pressures. Lower IQ individuals are having more kids. A lot more. Higher intelligence people are having fewer or none. Further, these lower IQ individuals are getting more generations within the same time period, magnifying their increases. This behavior overlaps with all of the municipal water and diet issues described above. We're doomed.

  6. R. W. Albertson III says:

    Yeh, I’m dumb enough to believe it.

  7. Reading, writing and arithmetic …the lost subjects in our schools.

    1. It's more important that kids know how great it is that Timmy has two daddies.

    2. Great statement. We are taught what our "government" wants us to be taught in order to control the lives of the people. The last generation to learn were in the 50-60s. Look what we have done to the younger people. Sham on us.

    3. "Rethoric"? I think you just proved his point, and disproved your own!

  8. Slaves drank pure water, yeah right. All civilizations have been drinking diluted fermented beverages since the before recorded history. Water was rarely fit to drink unless you were able to access it directly outside of cities and densely populated areas.

    1. Europe gave up on water around the year 1000. That was the impetus for some of the abbeys to get into the brewery business.

    2. Even outside of cities the water was often not pure, just like today. If you climb to the top of the Continental Divide in the Rockies you're above the influence of cities yet the water is not fit to drink because of natural contaminants such as animal feces. The purification process until modern times involved adding alcohol. It was considered barbaric, even in ancient times, to drink fermented juices such as wine without diluting them at least 1:1 and more often 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 with wine to purify them.

    3. Most humans until a couple of generations' ago, lived on the land. 90% of them – not in densely populated areas.

    4. noseitall says:

      Also lead content was high until it was realized that lead pipes were toxic.

      1. consider the prevalence of lead-based paint, too.

  9. It is funny how some scientists and demographers were hailing the Flynn Effect, " The substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day." As a scientist-professor, I am inclined to believe that we have a better informed population, albeit one that does not necessarily understand the roots of ideas, theories, etc., but one that is declining in abstract and plastic intelligence. The latter term is mine. Plasticity or plastic intelligence is humankind's true intelligence, the real genetic selector, which is the ability to adapt rapidly to changing environments. In the contemporary world this is the ability to learn quickly. If placed in a new environment; i.e. a foreign country, this could be manifested in the ability to adapt by learning the language, even without formal instruction, inter alia. I have seen this many times; some people adapt very quickly and they are they ones who usually do well. Others cannot adapt even with instruction and help. They would have perished in the past and their genes removed from the pool.

    1. The ability to adapt to new environments isn't solely based on intelligence… Refer to the eccentric writers, etc for proof of that. Intelligence in itself is subjective. I know people who are 'brilliant,' yet they dropped out of college and/or performed poorly. Obviously, on average, drop outs rarely do as well as those who have a degree, though.

    2. What you term "plastic" intelligence has earlier been named "fluid" intelligence, which when combined with "crystallized" intelligence represents the total package.
      On the "better informed population" – true for part of it, but certainly not for all of it. Ever seen Leno's "Jaywalking?" Hard to believe those folks are capable of tying their shoelaces.
      On the "Flynn Effect" – bogus – can only be explained by statistical manipulation of the data. Evolutionary changes cannot happen that quickly.

      1. I agree on the "mainstreaming" of those with reduced mental skills – that only makes it worse for all the other children. My wife is a grade school teacher, and she has two highly autistic children in her class. Far too much of her time is spent calming these two down when one or the other is having a "fit" (or crapping their pants…). They can scream and carry on for hours! How is this "fair" for the other children? They are many factors and this is just a small aside to the gist of the article in question, but for sure the "mainstreaming" of children that should be in their own special classes, is a small part of a small section of why "Johnny can't read". (or write, or think critically….)

    3. Language is a special case and not necessarily related closely to general intelligence like any of a number of specific aptitudes. There is no evidence to suggest that language acquisition is a valid metric for general intelligence.

    4. Sorry, fluoride occurred naturally in two locales in the US (in addition to certain areas in Mongolia!). One of them was Marshall, TX. These two (I think the other one was Sedalia, MO) received the first fluoride experiment. I had the misfortune to be among the guinea pigs in Marshall even though I wasn't born there, Those of my generation who were born there were monitored annually (I have no idea what they were looking for by having all those "lucky" kids chew the orange gum. Although my IQ is at the top of the accurately measurable scale (before IQ tests were dumbed down), I lost most of my teeth due to finding out late in life that fluoridated toothpaste was causing my gum disease. When I began suffering from gum disease, I, as could be expected, began to brush more often (sometimes every two hours with–you guessed it–fluoridated toothpaste). Now the few teeth I have left (BTW, I had my first cavity at age 22!), I have managed to save by using only non-fluoridated toothpaste or, when I can't get that, soda and salt.

    5. shemafish says:

      I observe many that graduate from university have little ability to contextualize events…In other words "Critical Thinking" may be foreign to many that have university diplomas. Why this is so should come from those much smarter than I.
      As for the average "Joe" on the street I observed "Critical Thinking" in conversations…why a journeyman plumber, electrician…have a grasp of economics, world politics, regional politics that exceed university graduates? Again, the answer must come from those smarter than I but…we all drink the same water, eat the same fast foods….?

  10. Brawndo Has Electrolytes……

    1. It's got what plants crave…

      1. Anonymous says:

        What do plants crave?

    2. Anonymous says:

      Its what plants crave.

    3. SO GLAD someone finally cited that movie. It is, at its core, the best reason for dumbing us all down than any scientific study could ever produce.

      1. Beef Supreme says:

        President Camacho is in office now…
        Beef Supreme out!
        Brought to you by Carl's JR

    4. Beef Supreme says:

      President Camacho will get to the bottom of this.
      Brought to you by Carl's JR

      1. Hazel Motes says:

        Would you like some BIG ASS FRIES with that?

    5. It's got what plants crave!

  11. Its a culmination of the hydrofluorsilic acid in our water (from the phosphate industry in China), GMO foods, Chemtrails, high fructose corn syrup, as well as lack of a good educational system. Its not just one thing, its many things that contribute to a child's IQ before they reach age 6. Even though sodium fluoride was first added to water in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945, most communities didn't even fluoridate until the 1970's and 1980's. Hell, it wasn't unitl 1965 that New York City fluoridated their water. The babyboomers X'd out Generation X. The silent generation and babyboomers are chemical addicts! Just to scare the lemmings, they will threaten you with a 1800's lifestyle.

    1. Anonymous says:

      Don’t forget about MSG, Aspartame, and other excitotoxins. Also, modern dwarf wheat is terrible for you.

    2. Was it you that invented anything? Keyboard commando chest thumper!

    3. "inyernet,digital,pop music"? What magnificent achievements! How exalting of the human spirit! How are literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, symphonic music, oratory, philosophy, theology, mathamatics doing?

    4. "Chem trails?" That'd be condensation trails to the nonmornic population. Alas, I don't know what else you wrote because "chem trails" ALWAYS is a show-stopper. Chem-trails … seriously?

    5. Jack Armstrong says:

      DAN – think demographics

  12. The test subjects were from DC.

    1. That made more sense than any of the other statements. I do wonder about the test pool they used. Was it mostly from the inner city? Was it a cross section of people or from the Congo? What group tested the poorest and what group the highest. I'm thinking that Western Europeans, some groups of North Americans, "but not all," and groups of Asia did the best. Of course PC has to level the playing field, doesn't it…

  13. My son got all the questions correct on the hardest IQ test the public school gave him. My brother is a physicist. My childhood home had a private well will no fluoride. I also was allergic to many things, so my diet was limited. I didn't eat any fish during pregnancy, to eliminate mercury exposure. I bought water for my babies without fluoride. I don't like plastic food storage. My kids were breastfed, with very little use of plastic bottles. They never used a pacifier. I rarely even used shampoo on my children. No pesticides. I bought organic meat. I can't tell you if it made a difference or not, but my kids don't have any allergies, and my brothers and I were plagued with them.

    1. Congratulations, nanny. Any comment on whether I should be allowed to drink a 32 ounce soda?

      1. I could care less what you eat or drink. It's none of my business. I'm putting this out there for anyone that might be interested.

        1. ignore the naysayers.
          you're a good mother, and your children will be healthier for it.

    2. I was born in the 1960's – the height of pesticide use, and I have no allergies. I still live in this same place, and I still have no problems. There are some who blame the air, and some who blame the water and some who blame the food. Maybe it is something else – let me guess – free market economics and the rule of law by process. That is what you want to blame. If the place you live in is such the problem, then move!

      1. so, what your saying is if things get bad you shouldn't try and make them better? See, you are exactly the type of person this article is talking about.
        The only thing we have to like to be an American is the Constitution, other than that we have the right to talk about what we do not like and the right to change it. These rights are given to us by the constitution. If you don't like freedom of speech, you go live somewhere else.

        1. So what you are saying is that life would be so much better without chemicals?

      2. Sounds to me as if the nanny is the problem 😉 I must agree with you, some people always have to blame this and that, and this results to paranoia. So many youtube videos making money off of these types of subjects.. At least I know I won't have to spend as much money out in the market!

    3. Anecdotes are not evidence.

    4. The first sentence cracked me up and I stopped reading.

    5. Izzy's Mum says:

      Why are you still getting public assistance?

      1. I've encouraged my children to each have a dozen or so baby mamas. The government wouldn't be paying if they didn't want you to reproduce like mad! If they run out of money they can do a remake of the rap video "Thrift Store."

    6. Well don't you just sound like a proud mother who seems to have gotten diluted without the help of fluoride! IQ tests are redundant because you can see that every person is unique and all an IQ test shows is how well a person can respond to its stimulus. The organism is so powerful.. I garauntee you that with the whole flouride thing, you and your diet are being overly paranoid.. You should realize that millions of Indians who live on just bread and water live much longer and NEVER get sick then a person who eats a 20 course diet..

  14. Based on many of the posts I see its clear that the meat puppets are truly dumbing down, but don't believe for a second that this isn't by design. Stupid fat people ask no questions & put up no fight thus preserving the status quo just as the elites would have it.

    1. What about stupid skinny people Toy? What’s your excuse?

    2. It isn't necessarily fat people who do this. It's entitlement-bound people of all sizes who do.

  15. What about the top 5% of earners? Surely their intelligence isn't decreasing like the other '47%.'

    1. Dwayne Keith says:

      They usually only have a modest number of children. It is the gold-toothed rapper with his pants on the ground that has ten kids with ten different baby mommas or the hillbilly trailer park prince and princess who have more beer and meth than milk and juice in their fridge. Both of whom are able to procreate so prolifically thanks to tax dollars of folks with only the number of children they can afford (about 1.2 kids at present) or able to raise to be good citizens between their two jobs.

      1. Well, Dwayne, you've just inadvertantly stated what others have posted as to the "reason" we're getting less intelligent as a whole. Demographically speaking, the average couple of a society needs to have 2.3 children, or else the population will decline. Those with more "intelligence" and who "have what it takes to succeed, are not having enough children to perpetuate their genes, and those with less intelligents are breeding like rabbits, since all of our social engineering won't let the rawness of the evolutionary process weed out the less fit.

        1. ****ignore the typos….posted too soon, and can't edit now…. lol ***

          1. typo's accepted, what you said is right.

        2. Carley Rowling says:

          it's actually 2.1, not 2.3

    2. You only have to be smarter than the people around you not smarter than the generation before you.

      1. So a society of truly stupid people would do well and present as much opportunity for the person who was lucky enough to have another three IQ points?
        IMHO, the intelligence of society overall creates more opportunity. You may be a brilliant inventor but if there nobody creates the materials your invention requires or if nobody figures out the logistics of getting it to consumers, you are in trouble and won't do as well.

  16. I Knew IT! TOO MANY ASS SOULS!!

    1. Now understand why Borockus was elected to a 2nd term!

  17. John of Texas says:

    No Kidding! I see it everyday!! Did not need a survey to tell me that!

    1. Dutchuncle says:

      Yeah, the kind this administration is feeding them

    2. Kool-Aid not Koolade

  18. Of course, with the massive popularity of bottled water, our children's teeth are rotting in their heads.

    1. Growing up in Grand Rapids Michigan in the 60's where they first fluoridated water, I had tons of cavities throughout my childhood. Now, as an adult, I've been drinking bottled water for over 20 years and I've had maybe 2 cavities in that same 20 years.
      I'm not sure on this as I'm not a scientist and research is to inconclusive, but I tend to think that fluoride was meant to be put on teeth, not ingested. I Brush with it, but I don't drink it.
      Oh, I need to add this. My children's teeth are not rotting out of their heads and they drink bottled water only. Sounds like you just don't know how to take care of your children, it's not the water, it's all the crap you let them eat.

  19. biglouie15 says:

    Didn't the results of the last 2 presidential elections prove it? By the way, a couple of guys named Akin and Mourdock also are proof.

    1. Peter Karahalios says:

      You are forgetting Mitt and Newt…
      A hand garment and a lizard

      1. How is it you measure IQ, those who agree with you? This is why you are so very reviled. You arrogant snob. Your only talent is making fun of people who have proven themselves far superior to your small little mind, good people such as the Romney family. If Mitt were in charge right now he would not be out on the golf course with the likes of Tiger Woods, that's for sure.

        1. And gasoline would not be approaching 4.00 a gallon.

          1. Over $4 in liberal retard land of CA…

    2. Wait. Not voting for Sarah Palin is a sign of a lack of intelligence now? What happened, did I wake up in an alternative universe or what?

      1. Although I'm not a big fan, Sarah Palin had better qualifications for the job than the current occupier of the White House.

        1. Way to show everyone what fine stuff you are made of Porter!!

        2. Wow..what a sad, sad example of our species. While our species' IQ is indeed decreasing, yours is definitely way out ahead on the way to the bottom.

      2. How sad that you think there are only two options in a presidential election.

      3. Voting for idjit Biden .? You have got to be kidding right?

    3. Wow. The irony of this being posted below such an article is pretty humorous. Next time, please educate yourself before forcing your ignorant bigotry on the rest of us.

    4. biglouie15 says:

      Are you refering to Sen. Harry Reid of NV who is a Mormon who somehow became a multi-millionaire on a senator's salary or Jeffrey Immelt of GE who was chairman of obama's jobs council that never met and who has shipped thousands of GE jobs to China. Please select one of the above.

    5. The writer forgot suffrage and emancipation.

    6. Pappadave says:

      How utterly stupid. You actually BELIEVE the garbage put out by the Democrats in lieu of a single plan for saving the economy and putting people back to work.

  20. Fake_President says:

    The extremity of the smartest will slowly increase while the average intelligence is pulled toward the low end by the massive numbers of dummies from the low end of the intelligence scale reproducing at a higher rate. Government perverts natural selection by favoring dummy reproduction and eliminating the most intelligent thereby decreasing the reproduction and numbers of intelligent people, who are those that resist the tyranny intrinsic to dummy favoring government.

    1. Phil_Sheo says:

      And in so doing, ensures that those in government will continue to hold power.

    2. Tony Moschetti says:

      And who woulod the "smartest" be? The Ivy League grads who have been inundating governemnt since the Kennedy days? They certainly done a great job getting us into unnecessary wars, massive, unsustainable national debt, and a completely failed public education system.
      And what segments of our society, and the world society have the highest reporduction rates?

      1. In all probability, the smartest are those who opt-out of the system, treating it as a unnatural disaster which should be avoided when possible.

      2. Fake_President says:

        The smartest people don't go into elected government. My experience is that conservative people are the most intelligent and the bum class, almost exclusively liberals, is the fastest reproducing.

  21. I am in full agreement with this researcher's findings as shown by the election of Barack Hussein Obama.

    1. Is that another name for Barry Soetoro?

  22. I think the IQs in academia have been decreasing since the 60's. There is no common sense. Ideology abounds about anything.

  23. Curmudgeon10 says:

    Anyone who has been to their Motor Vehicles Department lately knows this is true. Also explains the popularity of the Kardashians, and just about everything else in California.

  24. Buffmuffin says:

    Short version is those with conservative values are more mentally advanced and stable, those with progressive values are less intelligent and more mentally damaged / unstable…
    Thus what we already knew, which has been confirmed by peer reviewed studies….
    Liberalism is a mental disorder… And it is spreading.

    1. Haha. You're joking, right?

  25. He forgot that teaching institutions especially colleges are responsible for creating myopic narrow minded graduates!

    1. NOW you're getting at it: believe what the teacher believes and you will be judged to be "smart." Differ and you are an insensitive (see the emotion instead of reason and logic therein?) backwood hick who has not been properly refined.

      1. Brad Wilson says:

        Yes, he COMPLETELY IGNORES LIBERALISM'S NARCISSISTS that have been launched against the world…..

    2. Pappadave says:

      Must say I have to agree. Look at how many people voted for Obama because they thought (wrongly) that they were going to get "free stuff." Look at how many high school graduates we have who can't read their own diplomas or write a coherent sentence but are "graduated" so the school's "graduation rate" will look good on paper. Look at how many people we have "achieving" BA degrees in such silly "disciplines" as "Minority studies," "Sociology" or Phys Ed. and then are hired to TEACH because they can't find a decent job elsewhere…certainly not in their chosen field.

    3. Education has little to no effect on intelligence.

      1. Unfortunately a lack of intelligence (liberalism) has had a huge impact on education.

        1. Isn't it mostly conservative who believe in magic sky daddies?

          1. The "magic sky daddy" and his "ten commandments" for a decent life have been taken out of the schools decades ago. It's obvious that it isn't the "magic sky daddy", or the belief in him, that has caused our schools and intelligence to deteriorate. Again – "criticial thinking skills" are what is missing – as you yourself, MichaelIT, have so aptly shown. 😉

          2. Yet it doesn't seem even the wee-est bit odd to you that public school grades began their race to the bottom of the world around 1973 in the U.S.? Let's see now….WHAT happened in 1973 that might have caused this????

    4. Jack Armstrong says:

      TUG – I appreciate your comment but I think you are talking about a poor education. Not the intelligence level of the person who is receiving the education.

  26. Human intelligence is declining because of teachers unions and inferior education methods in dumbed down schools.

      1. Don't blame the teachers. Blame the politicians and administrators that are pushing a weak and ineffective teaching environment that puts the score on one test compared to a DIFFERENT set of students above all else.

        1. It is the teachers, too. They're not that bright these days, either.

          1. Especially those with sleeve tattoos , chest birds and barbed wire themes.
            One has no need to speak to them, since their stupidity written all other them.

    1. Cautiously Informed says:

      Typical uninformed believe everything in the news viewpoint . What's lacking in these days are parents who foster learning in the home before and during a child's formal education. Most people these days are dumb dumbs who eat too much fast food and live in front of the TV.

    2. IQ is at the very least 50% genetic. education teaches facts and mental discipline but does not raise or lower intelligence. those on the lower half of the bell curve have more children in general and make the intelligence decline more obvious.

      1. Pappadave says:

        Except that education does NOT "teach facts." Our system teaches political correctness, "feeling" whether something is right or wrong instead of how to reason, or, at best, teaches WHAT to think instead of HOW.

        1. You are simply incorrect.

          1. I'm copying and pasting this so I can always refer back to it. Brilliant 🙂

        2. You nailed it! This is the root of all our ills- not knowing how to think correctly!

      2. Education today, I would argue, does not teach mental discipline. It does not promote critical thinking or debate (which strengthens mental ability). The brain is similar in some ways to your muscles – it can be trained and exercised and must be in order to excel. School kids simply aren't getting the mental training necessary to be proficient thinkers.

      3. Strider55 says:

        Idiocracy is coming, and it won't take anywhere close to 500 years.

    3. This is the CORRECT answer.

    4. grumpy geezer says:

      Absolutely SPOT ON! You only have to read letters written by common enlisted soldiers from the Civil War and compare them to the communication skills of today's graduates.

    5. Learning and the development of wisdom that sometimes accompanies it may be taught. Intelligence is a measure of potential performance only, so we cannot blame the teachers for that directly. The culture of education does bear some responsibility by teaching nonsense like multiculturism. Promoting Islam as a viable philosophy means that a society is encouraged that rewards conformity rather than independent thought. This removes intelligence from the gene pool. The integration of Stone Age and other primitive cultures into our superior Euro Judeo culture encourages crossbreeding with those that have not bred for intelligence, also not desirable for the gene pool. Openly discussing this with an "educator" will give her the vapors. Until recently, education was delivered from the elders, who had experience to perferct their learning and time to craft it all into wisdom rather than those with theoretical educations and little wisdom.

    6. Intelligence has nothing to do with educational vehicles. Intelligence is the capacity- not the result.

    7. The problem is government schools.

  27. One has to look no further than the last two Presidential elections. Look at the quality of the individual that was elected and the reasons for doing so.

    1. Kim Kardashian in 2012. Lest you think me kidding, its at LEAST as valid a pick (and reasons) as the current pres. She has better boobs, too.

      1. Are the boobs better than Barack and Joe?

        1. hahaha tough to beat that pair…

        2. Giovanni Montana says:

          Their boobs are unfortunately backwards

      2. Obama and Biden are the biggest boobs we've ever had in the WH.

    2. Look at how the vote went in every major inner city cesspool. For example, in Chicago, voters went for Obama over Romey 84% to 14%.
      Then look at the voters themselves – only about 1/2 of all students of Chicago Public Schools actually graduate from high school.
      And among those who do graduate, the average ACT score is 15.8 – which is in the bottom 15th percentile! It doesn't help that the average ACT score for CPS teachers is 19 (bottom 45th percentile).
      The voter base for Democrats is fundamentally ignorant and uneducated.

      1. Why relate voter stupidity to democrats? Seems that the mere activity of relying on voting to choose leaders is universally stupid. – – Very similar to relying on a lynch mob to implement justice.

        1. noseitall says:

          What is your alternative to elections?

          1. Anarcho-Capitalism

    3. You stole mine….agree 100%

    4. You stole mine……I agree 100%

    5. spaceman99 says:

      You stole my thunder! That's exactly what I thought when I started reading the article.

    6. The two elections prior to the last two are far more telling. George Bush was the worst president the United States has ever had; history will judge him. High crimes and felonies.

      1. And what do you base that on other than your prejudice against Republicans?
        It seems that Mr Clinton committed the felony of Perjury, not Mr Bush.

        1. Bush better never leave the USA. He has reason to fear legal complaints against him and arrest for being a war criminal. He will be snatched and put on trial. He already had to cancel a trip to Switzerland. Cheney needs to fear also.

          1. thanks for that fabulous reminder the leftists are generally unfit to participate in civilization due to their propensity to seek to destroy those with whom they disagree. IOW, yours is the party of tyranny.

          2. Strider55 says:

            Bush bought a large tract of land in Paraguay during his 2nd term. That will be his "bug out" destination.

      2. President Comacho says:

        Considering the victors write the history books, according to your theory, Bush should be getting some major PR upgraades in the years to come. Maybe even get a spot on Mt. Rushmore. But considering who's writing the history books today, they'll have a hard time even spelling Bush much less nuclear. Yeah, thanks to our rigorous education system, history will have a hard time judging anybody who's not in WWF, but guess who'll get all the love? The one who hands out "free" phones and unemployment checks like candy.

      3. Galleywench says:

        And you just proved the point of lower intelligence.

      4. He was far from the worst president. The funny thing about presidents is that they never fulfil voter's expectations. Presidents to be successful must govern from the middle facilitating compromise. Regardless of your political affiliation you must admit the Obama is incapable of compromise. He demands his a agenda bullying and belittling his opponents. The President can never take the high ground. His speeches at his inauguration and state of union address demonstrate this perfectly. He is incapable of unifying the nation in support of his agenda with out making low brow and odious references to his opponents. A true amateur lowering the statesmanship of the presidency.

    7. Precisely!! and you don't have to be a geneticist to figure that one out!

    8. FransSusan says:

      He forgot to mention political correctness and affirmative action that have destroyed education throughout the country. That's the biggest factor. All the other reasons he mentioned are merely secondary.

  28. So much for the theory of evolution. Perhaps it should be called 'devolution'.

    1. I agree with that assessment. It's proof that we aren't evolving, but were created. The creation is deteriorating over time.

    2. Booji Boy says:

      DEVO told us this 35 years ago. No great surprise. I’ve seen “Jersey Shore”.

  29. After a good look at the Democratic party I'd say yes…..human intelligence is in the toilet.

  30. Voila! The discover of the "low information" voter!

  31. BOStinks 2 says:

    There's solid poof of this…look at who the American people voted back into office

  32. That became evident during the recent Presidential Election.

  33. If humans were so smart 1000 years ago how come they didn't have tv,radio, movies,computers,antibiotics, telephones,cars,planes,rockets,big macs,m&m's,walmarts,eyeglasses,trains,insulin,light bulbs,etc.

    1. If we're so smart now, why don't we have the things that mankind will develop over the next 1,000 years?

      1. Especially the ability to tell the future.

        1. I predict I will have a hangover tomorrow morning!
          How's that for predicting the future?

    2. So you know how to build a TV? Wow you're right. We're really smart.

  34. Vitruvius says:

    Intelligence and education are self-limiting. The first thing that happens when a society advances and increases education is the limitation of family size by the most intelligent, best-educated couples. The well-fed and cared for lower intelligences breed at will. The average IQ must decrease. As to the fluoridated water, I thought that most people drink filtered water now. At least I have for 20 years.

    1. To truly eliminate fluoride, your home filter needs to use reverse osmosis or activated alumina defluoridation. These methods are expensive.
      Brita, Pur, and most other common household filters do not remove fluoride.

  35. The comments are awesome. I knew intellectually that there were people out there who found this kind of reporting credible, but to see it on display like this really warms the heart. I think we've definitely proven that paranoia is increasing among the population, at the very least.
    But on the other hand, the more people who believe this, the more likely the premise is to be true … which would make it correct … but it doesn't square with reality … but [head explodes].

  36. not Henry says:

    This explains perfectly how the US has elected Mr. Obama as their president, not once but twice. I believe they're called low information voters.

    1. Consider the (practical) alternatives during the last election, or any election.

      1. No one is dumber than Obama… and Biden is even dumber.

  37. Dr Strangelove says:

    Ripper: Mandrake?
    Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
    Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
    Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have, Jack.
    Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
    Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
    Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
    Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
    Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this Earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that 70 percent of you is water?
    Mandrake: Good Lord!
    Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
    Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
    Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
    Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
    Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?
    Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
    Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
    Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
    Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
    Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
    Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

  38. Is he depending on the election of Obama for proof?

  39. The average Athenian wasn't subjected to Fox news all goddam day

    1. Telesphore says:

      Athenian ancient society would not have elected Obama. This is sufficient corroboration that the dumbing down of the populace has ocurred indeed.

      1. Not every leader of Athens was decent!
        Consider Cleon and Alcibiades, who were horrendous leaders.

    2. So who is forcing you watch Fox News? Having a problem figuring out the operation of the "On/Off" button?

  40. One variable that Dr Crabtree left out of the report was race. I wonder how significant the correlation is between race and IQ. I sure there isn't any but all variables should be considered.

    1. Hush! We're not allowed to mention race except to comment about how diversity is good or how evil whites are.

    2. Or what is the gender…

    3. Assuming they are still available, test results from "No Child Left Behind" should be considered in this context

  41. It's the increase in the populations of South and central American Hispanics (Indians) and lets not forget the ever increasing African population. Both races never accomplish vary much of anything and to this vary day contribute vary little to the world. Genetically they are inferior to the Whites, Asians, and Hindus. The Gods place them on this planet as worker bee's, they were isolated from the civilized world until the last 500 years. They are mixing and being counted along side with the more intelligent and developed peoples of the world, so of course the world is dumbing down, almost like the movie Idiocracy.

    1. Absolutely true, now in this self destructive PC world few will state the truth. Feelings are paramount! Reality takes a back seat.

      1. Truth is like a naked lady; a gentleman offers his coat and turns his head away.

    2. Heil, my Fuhrer! How is our good Dr. Mengele doing in Hell? Is the hot tar spa good for his health? Greetings from me! You don't recognize me? I'm Goering!!!

  42. Jules Sedgewick says:

    I could see how the good professor might come to that conclusion by watching our leading politicians in action.

  43. Well the last election proved this theory!

  44. Liberals are reproducing faster, hence the lowered intelligence.

    1. On the other hand, they're killing off more unborn babies. That's one of the reasons that libs are intent on giving citizenship to illegals – they see millions of potential Dem voters.

  45. The certain evidence of the decline of human intelligence is the difference between the people that wrote the Constitution of the United States and the people that are currently bastardizing it whenever they can. If there were no Constitution, the current crop of D.C. denizens couldn't duplicate the grace and dignity of the first pararaph.

    1. They write horrible monstrosities, that no one can read or understand… and won't work.. like Obamacare.

  46. Of course all of the things this article points out support the ideals and premises of those who favor a naturopathic outlook. The publisher, Natural Society, should give you a hint as to the agenda in this article. That, along with all of the high points, fluoride, HFCS, Pesticides, Processed foods, etc. I tried the naturopathic approach, had myself checked out, measured, and spent a boatload of money on supplements, tinctures 'attuned' to my specific needs, and other natural products, with no verifiable improvement in my health, and no change in my allergies, nasal congestion, and other symptoms that were supposed to be addressed by my naturopathic regimen. And believe me, I followed it, added more, changed, got re-read, etc. etc….all with no changes. Sorry folks, this kind of thing may work for some, but not for me. Read between the lines and open your eyes to the underlying agenda of reports like this.

    1. I live a healthy lifestyle and I am vegan and healthy but I like you don't believe in all the supplements, tinctures etc. As with medication anything can be over done, not properly used or needed anyway. It's all about the money. If you don't McDonald's three times a day or any other processed garbage you will be fine! This article has a lot of holes but some good points too. I just take what I need from these kind of articles and discard the rest.

  47. All animals face the same problem with evolution. They evolve towards faster, stronger, smarter, while at the same time evolving towards more energy efficient. The two goals contradict each other. Animals can consume less energy by being weaker and dumber. Overpopulation has consequences and this is one of them.

    1. there is no overpopulation

  48. Smarter? depends on who is doing the polling – Democrats or Republicans. Republicans would go after the facts; The Democrats would use the poll for manipulation.

  49. dennisdee says:

    This is obvious as evidenced by the nations shift to the far left.

  50. Peter Karahalios says:

    Maybe in the US but I doubt it is happening in places like China…
    North America is not the entire world…

  51. The Babyboomers sitting on your City Council are the ones allowing the fluoridation of your water. I don't see too many 38 year olds sitting on those City Councils. Just wrinkled old farts that have a golf game to go to!

  52. explains people voting for Democraps

  53. So the John Birch anti fluoride folks were right after all.

  54. Bet you your comments on here go directly to a Homeland Security/Fusion Center database for people to pick up and throw in a FEMA Camp once the shiat hits the fan. Now be nice! Who do you think funds all these sites to begin with. Its all controlled oppostion!

  55. SisterBenedict says:

    I can't believe the Drudge Report linked me to this article.

    1. So, your mouse had nothing to do with it?

      1. Maybe he has a wireless mouse – which is actually being controlled from a drone hovering over his house….

  56. Charles Austin Miller says:

    If we’d stop medicating everyone, vaccinating everyone, giving away food and medicine to those who aren’t intelligent enough to provide for themselves, our population would naturally stabilize, the deadwood would be eliminated, and the truly intelligent and adaptable survivors would carry on a strong human lineage.

    1. Alaskaninfidel says:

      More chlorine for the gene pool I say.

    2. I get it.
      Polio, smallpox, diptheria, tetanus, etc., somehow know which children will not be the smartest adults and infect them instead of the really smart people.

  57. My thoughts lead directly to the origins of man. For one who believes in Creationism as opposed to Evolution, humans losing intelligence over time makes perfect sense. Ever since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit (ie. sin entered the equation), humans have slowly been on a downward spiral. Physically and mentally.
    For everyone who believes that humans evolved from apes which evolved from other things all the way back to single cell organisms, this article has to blow your mind. I thought mutations made things better! Right? Wrong. Mutations never have and never will create more intelligent animals or longer life. Only the opposite.
    So, I guess this article doesn't surprise me at all! Don't believe everything you hear in school. Evolution is not the only "scientific" explanation for creation. There are many scientists who believe in a young and God created universe.

    1. YOU ARE CORRECT BRIAN!!! i looked through all these responses, hopeing i'd find at least one correct one…..and I did….YOURS!!!! Congrats!!!

    2. "I thought mutations made things better! "
      That's not accurate.
      "Better" indicates a value judgment.
      Mutations make species more likely to adapt to change in the environment.
      In the past, the most successful people had the most children and the least successful had the least children.
      Evolution has been turned upside-down because the least successful now have the most children while the most successful have the least.
      That flip-flop is a social phenomenon rather than one based on genetic mutation.

      1. "Mutations make species more likely to adapt to change in the environment."
        I don't believe that is accurate. Your mixing up adaption and mutations. But it doesn't really impact what I said anyway.
        I believe that genetic mutations and basic entropy are going to continue to have a cumulative negative impact on life. I don't think you can show me any case where science has seen mutations make an improvement to life.
        Some will talk about species adapting to the environment as a form or evolution or mutation but that is a different thing all together. When God created man and animals (separatly), he included an incredible amount of data in our genes. This data allowed the original man and animals to spread out and adapt to different areas of the world. Think of dogs… something like a wolf has much more "data" in it's genes and was able to be bread into all the types of dogs we have today. These dogs have "adapted", not evolved or mutated.

        1. Brian, where can I find more information on your ideas? Not sarcasm.

          1. Shaun, a good place to find information about a young earth and creationist viewpoint of the world is with an organization called Answers In Genesis. Please check out the links below and have an open mind.
            We've had the "fact" that the earth is billions of years old drilled into our heads for years but there are a lot of very smart scientists who support the notion of a young earth.
            There are a lot of other sources of information out there as well but the ones below are pretty good.
            For less technical information: http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers
            For more technical research papers: http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj

        2. Mutations allow the species to adapt to the environment.
          If a mutation provides an individual with an advantage, that individual and its progeny will have a better chance of survival in the long run.
          If a mutation yields a trait that is counterproductive, then there is a smaller chance that it will be passed along over generations.

  58. Funny enough this coincides with the rise of liberalism. Coincidence? I think not.

    1. Anonymous says:

      You’re exactly right! The leftards NEED people to be stupid!

  59. johny egypt says:

    check out the movie "Idiocracy"…it's all there.

    1. kirbykid87 says:

      I guess it takes one to know one… You gotta brain, try to use itto insult people more creatively.

    2. It is very interesting that with all the ridiculous reruns repeating on tv ,Tuskeegee Airmen, Time for a kill, Missippi burning..there is never Orwell" 1984" with Richard Burton or Idiocracy…VERY INTERESTING indeed

  60. The only thing I have against Drudge followers is that they still believe in the old fashioned false right-left paradigm (Rethug vs Demoncrat) and that Muslims control the US. When Kennedy got elected, they said Catholics control the White House, when Bush got elected, they said Evangelicals control the White House, and when Obama was elected, they said Muslims control the White House. Is anyone aware of good old fashioned Zionism since 1897? Guess not!

    1. stop drinking the kook aid. It's flouradated.

  61. Stupid is … is stupid does. Forrest Gump

  62. Wonder what the results would be if tested subjects and their parents had never used illegal drugs.

  63. What exactly do Athenians have anything to do with the dumbing down of Americans? The Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

  64. DanielShays says:

    Anyone who doubts the deterioration of human intelligence has only to investigate and consider the election and re-election of Barack Hussein Obama

  65. Just look at the guy downing a Mountain Dew, 3 Big Mac's, or a Monster Energy drink. Go check out his cognitive function! The guys I saw in high school drinking Surge in the late '90's went straight to basic training or drug rehab where I'm from. Just saying!

    1. Heartland Patriot says:

      So I guess you think that military folks have low intelligence. Go try to get into the military service, any of them, and see what it really takes. Its not as easy as you think.

      1. You can think whatever you want. Why do most Americans think you're generalizing the whole damn pie when you mention anything they might not necessarily agree with! The late General Schwarzkopf had an IQ of 160. I liked both him and Patton. Great military leaders!
        When you sign up now, people need to understand what they're getting into. This isn't like signing up in the mid 1980's when we weren't invading the entire Mid East in a campaign of Neo-Colonialism, Globalism, or whatever you wish to call it sir!
        I Wish our military all the best!!

        1. If you're military or ex-military, to me, you have done an incredible service! Wish you the best Patriot!

        2. I have severe sleep apnea, Tourettes, Aspergers, upper respiratory problems, and I'm not even fat. I'm sure in another life, I would have what it takes to be a military man. I have always revered military guys, firemen, the police ever since growing up.

  66. funny, i would bet that public schools have more to do with average stupidity.

    1. The high school dropout rate in Chicago Public Schools is about 50% and the average ACT score of those who do graduate – and take the test – is 15.8, which is in the bottom 15th percentile nationwide.
      Chicago voted 84% Obama to 14% Romney.
      The Chicago voter is the typical Democrat – ignorant, uneducated, uncivilized.

  67. Many of the mutations don't seem to be for the better. All dogs evolved from wild dogs. Wolves are much smarter than domesticated dogs. They've tested them using mazes and in other ways. The wolves will find their way out of the maze much faster than domesticated dogs. Domestic dogs are often the food of wild dogs.
    It's not looking good for mankind. We might be an evolutionary dead end.

    1. Relates to the comment I made earlier about the nature of abstract or plastic intelligence. Overall, people in all regions of the world are better informed than ever before. However, this does not mean that they have a deep understanding of the information they are receiving. These process is moving faster in some areas of the world than others, but it is occurring. Our abstract or plastic intelligence is on the decline for various reasons. One reason is that it is becoming increasing compartmentalized; i.e. largely being developed and rewarded through the process of earning a Ph.D. The Ph.D. is one of the last bastions of medieval times, although the research orientation originated in 19th century Germany. Another reason is that education is simply not very rigorous, certainly not in the U.S. and on the decline in many regions of the world.

      1. I read an article not too long ago about Germany having a drop in average IQ. They said it was related to immigration, and declining birthrate. It's worrisome since that is one of the countries that historically has had citizens with of the highest average IQs. They also said that the immigrants were less interested in education. That country has been actively recruiting people from other countries to fill high tech positions. A professor wrote some time back that he went to an international conference and one of the things everyone was talking about was the increase in students entering college unprepared. It seems to be universal problem.

    2. Of course the Wolves are smarter. They have to depend entirely upon themselves for their existence. Once they have been domesticated they rely upon the intelligence of their keepers to take care of them. They don't have to find shelter, they don't have to find and kill their food. This is the same for people. If you take people out of the city they are lost. Most kids now don't even know where their food comes from and some don't even know that meat comes from an animal! And now with all the government programs we are really doomed. If they ever go down we will have anarchy and total chaos.

    3. To paraphrase George Carlin – "The only reason nature created mankind was because it needed someone to invent plastic."

  68. Albert Perez says:

    Just make being stupid more dangerous. Require people with high IQ's (minimum of 135) to have unprotected heterosexual vaginal sex when the the female partner is ovulating more frequently.

  69. I don't doubt a word of this. I just think that other factors like TV, Hollywood and democrats are overlooked as causative factors.

  70. So this explains why we have so many dems?

  71. Squid_Hunt says:

    There's also the fact that it is much more prudent to be less intelligient under most governments. Intelligience in opposition tends to get culled.

  72. Finally! Those making up the Democratic Party are explained!

  73. Honor Grad says:

    Maybe it's because of the Puklic Sckoul sis-tum cur-rick-you-lum.

  74. interbreeding with negroids has the biggest impact on human intelligence, far greater impact than fluoride and pesticides combined

    1. kirbykid87 says:

      “Interbreeding with negroids?” LMAO! You obviously have no idea what in the he** you are talking about.
      Due to the obvious lack of intelligence in your post, I am beginning to believe that maybe the doctor’s claims have some merit.

  75. Old Farmer says:

    Why name just a few of your perceived dumbers? Could antibactterials, antibiotics, new concoctions of pain relievers, radiation, magnetic fields or other more modern developments be just as guilty as the the ones you flippantly listed? It seems you're trying to be more politically correct than factually.Who knows, maybe our access to a daily bath is washing away our gray matter. With the proliferation of condoms our sex acts require less forethought today than 500 years ago. Then it had more meaning. What you may need is a real job.

  76. Michaelnoaka says:

    Food, water? C'mon folks you've been dumbed down. The true culprits are many and varied but include egalitarianism, tv, computers, smart phones, cell phones, teachers unions, movies, pop music, out of wedlock births and more. See the future in the film "Idiocracy".

  77. Here's another problem: Socrates dies in 399 B.C., and both Plato and Aristotle follow a half-decade later. Athens in 1000 B.C.???? And women in ancient Athens had no political rights and / or interest in issues.
    But, then again, perhaps this askew historical reference proves the main point of the article…

  78. Can't make change for a dollar.

  79. Chris Dunn says:

    I think technology makes people stupid. For instance, cell phone contact lists. All of my friends can not remember a phone number because the phone remembers it for them. People don't remember solutions to problems because they can look them up on the Internet. It becomes less important to remember things if you have a backup system.

  80. Much more likely this has to do with dumbing down of educational standards, low expectations, over-medication of children and the distractions of non-stop constant entertainment.

  81. Some of the above may be true to an extent… But, my money is on our education system, as to the seemingly unending number of just down right ignorant people with a total lack of critical thinking skills. The progressives have worked their magic over these past one hundred years. Orwell only missed it by a little, and Ayn Rand hit it out of the park.

  82. So liberalism is increasing.

  83. It's the "I want free stuff" mentality… the nation is filling with lazy, slothful, worthless parasites who don't work for anything. Not only are they physically lazy, they are becoming intellectually lazy, too. Liberalism is poly-axial toxicity.

  84. When you pay the dumbest among us to procreate, you get what you pay for.

  85. AlreadyKnown says:

    The movie Idiocracy figured this out years ago.

    1. Joe Q. Public says:

      Electrolytes, Its got electrolytes

  86. John Best says:

    This would help to explain the reelection of Obama.

  87. Reading these comments has just validated Dr. Crabtree's hypothesis for me. ‘Intelligence Slowly Declining.’

  88. This explains a lot, like the 2013 elections. we're in big trouble…

  89. DougRoberts says:

    Intelligence may not be declining everywhere else but it's pretty obvious in the U.S.

  90. I was looking for some convincing epistemology, the basic premise being difficult to prove. Devolution due to survival of culls makes some sense as current material culture does (for the moment) protect defectives from negative checks. The fall back on food additives, flurodation and other things that vitiate and drain our precious bodily fluids pretty much sinches this as pseudo-scientific gibble-gabble. A large portion of the populace has been markedly stupid throughout history and left ample evidence of it . They were talking about a " hard corps of chronic know-nothings in teh 1960s and even then a significant portion of the american public couldn't identify the current president, the branches of governement or the simplist discription of the solar system. Educated people in the past were proportionaly rarer than in modern times even though there general fund of knowlege was much deeper and their thought processes more rational. This stems more from corruption of the educational system by marxist dogma than any provable physiological deterioration.

    1. The spelling errors above do not prove the point of the article though they are not insignificant.

  91. Haven't any of you seen the movie "Idiocracy"?

  92. To say that Fluoride diminishes our IQ and genetic fitness suggests two things. Firstly, that the current IQ test is the all encompassing standard for cognitive ability, and also that the outcome of this test directly corresponds to the objective fitness of our genes. There is a huge disconnect in doing this. Also, there is the glaring paradox of devolution being fallacy. It doesn't occur. If you believe that our gene pool is going in the wrong direction based on standardized testing with such a weak relationship of such testing corresponding to the fitness of our genes, then you would potentially be able to publish anything.

    1. was it even "peer reviewed"?

  93. How about mental hyper-stimulation at a young age, by various electronic entertainment media? It's already known that watching television at a young age causes problems with learning, to the extent that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 years watch NO TV at all. What effect might hours, days, decades of sedentary video game playing have on developing minds? It can't be good.

    1. I am Twenty years old. I was first introduced to television and other “screens” at a young age and i grew up borderline addicted. Now, I have no interest in anything screen related besides my computer and phone. During my senior year of high school, I was tested for ADHD that could have been linked to not doing well in school. While the results weren’t entirely conclusive, the analyst recommended i take a couple of IQ tests. My composite score ended up being 156, high enough for admission to Mensa.

  94. Seems like a natural cycle of decline. The same as the Roman Empire. From the ashes of whatever is left after the collapse,followed by a new dark age, will rise a new bright light of civilization.
    Nothing to see here. Our generation is probably the final one before the next dark ages. Enjoy your Starbucks!

  95. lisfromalaska says:

    People are becoming dumber because the dumb people reproduce at age 15 and their children do too, where as the smart people put having kids off til after college and grad school, say age 30. So if they all have the same number of kids, say 2, then dumb ones will have double the number that smart people do just based on their more frequent generations. And it is probably true that smart people have fewer kids which would make this effect even stronger.

    1. Anonymous says:

      It looks like you just laid out the opening of “Idiocracy” there. It’s sad but terribly true. That movie actually scared me more than it made me laugh. It’s that true and you just highlighted the opening segment. Kinda makes it scarier…

    2. not all humans through time lived when it was possible to grow old.

  96. Wait, where is the data saying humans are getting dumber and more emotionally unstable?

  97. Will there be ice cream?

  98. Businessgrad says:

    Probably explains why Obama was reelected.

  99. We reward stupidity by paying stupid people to fail. (welfare) The more they fail, the stupider they become.
    They reproduce stupid children at an amazing rate, and we pay THEM to be even stupider. Thus, liberalism has created the drop in IQ.

  100. The leading cause of this declining intelligence is surely the Drudge Report and Fox News – the citadels of ignorance, fear, and bigotry.

  101. I work at a large U.S. law firm. The attorneys between the ages of 25-30 cannot spell; cannot string a sentence together; cannot create drafts. Many attorneys have 2 or 3 computer screens on their desks showing websites that are not work related–Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. They spend a great deal of the client's time with their faces glued to their iPhones or tablets. This is a horrible addiction. Many times the younger attorneys ask ME to start or complete their work and I am not an attorney because they have spent the past 6 hours on the internet. People are becoming isolated and addicted.

  102. If you expect less and less of children, you will get less and less in return. For decades now, we have dummied down the education and expectations of our children.

  103. I think Mike Barrett is making people stupid.

  104. ShamelessBill says:

    Michael Pollan made a far more credible appeal when he advised us: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
    Add a wholesome measure of physical activity, and I think that should do us.

  105. concerned says:

    So far I have seen no remark about the legalization of marajuana possibly contributing to a decline in intelligence of our children. Please check into a recently released study that indicates a 10 point drop in IQ for preteens habitually using marajuana.

  106. Perhaps the decline is not genetic at all, but rather it is a result of a society that punishes successful people by confiscating their hard earned wealth, while the derelict are rewarded with more largess from the government. Innovation is not spurred by the natural desire to contribute to the "greater good" as so many naive people believe, but rather the desire to make one's life better through financial independence. As governments, in the name of "fairness" continue to provide more and more of a safety-net, more and more people will take advantage of that safety-net and contribute less and less to society. We are becoming a world of lazy, video game playing spoiled brats, who believe they are entitled to everything, regardless of what we contribute.

  107. I believe what he says is totally true, just look how many low IQ beings in this forum swallow a theory that has no fundamental scientific method to it and could be totally wrong. This piece of news is priceless for the National Enquirer!!!!

  108. Listening to Obama or any of his lib cronies makes one stupid.

  109. The decline in intellligence is due to the increase in the number of blacks and hispanics in this country. IQ tests have shown that these groups on average have lower IQ's than whites or asians. Our welfare system pays for poor people with low IQ's to reproduce. This does not mean that all blacks and all hispanics have low IQ's. There are plenty with above average ones. But the average for those groups as a whole is lower.

    1. kirbykid87 says:

      The article makes no mention of race, or cites IQ tests as an accurate measure of intelligence. So where exactly did you see in this article that the the decline of intelligence in this country is because there are more blacks amd hispanics? Or did you just take some other statistic out of context and just apply some of that data in unrelated article. That sounds pretty scientific amd trustworthy.

  110. Affirmative action!

  111. welovetheUSA says:

    Our schools no longer make kids do the work, real work..our society has gone no where in reguards of education..our kids listen to filthy dirty music and parents let them, they have no clue about history or the history of this country and they could care less..all kids these days care about is getting laid. The blacks still talk trash..the mexicans donot speak english and the white kids think its cool to emulate blacks..gays are running politics and the media and they are the most unstable humans on earth..we have a president who is an ass and a congress who have become boarderline communist-stalin mixture, we are the only country on earth ever in history to have so much and are on the verge of losing it because people are so stupid to elect a radical black man because of the color of his skin…insane.

  112. Zipperhead says:

    Comes from watching too much main stream media TV news.

  113. Pumpkinslinger says:

    The slow, stupid people used to die off early. Now we protect and feed them.

    1. and elect them president

    2. yep, and the noble classes (ie. the few smart people in antiquity) had regular wars each summer to help cull the masses of the ignorant masses.
      There was a reason the nobles didn't usually participate in the battles and were only allowed to marry another of "noble" blood. They had an basic understanding even then that intelligence was passed on, and that they shouldn't inbreed with the masses of retarded peasants.

  114. BrunoTaTa says:

    Hey genius writer man and fellow genius scientists. Ever consider the fact that a welfare state in place for 50 years or more now makes it possible (even encourages) procreation by those who in the past would have died or been too poor to have children? There's been 3 or 4 generations now of this.

  115. scarletworm says:

    So- who benefits when our society is dumbed down? We are being turned into a society of drones and worker bees. Don't ask questions…just obey.

  116. Idiocracy!
    BRAWNDO its what plants crave!

  117. Where did he get the information that overall iq s are declining?

  118. by "Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years" do you mean, advancing from a classroom of 20~ children and a teacher infront of a blackboard… to, a classroom of 20~ children and a teacher infront of a white board?

  119. Could it be that the "smart" people are having less children… women =careers… and the less intelligent are having many and due to better nutrition, prenatal care, medicine..they survive… it's turning Darwin's theories upside down?
    The meek shall inherit the earth… perhaps?

    1. I was going to suggest the same thing. It almost seems like we have a reverse survival of the fittest going on these days. Ghettos & trailer parks are filled with women who get pregnant young & often while suburban woman are increasingly postponing having children to their 30s. Its a concerning trend. The womens movement has done a lot of good but stigmatizing the “stay at home mom” as somehow being backward or oppressed was in my view a big mistake. There’s nothing wrong with having a career but women shouldnt feel like its the only acceptable lifestyle.

  120. Fluoridated water, processed food, corn syrup, and pesticides have nothing to do with genetics. Rather they are environmental, which begs the question, why is a genecticist bringing this up under the topic of genetics?

  121. This is junk "science" of the worst kind. First of all, it seems to be based more on supposition than on evidence. How can he claim to accurately know the mean, median, and statistical range of the intelligence of the whole of Earth's population now, let alone in the time of the ancient Greeks or any other time in history so that he can make a valid comparison? Second, how can he claim to know which of all of mankind's attributes are at play in determining our fitness for survival? And isn't it likely that the attributes which determine survival keep changing over time anyway? Third, why does he assume that because people with "specific adverse genetic mutations" are more likely to survive now than in the past that those people have any less intelligence than someone without the mutation? Fourth, why does he assume that intelligence has been the main determining factor for passing on one's genes up until recent times? You can be as intelligent as Einstein, but if you've got a mutation which renders you sterile, there won't be any baby Einsteins. Overall, it's a pretty arrogant hypothesis: "Mankind is getting dumber, but of course I consider myself smart enough to point it out to all you halfwits out there."

  122. jazbond007 says:

    A lot of reasons. Mercury, high fructose corn syrup, lead, gluten, omega 6, vegetable oils, television, teachers' unions, liberalism, food stamps, section 8, the Democratic Party. industrial food, and hip hop music to name a few.

    1. Fluoridated water, processed food, corn syrup are the reasons why we put up with , teachers’ unions, liberalism, food stamps, section 8, the Democratic Party.
      everything you buy with a ebt card, has corn syrup and starch, cultivated from corn that is much different from the corn you grew it your self. Its all genetically modified to dumb you down and embrace the left. is that so wild?

  123. johnnyc0707 says:

    It comes down to laziness and our society's valuation of the guy who can tell you all about the latest glib show – movie star or video-game but hasn't read a book in 3 years because books are boring. Lets not forget about the cult of Hollywood. These are all futile attempts to satiate the ego and debauchery of mankind. I get into this discussion quite often with people who seem to be under the impression that humanity is at its apex in terms of individual knowledge – I see it quite the opposite.

  124. And Mr. Barrett, why do you seem to accept without (much) question that there even is an overall cognitive decline of the human race? Does it really seem plausible that fluorides, pesticides, and processed foods impact the human race as much today as all the diseases, poor sanitation, and ignorance of environmental toxins which existed throughout the past? Did a comparatively greater number of intelligent people somehow survive back in the days when doctors performed bleedings to release the "bad humours" and prescribed mercury-containing compounds as cathartics?

  125. Rick O'Shea says:

    2nd law of thermodynamics.

  126. wounded_defecator says:

    Speak for yourself. I suspect the intelligence of any state-sponsored entity, including geneticists. Measurements by such are not real.

  127. David_San_Diego says:

    MOST OBVIOUS REASON FOR THE DECLINE:
    Due to social factors, the dumbest and least productive people have the highest numbers of children.
    Really. How many Nobel Laureats or physics professors do you know who have seven or eight children?
    Welfare fathers frequently father ten or more.

  128. The election and reelection of Obama certinly supports the theory with respect to the American electorate.

    1. Anonymous says:

      It’s just the Dems making the rest of us look bad.

  129. Is it any wonder with the toxins our food and water, and the culture tolerated in the world of today? The mass migration of uneducated rabble from the third world and miscegenation mainly by white females doesn't help, either.

    1. kirbykid87 says:

      There is no such thing as miscegenation, the only race is the human race. It must be horrifying to you when you have to leave your Klan meetings and enter reality.

  130. It's just like the movie "Idiocracy". The dumb people have all the children while the smart people have one or none. It's a slow march to suicide.
    Seriously – wake up smart people! Have more kids! The future depends on it!

  131. Sam Walters says:

    Oh yes, because Bush II was such the “thinking man’s candidate,” right? And let’s not forget Quale, Ford, and the Actor teleprompter-reader from General Electric. “Clever” isn’t synonymous with “intelligent.”
    Why is it that only the Dems are scholars? Granted, they still work for the same evil bosses.

    1. Jim, Mr. Darwin got it backwards. Species are DEVOLVING. Please take a look at the book GENETIC ENTROPY by Prof. John Sanford, a Biologist at Cornell University. He says the human-genome is degenerating at a very rapid rate.

  132. "Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber?"
    No. The American New Wave band Devo put forth this theory back in the 70's. The name "Devo" comes "from their concept of 'de-evolution' – the idea that instead of continuing to evolve, mankind has actually begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society.

  133. In short, we've had 150 years where democracies have punished men for having babies via excessive child support laws. Smart men refuse more and more to have babies. Average IQ decreases. #feminism

  134. Mike Barrett, please take a look at the book GENETIC ENTROPY by Prof. John Sanford, a Biologist at Cornell University. He says the human-genome is degenerating at a very rapid rate.

  135. Maria-Erlinda says:

    Slowly? Alas! It is declining at full speed. How else could explained that tens of millions voted for Obama to send him to the White House two times?

    1. How else? Mob rule is the obvious explanation.

  136. Trick Estrella says:

    Human intelligence is on the wane because people are losing the moral grounding that was once supplied the major world religions. These traditions have become corrupted and devolved into the extremes seen in the secular materialism of our pop culture and the hate filled insanity of radical Islam.

  137. The Democrat Party lowers your IQ.

    1. Any political party lowers one's IQ.

  138. rangerrebew says:

    He's got to be kidding! He says slowly? From my point of view, rocketing would be more appropriate.

  139. Fred Friar says:

    Crabtree, the crack pot– there are in fact billions of genes not thousands and for every negative mutation there are posivities. If you brought back a Roman citizen today poor fellow would be dumb founded over what he sees, mostly dumb founded over the mindless teaching we get these days in our schools is it any wonder some people appear to be dumb? Indeed it is dumb to allow Crabtee to be teacing our youth and it is dumb that tax money pays for this caliber of of "excellence". Dr Ben Carson (now in the news) is a very good example of how far advanced we have come and where we are headed. Clearly with out the help of Dr Crabtree..

  140. "Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining" This is obviously true. Just take a look at the result of the past two U.S. presidential elections.

  141. Good thang all them smart peeple is ded!
    Heh, heh he!

  142. Sixpacktr says:

    I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that literally billions of us sit on our behinds all day watching TV, looking at Facebook, reading trash mags about the exploits of the latest white trash to make millions as they parade their lives in front of the world, play mindless video games for hours on end, etc., etc., etc.
    I love how they brought up how some Greek guy brought to the present day would be the smartest and most sane person we knew. Really? How can they POSSIBLY know that?
    You want smart kids? Don't use the TV as a babysitter, don't buy them video games when they are small and use them as a babysitter, do get them books to read to expand their minds and imagination, and make sure they value education. In other words, be a parent.

    1. You obviously have never read the ancients. Go ahead eread Aristotle our Plato and come his modern equivalent. unfortunately humans lack spatial awareness now. Just go for a drive if you don’t believe me.
      Oh and he is absolutely correct about memory. The average human in ancient times had a superior memory. Imagine you could recite the Odyssey or the Koran from memory. Our ancestors did this.

    2. there is a fundamental difference between intelligence and education.

  143. aij;lakfjid says:

    irrelevant. selection pressure less for intellect physical superiority, but
    MEMETIC EVOLUTION >> GENETIC EVOLUTION. end of story.

  144. People excite only about the "means" to increase the money, but
    Lose the desire of "object making" that was essentially separates humans and animals.
    And the joy which polishes the wisdom to devise and creativity has been lost gradually.
    Centralized materialism to quantify all things, would kill the "imaginative power" which makes man's brains active.
    貨幣が貨幣を増やす”手段”作りだけに人々は興奮し、人間と動物を本質的に隔てていたobject making欲を失い、工夫する知恵や創造力を磨く喜びを徐々に喪失してきたこと、そして全ての事柄を数量化する唯物主義一元化は、人間の頭脳機能を活発にする”想像力”を枯らしてしまう。

  145. People excite only about the "means" to increase the money, but
    Lose the desire of "object making" that was essentially separates humans and animals.
    And the joy which polishes the wisdom to devise and creativity has been lost gradually.
    Centralized materialism to quantify all things, would kill the "imaginative power" which makes man's brains active.
    貨幣が貨幣を増やす”手段”作りだけに人々は興奮し、人間と動物を本質的に隔てていたobject making欲を失い、工夫する知恵や創造力を磨く喜びを徐々に喪失してきたこと、そして全ての事柄を数量化する唯物主義一元化は、人間の頭脳機能を活発にする”想像力”を枯らしてしまう。

  146. Shredderofmass says:

    The welfare states are subsidizing stupid. Then like a crop, they populate enough to vote in a majority. It's a feedback loop. Subsidize stupid people, they vote for more subsidies, they plop out more stupid people,,,,,

  147. You forgot to add that reading the Huff post or watching MSNBC also makes you stupid.

  148. Look what passes for entertainment !! That would have nothing to do with the dumbing down problem.

  149. This is not science but some offbeat person's personal opinion that is not backed up by any scientific facts. Good grief. any change in the genome can have both positive and negative impacts on "intelligence". As far as emotions are concerned, this article is way out in wild speculation. Lets hear it for a real dumb news filler.

    1. Rob: Dr. Crabtree is a research scientist at Stanford, a geneticist. Also, it is a well-established scientific fact that random mutations are overwhelmingly destructive. Try some “random mutations” of the source code of your computer’s operating system and see what you get.

  150. This article have two many word.

  151. One need only give the most cursory glance at recent US elections for glaring anecdotal confirmation of Crabtree's theory. Need more? Google "Religion of Peace."

  152. I've known this little tidbit for over 20 years. The general dumbing down of our society was the beginning with lower the educational standards so "no child is left behind", then social morals began to decay, coupled with the inability of a parent to discipline their children for fear of prosecution by the courts, to mass media and instant information at the snap of a finger. People don't HAVE to think anymore, someone has already done that for them, formed their opinion and spoon fed it to the masses. We have well and truly entered the age of Idiocracy. Prez Camacho will be along promptly to whoop some ass.

  153. This couldn't possibly be due to an increasingly overbearing and centralized education system run by progressives, now could it?

  154. You can talk about pesticides all you want. The fact is we've lowered our educational and moral standards to the point where a child's work ethic is incredibly behind that of children 120 years ago. It's almost impossible to find a primary educational system that teaches the classics – debate, rhetoric, latin, rigorous mathematics, economics and the philosophy of civics, etc. Kids simply aren't exposed to cirriculum that promotes thinking for themselves and focuses on the fundamental and necessary topics which develop a strong electorate.
    But whether pesticides or a shift in education and morality, I agree we're getting dumber. We have an electorate that votes for its representatives even when those representatives defy the laws of economics. It would be the equivalent of people who would vote for a politician because he told them he could suspend the law of gravity. I can see justification for restricting the right to vote once again, unfortunately. An ignorant populace is far more dangerous.

  155. nomystery says:

    The average IQ is declining because the low IQ groups are breeding, much, much faster than the high IQ groups. For how many generations will the world continue feeding the children of people who keep breeding as fast as they can even when they can't feed themselves?
    It's brutally obvious, but cannot be spoken.

    1. That and they simply don't teach the proper subjects in school or enforce any form of discipline these days.

  156. I think Social media is the biggest problem.

  157. Jon Juergensen says:

    That Obama was elected – twice – proves this without a doubt.

  158. We should all wear tin hats!

  159. This past electin is absolute proof that there is a very rapid decline in intelligence especially inthe US. Evidence? The reelection of Obama…there can be no question of the mental decline of humans at a very advanced stage in the US. We can look to the UN for even further evidence on a global basis.

  160. The second part of this article – where it starts into the flouridation and food supply issues – may constitute partial proof of the premise in the first part of the article.

  161. MidWesterner says:

    Don't forget the mercury in vaccines, that goes straight to the brain as well.

  162. Check the press corps and the WH.

  163. Truther 2 says:

    More blacksand less whites and Asians are the reason. Sad but true.

  164. yup " DIVERSITY" is great ain't it? of course "stupider" when you mix in the spear throwing cowterd hut dweller DNA.

  165. I have found a possible explaination for diminishing intelligence not mentioned in the article. It's in the Bible, written by God, who is realy smart.
    Psalm 111:10- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.
    Proverbs 9:10- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
    Romans 1:21-22- Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

    1. Atheist army says:

      The bible is not mentioned in this article because its a story. Scientists don’t cite non credible sources. Thump elsewhere you country bumkin.

      1. I'm thumping every where I can. My kids and grandkids are too.

  166. How many cashiers in the grocery store have you seen in the last ten years that can add, subtract or make change without the machine?

  167. Maud St James says:

    And who is surprised by that? It's been an obvious trend for years. Education is respected, society follows the lowest kind of trends in fashion and dance, intellectualism is decried. It's also interesting that the upper classes have only the number of children they can nurture and educate while the lower breed as many as they can in order to get more government support money. Welfare and liberalism are killing society, and both should be ended.

  168. Get those text books away from me!!!!
    There is sports on TV and a sale at the mall.

  169. misternatural13 says:

    T V
    and i don't mean transvestite mayor bloomberg
    everything is not about you

  170. Sean Patriot says:

    Slowly may ass.

  171. Joe Q. Public says:

    Jersey Shore, MTV, the last TWO presdiential elections.. It all makes sense now…Really

  172. Face it. Cell phones are the most visible sign of the end of the human race. I challenge the authors to find more than 3 people under 60 who don't have a cell phone almost surgically attached. It is a disgrace.

  173. Government regulations improve safety and allow those that would have won a Darwin award to survive.
    One need only look at the current crop of politicians to see that the wheels have come off the wagon.

  174. Wheelerdude says:

    Like, Duh! People have to be dumbed down so they can be persuaded that the "government" will provide for all the needs and keep the people secure. Problem is, this never works – check history. Let people be responsible for themselves, be able to pursue their desires and dreams, be responsible to the One who created them and gave them a desire to accel, then you have what America was for the first 200 years!!

  175. As evidenced by the 2012 election results.

  176. kestrel27 says:

    The reason human intelligence is declining is because of Liberalism. Liberals don't use their brains for anything other than getting high. Ratherr than think or question anything their leaders tell them, they use their emotions as they nod their heads and drone on like the good little Lemmings they are.

  177. Benevolentius Max says:

    That explains why atheism is on the rise

  178. howardfeinski says:

    This supports a Divine Creationist theory. Mutations are much, much more likely to be deleterious to the gene pool, and SHOULD degrade over time, given that we were created nearly perfect. Just think of your computer code. Even one misread instruction in the code will crash your computer. How often does it lead to a different more brilliant app?

  179. liberal human intelligence is declining

  180. It took a big dip Nov.6th. 2012!!

  181. I think that is called mountain dew.

  182. Average IQ's are rising world wide. Theories for why this is happening include better nutrition, better education, and better overall health.

  183. GGeorgeReeves says:

    It is more likely that the prime cause of increased stupidity is social. Children used to learn how and then become young adults. Now they enter a transition phase called teenager in which they learn largely from other ignorant teens at a time when their brains are developing rapidly. Significant learning opportunity has been lost. Thought fragmentation with tweets and texting have made it worse. A century ago they formerly would have been interacting mostly with knowledgeable adults who spoke in paragraphs.

  184. You sir are the one dumbing down. You are out of your mind. And, if scores show that humans are becoming less intelligent, it's because you are combining all scores, ALL, doesn't matter grade levels, etc. Plus, when the schools went to teaching "self esteem" (a parent's job) basic subjects, that doesn't help either. Then schools got really political – oh yes, that teaches them well. I don't blame the teachers though, I blame their professors that supposedly taught them how to teach, their administrators and our "wonderful" government for demanding what to teach and that certainly wasn't anything positive for a student to excel. It was more propanga for control. You sir, are the cause of it if it exists.

  185. george layman says:

    Obviously this guy 's study was not done in or around Wash DC. His results would have shown a rapidly declining intelligence level.

  186. damnyanqui says:

    American moviemaker Mike Judge diagnosed this problem eight years ago in his movie "Idiocracy."
    Contemporary social policies across the board encourage mindless, endless, limitless, reproduction among those cognitively underendowed segments of society least likely to contribute.
    They also discourage reproduction among the more cognitively endowed.
    Of course the population is getting stupider. That's who's doing the breeding.

  187. We are getting dumber because everything we need an answer to is instantly available through technology. No reason to remember anything, or pass down remedies, etc., when our question is just a click away. Old folks experience is of no interest or use to today's generation. Very sad indeed.

  188. Founders1791 says:

    "..I would wager..", "..I would guess..","..more likely.."
    Can you think? Did you learn anything about the 'scientific method' in 8th grade science?
    ———- THIS GUY IS MAKING IT UP OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH ———-
    Reject the practice of correlation & hyperbole proffered as anything but a guess, uneducated or not.

  189. LoonsToTheLeft says:

    The reelection of Barack Obama after the most disastrous first-term presidential administration in history is proof-positive that the good doctor is correct.

  190. The main reason we are getting dumber is that dumb people are living longer and procreating. It used to be that dumb people would do something dumb like throw a rock at a bear or put a hand in the threshing machine but we protect people with guards and warning labels and such dreck. Now instead of culling the dumb they live to create more dummies.

  191. If we are talking about human genetics, why cherry pick and bring back an average citizen of Athens?
    Why not bring back an average human from planet earth in 1000 BC. He/she was likely about 28 years old, about five years away from death by starvation or being killed by invading armies, illiterate, held in servitude, with rotten teeth, and a diet high in organic foods that were typically half rotten and full of life threatening bacteria (with no refrigeration). His or her life was about to end because they didn't have pesticides, modern agronomy, fluoride in the water, etc. The actual scientists above are keying in on secondary effects of treatments that have been introduced to cure much worse maladies than a supposed loss of 1 or 2 IQ points.

  192. Pure junk science. Never sites a study or data substantiating the claim that human intelligence is decreasing. The only evidence I see that such may be true are the comments indicating there is anything of substance in the article.

  193. a p garcia says:

    I believe this since Obama was elected by unimformed and low IQ voters. A vegetarian diet is also known to lower IQ!

  194. Welfare state allowing parasites to breed all they want to,
    Godless leftist controlled indoctrination centers (public schools),
    Decades of brain altering drug usage, passing on damaged chromosomes to their offspring,
    Government forbidding parents to discipline their children,
    A generation of youth that were never punched on the mouth for being arrogant,
    Compulsory militant feminist indoctrination to the nations girls,
    Compulsory feminizing of the nations boys,
    Government celebrating perversion as normal practice,
    The hollyweird sewer allowed to pump out what ever vile puke it wishes,
    The murder of 50 million little babies.
    This article is about 40 years too late. Not even stocking up on firearm and ammo is going to save you from the wrath to come. It’s going to be worse for you because you had great light shown to you.

  195. JoeThePimpernel says:

    Modern agriculture and medicine has eliminated survival of the fittest.
    Once Ubama's health care and economic policies collapse the entire world economy and health care system, that will no longer be the case.

  196. Founders1791 says:

    Megalomania, a delusional mental disorder that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.

  197. Founders1791 says:

    Collectivism is the cornerstone which is taught in today's State Education Camps and State Run Media in favor of subjective, selfish, megalomania.
    The learned men of our founding understood this failure of 'group think' and built our society around "individualism" that mirrors "evolution" and the survival of the fittest, not most persuasive.

  198. I believe this is more Darwinian than anything else. In a competitive natural environment, the strong (smart) have a greater likelihood of surviving and breeding. In our current cultural environment, the least capable of thriving have the ability to survive and breed, often without constraint and at high rates. There is no proximate need to be smart, because today dumb works just as well. Remember however, Darwin alsays prevails in the end.

  199. The educational system in America is abysmal. Peoples potential is being stunted and squandered by the state.

  200. I wouldn't say it's declining "slowly". Seems to me Obama voters (aka societal mooches) are breeding like rats.

  201. Truth Detector says:

    Save yourself the research dollars.
    Simply scroll through the comments and take note of the incomplete sentences, misspellings (with an integrated spell checking feature, no less), and errors in grammar, punctuation, capitalization and so forth.

  202. The Federal Government, by enabling people of one economic group to have babies for free at the hospital, offering free medical care, offering food stamps, providing low income housing, and doing so without any real requirements to improve themselves, has multiplied the ignorant. Those who are self-supporting have to pay the full bill to have a child, pay for their own medical care, which is often not covered for pregnancy and childbirth, have to feed themselves, have to pay full price for housing and are taxed and charged more in order to pay for those who "can't" do for themselves. It is a selective process that works against the natural order of selection.
    Also at issue is the fact that the government, while supposedly waging a war on drugs, has done little to stem the tide of drug addiction, both legal and illegal, alcoholism and pot use. The government and our society have removed, in general, almost every bad consequence for self-destructive behavior, which seems to cause people to behave even worse. So while the clean cut person in their 20s and 30s struggles to make ends meet and establish themselves, refraining from having children until they can afford one or two, the dopers and the unemployed have plenty of time and financial assistance to pump out baby after baby after baby. The government helps them out with handouts and quite a few of the children end up in foster care or in the legal system. It just goes on and on.
    We should be testing those who are running our government. The President, Senate, Congress, the Cabinet and all of the leaders of our country should be tested for all forms of mind altering substances and they should have to be cleared by a doctor to be able to work and pass bills.

  203. All the evidence I needed was the result of the last US presidential election.

  204. Wallythedog says:

    No mention of television. I think it's quite possible that watching 4 to 6 hours of Amish Mafia, Honey Boo Boo, American Idol or what ever mind numbing K rap everyday, may lower IQ's, and it surely won't raise it.
    Try giving up, fluoridated water, processed foods and television for 3 months. Clear your mind of the constant fear they try to sell you in the media. You might just be amazed and unconfused.

  205. Yes, it is declining. Just look at the results of Noveber US elections.

  206. Watch the movie Idiocracy.

  207. Reality Sandwich says:

    The part about emotianlly unstable is proved in wack-jobs like Alec Baldwin and other liberals.

  208. All you need to do is watch the first few minutes of "Idiocracy' for a look into the future.

  209. Ferdie Winkerbean says:

    Stupid BS like this has a much greater effect, nooo doubt. Dr. Gerald Crabtree is just speaking for himself.

  210. Vaccines are doing a bang up job as well.

  211. To seek social justice, a life of ease and to legislate political correctness we strive to create a utopian existence – we have become the Eloi.

  212. I wonder if he ever saw the movie "Idiocracy"?

  213. John Galt says:

    Big Deal….I knew this when Mao-Bama got elected twice!!

  214. Well, duh!!!! How else do you explain Obama getting a first term, let alone a second term? It seems the decrease in intellect advanced rapidly between 2008 and 2012. If the decline continues to increase at this rate, we could get Hillary in the White House in 2016.

  215. new generations lose says:

    Don't stop there.
    Hormone/steroid, and antibiotic use.
    Hybrid and manufactured veggies and fruit.
    Pollution in all of it's forms.
    STD's.

  216. David Axelrod says:

    Those of white European descent need to stop breeding with black and brown skins.

    1. Anonymous says:

      And people like you are a prime example of human stupidity.

      1. Anonymous says:

        Remember when Dr Watson told the truth about blacks and intelligence? And now it’s “cool”to have a black and white kid. Sorry but the reality is when intelligent people breed with a scientifically proven intellectually inferior race, the result will be an overall negative. Facts are facts.

  217. 1) political correctness
    2) modern media
    3) degradation of foo supply.
    4) best and brightest not procreating, quite the opposite.
    5) electrosmog

  218. I'm afraid this is old news. Mankind was the most brilliant at the Creation. After the Fall, everything began to deteriorate, including our lifespan and intelligence, as we got further and further from the knowledge of God. During the Dark Ages, when the average person was forbidden to read or own a Bible, plagues rampaged the populace. If we had been following God's instructions for staying pure and healthy, we could have spared ourselves much grief. Now that we have access to God's Word and His Common Sense, we are living longer than ever. We have countless people in our area who are in their late 90's with clear minds, btw. This is an agricultural community. We use pesticides so that you don't have to have uninvited guests on your plate along with your food. So, no, I don't buy into the "Pesticides are killing us" argument. It isn't valid. The facts indicate the opposite. What do you want? Hoards of locusts ravaging our crops and leaving our fields bare and grocery shelves empty? Because that's what you will have if you ban pesticides. A better idea would be for all of us to get back to God, make our streets safe again so that children can play outside, and all of us get off of our fannies, away from the tv and video games, and get moving again. That is what will clear our minds and strengthen our bodies.

  219. idols v mentors says:

    public schools
    liberal media
    hollywood
    tv
    espn
    DC
    And, parents et al who follow the above.
    The destruction of the human race.
    But, at least they'll feel good about themselves, regardless of their irrational and irrelevant lives.

  220. Skeptic 99 says:

    One only has to read the comments here to see the decline in intelligence reported in this article. The causes…that is far more complex starting with the abandonment to serious study for the half-truths and innuendos available in poorly reported articles like this. 200 years ago, people survived war, famine, pestilence, and disease. There was essentially no medicine, no antibiotics, and little concept of disease or inflammation. And yet, you are now worried about 1ppm fluoride in your drinking water? GMO crops? Everything you eat has been genetically modified. Ever seen maize in the wild? Inedible. People now have the luxury of worrying about silly pointless little risks in their lives because most of the big ones have been eliminated or mitigated.

  221. Public school system! Must I say anything else.

  222. Porter Browning says:

    You got paid to make this claim? Damn, your bosses are dummies…

  223. . I didn’t see any comments from a creationists point of view, so I thought I might bring a different perspective to the discussion. If we were created instead of being an evolved species, then one would expect to see intelligence decline over time. Living in a “fallen” world, the perfection that was created would slowly unwind into a form of chaos. Mutations would lead to loss of information in the genetic coding. Over time we would see systems go from an order of complexity to a lower order of disarray. Yes the environmental conditions have a direct effect, but as somebody brought up earlier that would not explain the world wide reduction in IQ.

  224. Sally momto5 says:

    Humans are designed to get human milk for the first several years of life. The widespread use of artificial baby milk substitutes has contributed to the decrease in intelligence. sometimes you hear it put that Human milk makes babies smarter? No, B=baby formula is so deficient that it makes babies less smart. There are so many things we don't know about nutrition, especially in the early years of life that by arrogantly changing the main food of our children from human milk to a wide variety of substitutes we have been conducting in essence a global uncontrolled experiment on the vast majority of human children that will ultimately lead to disaster.

  225. Mike, great article, thanks for writing about this.
    One thing though, there is not such thing as the "human race". Humans are not a race but a species.
    Decades of liberal indoctrination have conditioned some people to think otherwise but science is still science.
    Based on this, you should add "political correctness" as one of the main factors in the declining of human intelligence.
    It really makes people very stupid.

  226. Flechette says:

    1) Liberals taking over schools and abandoning the teaching of critical thought. Seriously, people 100 years ago could examine complex problems systematically and solve them, whereas most school children today cannot. Critical thought has been usurped by left wing political ideology in the classroom.
    Standards have been consistently lowered in order to keep graduation rates high. As a result a high school diploma is worthless.
    2) Advanced medicine does contribute by making those who would have died due to genetic flaws survive and pass on their genes. Many people today would die within weeks of a major catastrophe like a meteor strike…not due to the meteor but due to the disruption in the supply of food and drugs.
    3)There is some actual merit to the fluoridation argument. Fluoride has been shown to adversely affect the brain and I think that it should stop immediately, if for no other reason then the fact that the government should not be taking the choice away from the individual- if you want fluoride in your water, drink it yourself. Don’t force me to have it.

  227. Skeptic 99 says:

    By the way, did any of you geniuses actually READ the fluoride article? They were talking about high levels of fluoride and concluded by saying this effect was a POSSIBILITY and needed further study. This was NOT definitive.

  228. otumbarkly says:

    I have predicted this for years. conciousness has proven not to be a fitness trait. On the contrary, it sows the seeds for its own destruction. The measure of fitness is the number of viable offspring left to be the bearers of genes. Yet it is the those we suppose are at the top of the conciousness/civilized pyramid who have developed and chosen to use the means to have fewer or no children. At the same time, these same people have bought into the myth that as civilized people, they must enable others, the 'less fortunate' to stay in the pool in large numbers and propagate. Eventuallly the number of these grossly misguided sorts will be greatly diminish. Then there will be another free-for-all amongst the dumber people. Their numbers will shrink, and mercifully the human population will shrink. I would think then, that, once again the brighter people will have a survival advantage. No one wants to hear or believe this, but human intelligence will always bump into a wall unless it can proceed without the baggage of altruism.

  229. BlownfuelCoupe says:

    Predatory Teachers, with Classrooms half filled with occupiers who can’t speak English, might contribute also.

  230. markdavismd says:

    No doubt these studies have some merit. We are aware that many in the Executive branch enjoy their fill of fast foods, fried chicken, Big Macs and more unwholesome foods. The results are evident. Look forward to 2016, these dumb———— will only continue to wreck the country.

  231. You forgot to mention all the rap/hip-hop crap, and the rise of 'coon' royalty

  232. Combine the abortion epidemic with advances in medicine to save babies born prematurely or with handicaps and it should be no surprise that the gene pool suffers as a result.

  233. Phil_Sheo says:

    Funny that this comes up. The other day I was talking to my brother about the seeming swift decline in intelligence that I have seen. While I don't want to make this a political thing and I don't really have a dog in the fight, I find it odd that people of a liberal mindset tend to demean those who have a religious (creationist) worldview and are more than happy to trot out Darwinism in their ridicule of those who are religious. (Continued)

  234. David W Johnson says:

    If our intelligence is slowing declining, wouldn't the professor not be intelligent enough to know that?

  235. Don't have to be a Stanford University researcher and geneticist to know that liberalism is a mental illness that fosters stupidity.

  236. Never trust academics to gauge intellect. They're probably just upset that we aren't paying them like they're pro athletes.

  237. Might I also suggest modern methods of communication make us dumber? Marshal Mcluhen’s 1964 book, Understanding Media, hints at this. A derivative work by Shane Hipps continues the juxtaposition of written and oral tradition societies into the Twitter era. He notes that, only a century before, most educated people were once capable of listening to a 3 hour lecture. Good luck with that today. Perhaps how we aren’t training our minds has something to do with this as well.

  238. The brightest 53% are too busy supporting fatherless breeding explosions of baby-mommas and baby-daddies to have many children of their own. It’s exponential and impacts everything from our capabilities to our political/economic/social/justice systems.

  239. Phil_Sheo says:

    Ultimately, the strong will be brought down to the level of the weak and society will be the worse for it. In practice, it is like a herd of zebra trying to protect the slow one from a pride of lions instead of running as fast as possible to escape – the end result is much more grave than the slowest zebra being picked off. Just seems a bit duplicitous and counterproductive to me. But, it is in keeping with the geneticist's findings that adverse genetics are more likely to survive today as compared to the path – we agree on the what, but not the why (or at least he does not 'go there' as did I). (Continued)

    1. No, they are wrong.
      Its going very QUICKLY.
      e.g. GOOGLE EXCLUDED INCOME.

  240. Phil_Sheo says:

    With respect to the geneticist's assertion that someone from 1000 BC would be much more enlightened and stable, I would say that springs less from genetics than it does from society and culture – nurture rather than nature. Certainly, the education and entertainment of that day and age were more pure than that existing today. Honestly, I think we suffer from information overload in this day and age. Take that away and focus on the fundamentals from day one, I do not think that the outcome would be sufficiently different. (Continued)

  241. The industrial revolution was created by White men..The success of the USA was due to White men like Carnegie,Vanderbilt,Edison,Ford,Rockefeller.Medicine,science,engineering,math.Now the White male is an endangered species .Appalling statistic.. University California system ..only 12% White males due to affirmative action and further discrimination through race/gender based scholarships and discriminatory so called "diversity councils".Sorry..the truth hurts

  242. Assuming the ancient Greeks were emotionally more stable and intelligent than the modern human version is a stretch, and that’s not even considering the Greek’s fellow Roman propensity for violence in mass entertainment when life was short, brutish, and nasty. This has to be another faculty lounge fantasy?

  243. Stephen B says:

    I agree that we as a people have become dumber and more emotionally unstable and there may actually be a genetic aspect to this trend but I truly doubt that genetics or food intake or any of the reasoning discussed in the article or comments thus far are the main culprit. Ideology is the main culprit in the dumbing down of society. We have become an emotion based society that craves entertainment over substance, comfort over hard work and where critical thought has been abandoned for a more selfish and myopic world view. This feelings based culture has infected our politics, education system and even the most basic understanding of how society works. This whole trend started in the university system so I doubt any professor or researcher would dare point their finger back toward their own kind but the lions share of the intelligence and critical thought problem is born of ideology. You want higher intelligence and a more educated society? The ball is in your court.

  244. Well this article at least asnswers the question of how Obama got re-elected… Low information voters (IE: stupid people looking to become life long government mooches)…

    1. Interesting that republicans are the ones that want everyone to overbreed isn't it? By not providing any
      birth control info or allowing abortions….

  245. WilliamPenn says:

    With down-breeding, government-dependent Obama voters having the most kids, what do you expect?

    1. Yawn….
      Ever see the movie idiocracy?
      This was foretold!

      1. Excellent movie! I’m still laughing at one lines there.
        Libtards hate it thou, it’s like looking in the mirror for them .

  246. If people as a whole are getting less intelligent, with less lively and numbers of synaptic connections, I am not surprised. There are soooo many factors influencing this trend, including the introduction of
    mass food production systems, allowing the compromise of consumer health. Your health is being undermined by corporations that care only about their bottomline. Like genetically modified corn produced by monsanto corporation, that pollutes the bloodstreams of childbearers in the US with poisons designed to kill insects for lazy farmers.

  247. GOOGLE EXCLUDED INCOME says:

    How do you spell intelligents?
    We can blame the American Public Communist Schools for this.
    Stop funding corrupt politicians.
    GOOGLE EXCLUDED INCOME.

  248. Pretty Obvious.
    51.9% voted for Obama again.
    (Blacks voted 94.92% for Him!)
    says a LOT about Human intelligence.

  249. powderfan says:

    I think people are extremely over-medicated. Could this be a reason why people are getting dumber?

  250. Sure, high IQ is great but wait until the system collapses. I’m sure your high IQ and college degree in Philosophy will save your life when some trigger happy ex marine slits your throat for your food.

    1. Anonymous says:

      Hopefully the Marine comes for you first, you douche.

  251. Phil Sheo says:

    Don't know where my posts went or why I cannot post this whole thing in a single post, so I'm going to post and reply to myself.
    Funny that this comes up. The other day I was talking to my brother about the seeming swift decline in intelligence that I have seen. While I don't want to make this a political thing and I don't really have a dog in the fight, I find it odd that people of a liberal mindset tend to demean those who have a religious (creationist) worldview and are more than happy to trot out Darwinism in their ridicule of those who are religious.

  252. Stop drinking fluoridated water before it's too late. The more of that slow acting poison you drink, the lower your IQ and the more aliments your body will suffer over the long term.

  253. Kingsfan13 says:

    I could've told you that we are getting dumber. Just look who we are permitting to occupy the White House for the next four years.

  254. HansJurgen says:

    As with everything – it evolves, it grows, meets its peak, and then slowly degrades back to its origin. And then the "seed" that started the life starts to "sprout" again. Some of us are already there since we act, think, and still look like apes – Darwin's Theory of evolution proven on a daily basis.

  255. eric-nj-bayonne says:

    there are several influences at play and several false assumptions. it only looks as if people were more intelligent a 1000 years ago because much of the writings and scientific work that survived throughout history comes from intelligent people. i don’t believe much survives from dumb people. This creates the illusion of a more intelligent historical society. the truth is most people were uneducated 1000 years ago and couldn’t write or do basic math. education was for the privileged elite class of royalty and nobles. You have to look at the attributes that allowed man to survive and multiply through the ages. the truth is the key survival skill was not intelligence. because man had a tribal mentality intelligence needed only to manifest within relatively few of its species who would later take leadership roles. the key attributes for survival were those related to physical survival such as building a home, growing food, hunting, fighting etc. Women are still attracted to these attributes in men because our shift in what it takes to survive from more braun and less IQ to less braun and more IQ has not yet manifested in the genes. this shift is coming.

  256. Anthony Simon says:

    When you remove "Challenge" from Education and give a Trophy to the losers, what do you expect?
    "The wealth of a nation, of a world, consists in the number of superior men that it harbors, and often it seems that these men are too different, too dreaming…"

  257. Tony Moschetti says:

    "Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber?"
    Only if I'd been in a coma lately? How do you think we ended up with the most hapless, inept, economically illiterate president in our history, first elected, and after four disastrous years, re-elected?
    You somehow failed to mention the main reason, at least here in America, the disastrous, failed public education system that for 30 years has failed to educate the populace.

  258. Brian Astby says:

    What do you expect with diversity. The resultant set is the set with the lowest common denominator.

  259. Talk about "stating the obvious"! American voters elected Obama. That's proof enough for me.

  260. Libbyism is making all who follow it dumber and dumber

  261. Michael,
    This is an interesting article but the results are likely meaningless if not adjusted for the socioeconomic levels of the parents. As you know, the effect could be attributable to this alone if the experimental design did not account for it.
    I would appreciate it if you could comment on this so we can know if the difference noted is perhaps meaningless?

  262. how could my comment be deleted immediately before it's even reviewed?

  263. Red_Ruffansore says:

    America re-elected Obama, regressive genes won. I rest my case.

  264. yiddishlion says:

    Liberal indoctrination and sin. That's all.

  265. SKEPTICALOBSERVER says:

    …AS EVIDENCED BY OBAMA'S RE-ELECTION…

  266. Teejay777 says:

    This is not hard to understand. Survial of the fittest includes intelegence, until recently in history those who could not care for themselves would die off naturaly. We now take care of those who cannot do so therefore passing on week genes there fore Iq goes down,

  267. VirginiaNick says:

    Makes perfect sense. Having to listen to Obama each day makes all of us a little dumber.

  268. "Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber?"
    Confirmed by the outcome of our last couple of national elections.

  269. After the debt bomb explodes, it will be back to survival of the fittest. The cost of living will rise and those that cannot afford the higher living costs will perish.

  270. Machinsmo says:

    People are as smart as they have ever been. India, China, Japan are bringing them in to the USA. It is the decline of our society, and drug filled brains taking the country down. No moral values, no standards for the crud pumped in our brains with reality TV, the F word being present as normal language, on and on. Anything goes. Broken homes and day care raised childern. Why excel when the government can support you. It worked for mommy or daddy.

  271. Can we please just call a spade a spade?!?!?!?
    Entitlement programs that allow parasites to be "comfortable" in their slolth-like existence is the ONLY issue here…

  272. Liberalism does make people stupid.

  273. The last election proves this theory beyond any doubt.

  274. Wolverine says:

    Anthropologists have known this for a long time. But I notice how the article conveniently left meat and eggs out of the equation, probably in an attempt to be politically correct to vegans. Actually, studies have proven that the brain shrinks faster on a vegan diet, no matter how many fruits and vegetables are eaten.
    The humans with the largest brains were those that were hunter/gatherers. The human brain (as well as body) began to shrink in those societies who turned to an agricultural diet (especially with grains as the base). Meat, fish and eggs are far more nutrient dense than simply fruits and vegetable. Even Neanderthal people had larger brains than modern men. But the lie that meat is poison and causes all kinds of diseases (a bogus notion which has never been proven) had to be maintained in this politically correct article.
    At the time that civilizations turned to grains and the brain began to shrink, was the same time that researchers begin to see all of the diseases of civilization begin to show up (cancer, heart disease diabetes, , arthritis, IBD. Etc..). The Egyptian people were suffering from diabetes and heart disease, according to CT scans performed on mummies. Though fruits and vegetables can be healthy, they are only a supplement to a meal centered around meat, fish or eggs if we want our brain to ever again reach the size of our Paleolithic ancestors.

  275. Seems to me that those who BELIEVE this Professor are PROVING his point..It's NOT the IQ of people but the ability WANT to learn TO think OUT of the box.. TO think critically and logically .. THIS is something that MANY teachers have NOT encouraged here in the USA SINCE the FEDS took over the School system.. the PUBLIC schools system does NOT make any room for those who don't CONFORM to what they want to teach, NOR do they allow for them to be questioned.. their whole structure is we are ALL the same ..THINK the same. are GOOD at the same things,.,. .therefore NO NEW ideas come to the forefront.. NO ONE can excel in one area while not in another.. Such as one person might learn better from visual while another might from books.. still another would completely blow the other two away with HANDS ON..to MUCH is put on testing and not enough on actual knowledge..

  276. MacDaddyWatch says:

    We get increasing daily evidence regarding rapidly diminishing human intelligence from our Oval Office. Genetic mutations and a rapidly growing defective gene pool are the likely causes.

  277. Idiocracy says:

    Joe: I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.
    Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.
    Brawndo! The thirst mutilator!

  278. Wait, is this related to the 35 pounds of impacted beef in our colon? No wait, uh, whut?

  279. Is this article a joke?
    Our tax money is going to this drivel?

  280. tmdumont15 says:

    I have a sincere belief that it comes down to parenting! Make an effort to raise a child to understand the importance of an education. Eventually, the cycle of ignorance will be broken. EVERYONE has great potential if given the opportunity!!!

  281. Need a proof that that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Just look at the election results. Any questions?

  282. The loss of intelligence or the lack of ever having it is singular to those that supported and voted for Obama and any Democrat last November.

  283. Poindexter McGurk says:

    Based on the recent election results, it's hard to argue.
    BTW – if evolution wasn't a total lie, would intelligence be increasing?

    1. Poindexter McGurk says:

      I meant "wouldn't intelligence be increasing?" Dang mental de-evolution!

    2. Don’t assume evolution has a goal for humans, it’s simply genetic change over time. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

  284. A recent medical study shows that the decline in IQ is attributed to the ever growning population of blacks and hispanics. Go figure on that. Same reason violent crime is on the rise…

  285. The Clintidote says:

    Well, look who's president. QED

  286. "Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber?"
    The only thing that surprises me is that these people believe that it's happening SLOWLY. Personally, it seems to me like an all our race to the bottom. People have told me for years that I'm heartless for saying this, but we have got to stop saving stupid people. We've got to stop saving lazy people. They breed more than the smart, productive people, and we encourage it by supporting them. I'm not saying we have to actively reduce their numbers, we just need to get out of their way. Natural selection can take it from there.

  287. Shandy Doone says:

    Not only is ‘survival of the fittest’ less applicable today; Western industrialized nations have been practicing REVERSE-Darwinism for decades via graduated income taxes, welfare benefits and foreign aid.
    It has become commonplace for people who aren’t smart enough to support THEMSELVES to have multiple offspring (anecdotal evidence abounds, like this 36-year-old father of 10: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/815171_M… ). Meanwhile, the brightest among us, afraid of being seen as irresponsible parents or inadequate providers, often remain childless or limit themselves to just one or two children.
    The author may believe the decline in human intelligence is taking place slowly, over millenia, but from what I have seen it is occurring rapidly, over the course of a few generations, with disasterous social and political consequences.

  288. We have allowed our schools to become substandard, the subject matter excludes the teachings of the Constitution, Civics and American History and Government, we instead teach moral duplicity and use revisionism to corrupt institutional works, we are now more in line with PC and hippism or let the good time roll.
    The news is a great teacher in so many ways, it tells on society and shows just how foolish and lackadazical we now are, it diminishes the ability to form common bonds and comunicate in a reasonable manner, instead we let political ideology interfere because school administration is a government protected society and assisted by corrupt unions that steal away the representation needed to make the proper change and return to a reasonable norm of decent education…..

    1. The dumbing down has been done purposely by those who believe in collectivism, relativism and a few other- isms! We don’t need to go back to ancient Greece to find intelligent humans; our decline began in earnest in the sixties.

  289. The Clintidote says:

    "We make sure that not only do the unfit live, we make sure they reproduce."
    Bears repeating.

  290. We need a study investigating the correlation between progressivism and low IQ.

      1. The Clintidote says:

        Then where did the expression "As dumb as a democRat" come from, Stu? The Daily Kos?

      2. Yeah I got smoked there…. But I as a libertarian I think I slide in under the bar…..

  291. wow I just posted a comment with NOTHING offensive (or that violated any policies) and it was IMMEDIATELY deleted? so much for free speech.

  292. Genn_Blecchhh says:

    Not that I didn't know this already, but this news — "human intelligence slowly declining" (except that I differ that it is happening "slowly") — explains exactly how Hussein 0BowMao got re-elected. We are truly living in an "Idiocracy."

  293. This article started out smart and then rapidly deteriorated into stupidity and absurdity. Totally junk science to say the least. But is could explain the low information voter phenomenon.

  294. John West says:

    Well now …. that article certainly explains why there are so many more liberals running around the country than the smarter conservative oriented members of the population. I am convinced that Liberals with their endless cannot-possibly-work policies that have been tried and failed over and over. This growing number of Liberals is a true sign of the deterioration of the mental abilities required to make sound decisions and produce a successful society. When asked, Liberals do not have an answer for why they chose their candidate. They just say something like … "well, I just like him" or "I always vote Democrat" or "he promised to give me free stuff". One of my faves is "Conservatives are too scary" … which is to say … "Reality is too scary". Reduced intellect doesn't begin to cover it.
    Canada and the USA are rich in resources and technological abilities. Is there any reason whatsoever that we should be anything but successful going forward? Yet we are on a path to destruction. A path that is being mapped by our corrupt and stupid politicians. They, along with greedy corrupt bankers and a smattering of industrialists and big investors, have entered an unholy alliance that is guaranteed to eventually generate a revolution and an ugly civil war. No one wants this, but those who have control are obviously too stupid to do what is necessary to avoid it. And those … are the Liberals.

  295. This explains Obama's reelection.

    1. Anonymous says:

      I knew there was a reason Obama got re-elected

  296. this is a really stupid article and you all are believing it. our children are both smarter than us and their children are much smarter than they were in school. i can see how much more their brains have advanced with each generation.

  297. Left wing "intellectuals" explaining why they voted for Obama.

  298. The point of this article is covered from a more obvious angle in the book, Purple Silk in Andromeda: A Cosmic Romance of Life on Earth.

  299. Corporal Joe Bauers says:

    The inverse relationship between brain size and fertility is noted in nature…

  300. supercool says:

    When men look for mating partners, how high does intelligence rate as a priority? Not usually the trait at the top of the list. I think in the last several thousand years, no increase of intelligence can be attributed to evolution. Just like the author believes ancient Athenians would be brighter than the average person today I think the average person in Revolutionary War-era USA would be brighter than his counterpart in today's America.

  301. noseitall says:

    .
    This explains the election of Barack Obama.
    .

  302. davidkachel says:

    Well, duh!
    We are subsidizing the breeding of leftist welfare babies by the millions. Did you really think that would INCREASE intelligence in the country?!!
    Obama and pals are purposely breeding a race of slaves.

  303. Barack Obama Voters have overwhelmed those with critical thinking skills.
    Low Information Voters, it's apparent.

  304. Marc Esadrian says:

    Nice hypothesis. Now where's the data?

  305. Well, this article does explain how Obama ended up in the white house.

  306. This is news? Just look at the last election….

    1. This is common sense. The people in society at the lower end of the genetic code are reproducing faster than everyone else. It’s unacceptable to say such a thing in today’s world, but is undoubtably true. Humans have a genetic cancer in a way because we don’t play by natures rules.

  307. 211Linsinc says:

    Finally, an explanation as to why so many people voted for Obama. The federal government has been trying to dumb down the electorate for years with the help of CNN,ABC,MSNBC,the NY Times and other sundry liberal media. It is a proven fact that liberals walk around with their heads in the clouds and noses pointed up. That is why they keep tripping over their feet.

  308. Phil Bickel says:

    Guiding your children in who they select to breed with is more critical than any of this BS. My grandkids are far superior to myself, my wife, their parents, and there other grand parents. Don't think that many people don't veto their children's relationshops when we see them going in the wrong direction. That's one of the big problems where the father or both parents are absent. That may be the biggest contributor to any decline, if any indeed exist. Accidental breeding ofeten doesn't end well, especially for the children.

  309. sick of it says:

    How about the fact that the intelligent people are mostly limiting themselves to only 1 or 2 kids. Conversely, the baby breeders who don't work and aren't as smart are spitting out 5 or 6 kids each – AND GETTING PAID TO DO IT WITH WELFARE & FOOD STAMPS . That is a huge reason society is getting dumber. Political correctness of course prevents you from even mentioning it, but it must be dealt with.

  310. Whip it good says:

    Devo tried to warn us in the 80's but we didn't listen. Are we not men?

  311. TV makes you stoopid. The way we raise children is part of the equation. Read NURTURE SHOCK. The problem is different than what you may think.

  312. Miscegenation is making people less intelligent. Civilized people mixing with uncivilized begets someone who has all the cunning of the savage world mixed with "a little knowledge" and creates dangerous and unpredictable individuals. President Obama is a shining example. Like they used to say "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

  313. superladya says:

    And who do you think put the fluoride, pesticides, and hfcs in our foods? The government, so they can keep us stupid…

  314. Scientists are making us stupid with their arbitrary changes to science.

  315. Where has this 'geneticist' been measuring IQ's, in the minority gettos?

  316. This is because white people are having less children, while the shiite skinnned peoples of the world are breeding like rabbits.

  317. Bertrand Russell says:

    " Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. . . .”—-Bertrand Russell,1953

  318. Lighthope says:

    Why yes, there are a lot of Democrats. Why do you ask?

  319. When I was a teenager, I knew EVERYTHING. Now, in mid-40's, I know nothing.

  320. The notion that the general intelligence level of the human race is on the downward slope is an appealing idea given what we are experiencing in culture and politics. However, to paint the entire human race with this tar is itself a stupid idea. There are today, and have always been, intelligent folks and dimwits with every degree of difference between these two extremes. Was Einstein more intelligent than Isaac Newton? Was Isaac Newton more intelligent than Aristotle? Intelligence is a wonderful attribute within the walls of academia. But in the general world "resourcefulness" and "curiosity" win out every time. These men had not just intelligence but the curiosity to wonder. But without the resourcefulness of a myriad of other lesser known individuals, the ideas of Einstein, Newton, Telsa et al. would have been nothing more than interesting theories and experiments. Together, they make the human race advance rather than just survive. Those cultures with a high degree of resourcefulness and curiosity advance quickly. Those which do not inculcate these qualities do poorly. Sadly, today our culture here in the States emphasizes these qualities less and less, instead incentivizing the masses to follow today's Pied Pipers into homogeneity. Thankfully, those with curiosity and resourcefulness are not so easily led. I do not pretend to know if resourcefulness and curiosity are inherited or learned. But without them, a man is doomed to remain in the pile at the bottom of the ladder.

  321. Dumber? I find the smart kids very smart and the dumb ones uninvolved. And of course the dumb ones are coddled and kept nowdays when they used to die young. Another issue is celebrity. My daughter really picked a stupid uninvolved maggot infested human-like individual. Just like the girls did when I went to high school. Of course over the 50 years I ran a business I had the pleasure of refusing to hire those guys and girls. I don't think it's the water or anything like that. It is simply adverse selection at work.

  322. The guy must be watching Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Hussein Obama, et al to come up with that conclusion.

  323. Maybe science isn't as good either? Could be a flawed study.

  324. I bet frito pendejo and beef supreme would beg to differ….

  325. People seem alot dumber since the advent of the Internet.

  326. LibsSmell says:

    Explains the 2008 and 2012 elections!

  327. What about the deliberate dumbing down our schools are doing to our current students? It is all part of the plan. What is also happening is that the truly educated are having less children while the dumbest people in our society keep breeding like rabbits. This has an overall effect on the population's intelligence. But as my husband said once… the dumb keep breeding and mankind gets dumber every year.

  328. Watch the movie "Idiocracy". We penalize the smartest and most hardworking, causing them to put off having children — often until it is too late to do so — and subsidize the creation of more and more children by the dumbest and least productive. What did people think would happen?

  329. AbnerHale says:

    That's just Congress, blowing the curve downwards.

  330. affirmative action political correctness has got something to do with the dumbing down of society.

  331. The fact that there is a muzlim jungle bunny in the blackhouse is proof of that…….

  332. I think it has a lot to do with the "Chicago Factor", the more democrats, the more stupid the population is.

  333. He forgot to mention the effects of inbreeding in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Affects the pool

  334. It doesn't take a geneticist to realize this.. It's common sense if you are paying attention and have an I.Q. over 95… For Christ's sake, the US population just re-elected a guy who put us in more debt in 4 years than the guy before did in all 8, who is overtly destroying the economy and the private sector, and who is overtly trying to destroy the 2nd and 10th amendments, if not the constitution as a whole.
    ANYONE can see this if they know just a little history and are paying attention.
    Unfortunately, most Americans are too busy coloring, playing xbox, and talking on their gov't subsidized smart phones to take their civic responsibilities even slightly seriously.

    1. Yeah, yeah, you people forget who got his in this mess. Two wars, cutting taxes, and a Medicare give away for the richall on a credit card. Then the bankers stuck it to us. Sounds like bigotry to me!

  335. observeronthehill says:

    Hey Mike, while that kind of “food” is not healthy for anyone, do you think unionized public schools may have just a teensy weensy bit to do with it ?
    Who cares if the kids are getting stupid, as long as we tell them all they’re winners and keep handing out participation trophies I’m sure they’ll turn out just fine.
    Oh, wait, the evidence is pointing out otherwise isn’t it ?

    1. doubleblind says:

      If that hypothesis holds true, then primative people who live outside the grid of modern cultures and diets should test higher, in relative terms. This not being the case would tend to indicate environmental factors are involved in average IQ. Mass education likely shares some blame. Kids score a bit higher on repeat math tests if they solve a math problem without a calculator, and repeat scores are lower for peers who used calculators on their first test.

  336. Anonymous says:

    Yeah, the evidence is the last presidential election.

  337. CynicsRus says:

    I've got to admit that I'm not too sure about the checmicals; however, I do know that our educational system has done their best to continue to dumb down what our children learn.
    One of the problems is math. We don't teach our kids to work things out in their head. We don't give them basic skills. We give them a calculator. We eliminate the need to think.
    English. We don't teach them how to spell or provide rules on proper usage. We give them a computer with spell check and grammer check. Of course, none of them use it.
    We tell them twitter is great.
    We tell them they're special when they've done NOTHING.
    We give them trophies for absolutely nothing other than showing up.
    We tell them they don't have to learn cursive writing. All those emoticons will get them through.
    We do nothing to teach them to think and then we wonder why we get a report like the one above?

  338. Voting Democrat is another self reinforcing way of making society dumber. Necessity is the mother of invention but with (D) in charge the welfare roles grow exponentially.

  339. This totally explains both the Democrat Party and the election of Obama to president.

  340. I don't buy this drivel at all. This is a ridiculous article. Although like I said it does explain how Obama got elected.

  341. the42degrees says:

    decreased fertility with increased socioeconomic status gained through intellect. it's called DYSGENICS. some of the greatest minds of the past 150 years have been concerned about this trend (galton, darwin, fisher, pearson, crick, etc.). this is nothing new. it is a shame that even acknowledging this fact destroys a scientist's reputation in our politically correct culture where no differences between individuals can be noted. additionally, past means of selection are no longer relevant to our civilization because of modern medicine and technology. this is said with no judgment, just making an undeniable observation. who knows what we'll do with this knowledge. perhaps, as francis crick said, "i would be astonished if, in the next 100 or 200 years, society did not come round to the view that they would have to try to improve the next generation in some extent or one way or another."

  342. Further evidence of this fact is the proliferation of reality TV shows and Youtube cat video views.

  343. GoodOleBoy says:

    Or, very simply. N E G R O I D S are the parasite of intelligence!
    The End.

  344. Les Legato says:

    We can tell that intelligence is diminishing in the U.S. based on the results of our last two elections.

  345. da…i mean, du…i mean, duh.

  346. efeinsmith says:

    Of course, they may be missing the forest from the trees. Statistically, those with lower intelligence reproduce at a much higher rate than those of higher intelligence, so the AVERAGE intelligence of society will become skewed in the wrong direction. With tghe birth rate dropping in developed nations and rising in third-world nations, the long term implications are rather frightening.

  347. Ralph Gizzip says:

    This is surprising? Just look at the demographics having lots of babies and you can see why the human race is getting dumber. Can you say Idiocracy? I knew you could.

  348. Where did the samples come from? Who was in the samples? Is it possible that there is a combination of self-fulfilling prophecy and survey error going on here? Maybe, as difficult as it may be to believe, the intellectual elites in the US are more likely to spend extra money on "organic" foods, and to avoid processed foods, opting instead to make meals from scratch. That would only prove that children of intelligent parents are less likely to eat processed foods, GM foods, or foods treated with pesticides. It would not prove that these technologies are harming intelligence.
    As for chlorpyrifos, EPA-funded university scientists and the EPA have been trying to tie it to cognitive problems for about 20 years. Other than poisoning many pregnant rats and producing impaired rat pups as a result, they haven't gone very far.

  349. we made the world to safe for the dummies, they should die before breeding. not bring down the average

  350. Could assault rifles be linked to this decline?

  351. My friend, this is absolutely the funniest thing on this entire goddamned site.
    Thanks (and watch out for the fluoride).
    t

  352. Government has made it expensive, inconvenient, and hazardous to have kids. There are easily accessible, effective, forms of birth control. Potential intelligence is heritable. Generally people act to maximize their perceived best interests. Given these true statements, isn't it obvious that intelligent people will be less likely to have children? I'm a sample of one, but I have an measured IQ of 150 or so, I'm 54 years old, I'm not gay, I'm popular with women, and I don't have children. Care to guess why? Because in today's world kids=trouble, no matter how much you love them.

  353. Good and timely post given there are whole professions today that rely on accurately predicting societal moods. The non-questioned ones work for marketing firms on the one hand and politicians on the others. Those no one questions, no one knows about work for some bigger trend setters. Nice to know about the at least.

  354. It is all the Liberals we have dragging the rest of us down.

  355. ObserverNY says:

    Excellent article!
    People around the world need to be aware of an organization seeking to exploit the youth of the world with a very expensive international educational program called International Baccalaureate or IB. IB markets its programs as creating "critical thinkers" and "global citizens". It is dumbing down our schools in order to create "global citizens". Academics are an afterthought.
    http://truthaboutib.com/

  356. I like fish and flouride and…look a squirel! Ahhh, booohooo, the squirel ran away! What is going on, why am I typing? I need to go watch American Idol to get myself centered

    1. I love Obama too, he is my savior. He and NPR have made me smarterer than you crazy right-wingers. Huray for me! I have a high self-esteem!

  357. The real reason humanity is becoming dumber is that we have circumvented Darwinian evolution. You know, survival of the fittest and all that. We preserve the dumbest of us and protect them from removing themselves from the gene pool, then they out-breed the rest of us. Wake up social progressives.
    Ha! I see I'm not the only one to recognize this.

  358. I want to kik you in the bawls! ha ha ha!

  359. Ha ha… White people! Is that a joke?

  360. Looks like everyone is overlooking the obvious. We have a populace that has been educated by the public school system…..

  361. Sorensist says:

    Crabtree's theories sound gimmicky to me. First off, regarding Athenians, the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars come to mind. The Empire was utterly convinced of its superiority and initiated a war to rob its conquered opponents of resources. It was an epic fail and led to complete destruction of the empire, which went from an early type of Democracy to Oligarchy.
    But Athenians didn't have our modern technological aids in terms of self destruction. The cult of progress certainly has its roots in Plato but we're bringing it to new heights– along with a very Platonic-sounding genetic apologia for all of it ("poor breeding'). But prescription drugs now kill over 200K Americans a year, modern medicine is a leading cause of death and the US now boasts the worst child mortality of any developed country- #49 on the CIA world index. We have 3 to 5 times the childhood vaccine– none of which have ever been tested for safety in combination– of the top ten countries with the best child mortality, more than any country in the world. 1 in 10 Americans, adults and children, now take one or more pychotropic drugs with known mutagenic and neurotoxic effects. 60% of our food supply is GMO and factory farmed meat with its pesticide residue, new pathogens, hormones and antibiotics dominate the market. The rate of developmental disability and chronic conditions among American children is astronomical.
    People discuss green house gasses but often fail to mention the whopping increase in mercury and other heavy metal pollution, all of which are neurotoxic, immunotoxic, mutagenic. So I agree, the environmental explanation for failing schools and declining mental health is more compelling than genetics.

  362. Disgruntled says:

    The democratic party is happy to read this headline.

  363. Search youtube for : 'Dr John Sanford' and 'entropy' – very interesting!

  364. hi there! wutz you all cumplanin bout?
    ignerence is blis.
    bbulubity blubity blubi;lkajfdl;kajsfl;kajdf

  365. HFCS can make you stupid?!? I sense an anti-soda agenda here. lol.

  366. Heather Roberts says:

    I think the research Weston Price did looking for the healthiest ‘tribes’ of people gives us insight. He found there were groups of isolated people living away from the modern diet. His thousands of photographs of their bone/teeth formation and studies into the nutritional value of their foods revealed some basic facts. It didn’t matter if they lived in a hot climate or cold, as long as they ate simple natural foods including small amounts of animal protein, good quality fats, fresh vegetables and small amounts of fruit. They grew to have perfect teeth, strong disease free bodies and lived harmoniously together. People living high in the Swiss alps or living with hostile weather conditions like those off the coasts of Scotland, were content without allopathic drugs, lived in communities without mental illness or crime. Their sense of family was strong. Intelligence is about emotional maturity, being able to understand situations whilst remaining calm. This is a biochemical state, where the cells are nourished and our ability to be rational and fair is optimal. I would really recommend reading his work, Nutrition and physical Degeneration.

    1. Great book. I have a copy with many of the pages dog-eared. Sally Fallon is great sorce too.

  367. When they integrated our schools, education went into the toilet.

  368. The unions have stolen our kids education. Unions hurt America.

  369. Mike_in_Kyiv says:

    Proof abound about this: Like – Obama being elected twice!

  370. If you need any more proof of how intelligence is declining look at how Americans have voted the last couple of decades.

    1. The smart thing to do is to either vote for a third party or not vote or change the electoral system.

  371. Didn't need a scientific study, just watch the voting trends, people show their absolute ignorance when they vote with their feelings and not with intelligence. Americans are too stupid to figure out that the welfare teat is going dry, and those taxpayers having to carry the burdon are eventually going to say " no more" to society's parasites. liberalism/marxism is a mental disorder.

  372. Truth Detector says:

    Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining
    How can you say this given the results of the most recent U.S. election?
    "Obama gave us a phone. He gon' do mo'! We gots ta keep Obama in President, you know?"

  373. napredwhiteand blue says:

    Genetic proof of declining intelligence? What more proof do you need? People elected and then reelected (!) Obama.

  374. The Hippies were right…

  375. The reason for the decline is clearly shown by an electorate voting towards the left!

  376. Hmmmm, this may explain how post-modern liberalism came into full flower over the last one hundred years to impose its political idiocracy on everyone else. Either that or liberalism is a mental disease that needs a little gene therapy.
    How else to explain how the most incompetent, divisive, mendacious failure of a president recently got re-elected.

  377. Evidence includes how the country has voted in the last two presidential elections.

  378. The Mayor says:

    We have been seeing this the last 20 years or so and the new architects are living proof of it. These newer so called professionals are some of theee dymbest bastards walking the planets.

  379. AlbertoEinstine says:

    Naawwwww …….

  380. The movie Idiocracy (2006) shows a furture of what could happen to the world. Governments are promoting the trend. Fools are easier to control until we are all fools.

  381. Interesting article. I agree with many of the suggestions that the various environmental influences in our society and lives are impacting on our health and cognitive and other abilities. In addition, we are increasingly becoming a lazier and lazier society. We need an app to tell us how to drive somewhere? We need to use a remote control to lower the volume on the TV when it's 3 metres away from us? Nobody climbs tress outside anymore, we can't relax since everything has to be done as quickly as possible, food has to be 'fast', we need a quick-fix when we're ill so our bodies can't recover naturally at it's own pace, thereby strengthening its immune system (of course, there are medications that have it's place). On the whole, we're pathetic! Think of those studies that show that all this everyday physical activity is required for correct cognitive development, especially in children, yet we lack so much of this activity in our lives. In addition, our genes are not static; they are dynamic and react with their environment so that a bad diet, lack of excercise and cognitive laziness will create genetic changes that consequently get passed down the line. So sadly, yes; I would say that every single detrimental environmental factor mentioned in the above comments, together with lack of physical activity and adversely impacted genes would most likely contribute to our lack of intelligence :(.

  382. There's a term in library science, 'infoglut', when a search inquiry retrieves lots of information of which many is redundant and can't be latch in anyway to the purpose, the objective of the search and by extension,from an psychological angle, you might see it as a form of gluttony, a desire to wallow in huge packs of data and documentation to satisfy less a keen and motivated interest in a subject or a range of topics, connected or not, for the sensation, the thrill to possess it even if there's not a practical use for them, a feeling of empowerment by possessing them and adopting them more like cut-up headlines, easily to digest and to show off with, but lacking depth of true, even basic knowledge and acquired not by method but rather spuriously, randomly, skimming over a matter's surface, but quick to withdraw oneself for the dive. In a time of ubiquitous fragmentation, fragmentation of knowledge and personal wisdom comes natural, it swirls around, grating shards in a vacuum, going nowhere, achieving nothing, slowly eroding itself to dust that falls flat on a desert without character nor a spark of life.

  383. Could be that people with higher I.q.'s are more career minded and have fewer kids, while lower I.q. people forget to take birth control and have more kids. So smarter people are decreasing as a percentage of the population while stupid people are increasing.

  384. How can the geneticist or anyone else tell whether intelligence is declining among all human beings? This is an unintelligent position. Fluoridating water with salts of fluoride is intelligent since it makes for healthier teeth and reduces cavities. It is an inexpensive public health measure for good results.

  385. Also, "After recording the children’s’ diets and analyzing questionnaires submitting by the parents, the researchers found that if children were consuming a processed diet at age 3, IQ decline could begin over the next five years" may just mean more about the IQ of the parents, do they care about what their children eat & do they care about their education?

  386. Stupid Article How about Blacks and Browns are making more babies than Whites?

  387. It still relates back to genetics. Everything we ingest; everything we come into contact with affects us at the cellular level, i.e. at the genetic level.

  388. Takis Konstantopoulos says:

    Indeed, I have been observing the increase of stupidity, for at least 2 decades, even in universities, even among some professors/lecturers of mathematics. And in several countries. You get evidence for this by looking at how they think, watching then speak, take note of the stoopid questions they ask in conferences or seminars…. The smartest of the dumb ones have found a way to pretend they are smart by asking questions which appear sophisticated to those who are already dumb or by preaching to the layperson. The only cover for them is provided by the unfortunate fact that people think that mathematicians are smart–by definition; which is totally untrue, in several cases.

  389. uldissprogis says:

    The real reason that humans seem to be getting stupider is the structure of the English language with its great emphasis on illogical emotions and factless content of similes and antonyms. There is a solution to this problem and that is to define most of the words being used in a logical way and inventing some which are necessary to fill the logical gaps.Eliminating most emotionally charged words and slang is also a step in the right direction. I have updated all the flaws in the English language in my book SCIENTIFIC THESAURUS and hope that it will soon be taught to all impressionable elementary school students and anyone wishing to view the world more reasonably or logically. Enjoy!!!!!!

  390. I'm sorry to post but this question is so retarded. All intelligence is, is how well a human can response to it's stimulus. It's how well a person can function in this society and pick things up to survive..That is all it comes down to..Intelligence is limited and we are just reflection of our society.

  391. Scarlett OHAra says:

    They completely ignored the racial aspect of declining intelligence– which may be the most important factor of all. As the White European population decreases while the black/ brown population increases, naturally IQ will decline, and violence, instability, and chaos will increase. Things have been slowly devolving for decades, and will continue to go downhill.

  392. Scarlett Ohara says:

    A global dysgenics project is underway…

  393. Dan Vasii says:

    I am asking myself: is this an assertion coming from a scientist? He declares tha humans are less intelligent than before. So I ask him: when was made the last mankind scale intelligence evaluation and what was the result; when was made the actual evaluation; what difference was acknowledged. If I remember well, there is a big problem with intelligence assesment, because intelligence is a very fuzzy concept. And if I remember well, the genetics is just beggining as a real science – they barely started by mapping the human genome, but mapping the genome is like first stage of OCR(optical character recognition): they got the text, but not the language – they don't know what the genes do, notwithstanding about the connection between the genome and the intelligence of an individual. So, my conclusion is that his conclusion isn't a scientific one, but a mere personal one.

  394. Crabtree’s intelligence is declining.

  395. Another reason is that people with lower IQs are having more kids than people with high IQs.

  396. AlreadyDamned says:

    They already won.

  397. Just watch the movie "Idiocracy". It's as dead on as Orwell's "1984".

  398. Steve Konrad says:

    I cant help but wonder if they took the time to seperate their control group according to race?Any informed intelligent person would consider the mountain of evidence before attempting such a project.

  399. Ales Zvolanek says:

    retards have more kids, thats all the story.

  400. Chalk Dog says:

    No it people like your mom that gave birth to you that are to blame.

  401. Andrew King says:

    i disagree, there are African tribes that have excellent dental health, they don’t have fluoridated water, they don’t eat processed food and they clean their teeth with twigs from a bush.
    That alone completely validates this article.

  402. Zachary Cameron says:

    A critical point this article doesn’t mention:
    In general, the more intelligent people aren’t going to eat poisoned crap, or drink fluoride… They’ll be more likely to drink filtered water, and eat organic foods. In other words, these poisons are primarily only making the less intelligent people dumber and sicker.
    A far more likely cause of diminishing intelligence (and in turn, degrading of our society) is the fact that intelligent people are more responsible with their reproduction, while the intellectually-challenged are popping-out babies with abandon. This is problem is only increased by allowing illegal immigration to run rampant in a society.

  403. TheAarowsmith says:

    The proof of lower I.Q’s in America is the very fact that many retards voted for Trump. Enough proof. End of discussion.

  404. TheAarowsmith says:

    White people are the most criminal lying Con Artist you’ll ever meet. For example White America is truthfully potrayed by none other than Donald J.Trump, Our Liar in Chief. Yes White people set such high & mighty examples of being a True Criminal Con. Most White people should be in prison, like all the white Bankers that caused the 2008 economic collapse. But don’t worry Trump will save all the whites & outsource all their jobs. After he gets rid of the rest of America. Trump will make America Poor Again.

  405. Alistair Aitken says:

    people who are less intelligent can afford to have as many kids as they want! It stands to reason that unemployed (lower IQ for the main) have more reason to reproduce . – bigger house/more benefits etc… If I had say 3 kids within three years, i would need to pay around £2000 per month in nursery fees alone, never mind having to pay for a bigger house and having to cut my working hours. Where’s the incentive for me? I can only afford to have 1 kid. We are breeding ourselves into oblivion. Lower IQ all round please! Just what the overall plan is!

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