Взлет и падение интеллекта на западе (E. Datton). Lecture 3

Lecture 3: The Decline of Intelligence What is the Association Between Intelligence and Fertility Now? We find that in many industrialized societies there is now a clear negative correlation between intelligence and fertility. It is more pronounced among women than men. We explore the reasons for this. We see that the Industrial Revolution reduced child mortality, so people didn’t need to have large families. It also introduced reliable contraception. This was first taken up by the more educated (and so more intelligent) and more efficiently used by them. Consequently, large families happened by accident and were a function of impulsivity and low intelligence. In addition, the more intelligent, we discover, desire fewer children, because they are more interested in intellectual pursuits and achieving a high-level of education so as to maximize their competitiveness. This coupled with the massive reduction of infant and child mortality means that the less intelligent can successfully have large families. Increasingly liberal gender attitudes mean that more intelligent women pursue careers and so delay and limit their fertility in a way that less intelligent women do not. We also highlight those who have argued that the welfare state contributes to this issue. Based on these observations, many researchers predicted that IQ should be decreasing due to the action of genetic selection.
Back to Top