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The article covers this:

> One potential explanation was quasi-eugenic. As in the movie “Idiocracy,” it was suggested that average intelligence is being pulled down because lower-IQ families are having more children ("dysgenic fertility" is the technical term).

> [...]

> However, a 2018 study[1] of Norway has punctured these theories by showing that IQs are dropping not just across societies but within families.

The studies would seem to contradict each other, which isn't all that surprising.

[1] https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/26/6674.full.pdf



This seems to be data for males (conscripts) only. It seems they didn't examine correlation with lower-IQ mothers, which may have been a factor.


Norway conscripts men and women.


Since 1985 women can volunteer, mandatory conscription for women was introduced in 2015. So at least historical data is definitely skewed. Currently, there are 13% women in the Norwegian army... https://forsvaret.no/aarsrapport/statistikk/personell


There is no contradiction. Iceland study states upfront that genetic decline size is 10 times smaller than environmental effect and is masked by it.


Or, as XKCD said it... https://xkcd.com/603/




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