Last week there was a bit of buzz on twitter surrounding a graph (below) of the mean IQ of highest educational attainment and the decade it was attained. The buzz was because people were interpreting it to mean that we're getting dumber over time, but it is probably a better reflection that attaining these degrees has gotten more common (perhaps easier, but that might be a stretch given the information from the study). Apparently in the 1960s, only 10% of American adults had a college degree vs something like 34% today. In other words, we aren't getting dumber, we're just giving degrees to a larger share of the population and a larger share of the population has a lower mean IQ because IQs are normalized to make the mean 100.

There are of course other issues with interpreting IQ scores to mean certain things about intelligence overall, but that's beside the point. My hot take is that we're likely over educating ourselves for what we need. Meaning that we're selecting to pursue higher education even when it isn't necessary to have a fulfilling career. We're taking on more debt for no real reason other than the concept that having a higher degree opens up better job prospects. It might, but we should seriously reconsider whether certain levels of education are required for certain jobs.

This isn't meant to disparage the OP ... it's more tangential to the OP if anything. I mention it more so we don't fall into the same trope that college grads aren't as intelligent as they used to be.

Another side of this is you could also consider that the people with the highest IQs simply aren't pursuing higher education because they realize the futility in taking on the debt and instead are out there inventing new things and creating new businesses, etc.

I wonder if this data is adjusted for the change in value of IQ points over time.

The colours in that chart are terrible. Hopefully they can get their graphic design phds to come up with a better combination.

natematt, If you mean the change to reset the mean IQ to 100 over time, I think it is (but I haven't verified it), which is why the percentage of the population attaining higher education is important to understand. Otherwise it simply looks like a reverse Flynn Effect.