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Humanity's intelligence increases every ten years
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
In Great Britain, experts from King's College stated that humanity becomes smarter every ten years. The experts made such conclusions after analyzing the results of IQ tests of people of different ages.
Experts decided to find out how much intellectual development differs between people from different generations. About two hundred thousand people from different countries took part in the new research project, and the results surprised even the experts.
As it turns out, every ten years people's intelligence increases. Such data indicates that each new generation will be smarter than its predecessors.
It is worth noting that every ten years the level of difficulty of IQ tests becomes more difficult, but despite this, young people cope with it successfully. This feature was noted by James Flynn, a philosopher and psychologist at one of the universities of New Zealand.
The average IQ test score is 100 points, so if a modern person took a test that was relevant a hundred years ago, he would have scored 130 points, while the result of our ancestors on a modern test would have been approximately 70 points, which is a significant difference.
It is quite possible that a high level of education contributes to this, but experts believe that it does not play a key role in a person’s intellectual development.
Experts also believe that the level of intellectual development largely depends on the quality of medicine and the reduction in the number of children in one family. According to British researchers, today's parents can pay more attention to one or two children than the previous generation, where the average family had three to four children.
Scientists have noted that even ordinary attention, such as communication, games or walks, can affect a child's intelligence. Such seemingly simple things significantly develop children's outlook and the process of learning a system of norms, values and knowledge. Also, according to experts, intelligence can be affected by the social status of the family, wealth and relationships between parents.
But another study conducted by specialists from Florida found that the upbringing process has absolutely no effect on a child's intellectual development. Whether a child will be smart or not, scientists say, depends on genetics, and the child's mental abilities depend on the mental abilities of his parents.
The researchers came to these conclusions after studying children from different families. The study involved families with two children of the same age, but one of whom was not biological (i.e. adopted). All children underwent three tests - the first at school, the next at 18 and 26 years. As a result, the scientists found out that the intellectual abilities of the child practically did not depend on upbringing. However, children whose biological parents had a more developed intellect were smarter than their peers, but experts warn that the results of the study do not mean that parents can not study with their children.