Brain in a jar. Image: Kaushik Narasimhan
It has always been my suspicion that IQ might be up there with BMI in questionableness. I am saying this as someone who (according to their mother) got a very high IQ score (she can't remember the exact score “but it was just below genius, no it was GENIUS”) and has a low BMI (according to the BBC I have the body of a woman from the Philippines). At least if BMI doubters turn out to be wrong the question of losing or gaining weight is, though difficult, doable. IQ is another matter, which perhaps contributes to its debatable status.
The fact our collective Intelligenz-Quotient is apparently on the rise according to the Flynn Effect is argument enough against the validity of IQ standardised testing (or perhaps the questions and puzzles are piss easy now, not like in my day...). “In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster” said IQ expert Professor James Flynn. “This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.”
The fact our collective Intelligenz-Quotient is apparently on the rise according to the Flynn Effect is argument enough against the validity of IQ standardised testing (or perhaps the questions and puzzles are piss easy now, not like in my day...). “In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster” said IQ expert Professor James Flynn. “This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.”
IQ testing and Flynn shows that it appears everyone is getting cleverer, but women are getting clevererer than men. Flynn has published IQ results that show for the first time that women have overtaken men in IQ scores. Since IQ scoring began a century or so ago men have scored up to 5 points higher than women on average. Flynn suggested that the changes in IQ results happen: “as the world gets more complex, and living in it demands more abstract thought, so people are adapting.”
This sudden lead has people grappling for an explanation. It can't simply be that women are capable, so theories are being suggested. One theory is that in the bid to Have It All and juggle both family life and a career has resulted not in steam escaping from selfish lady ears but an increase in intelligence. Another is that women have always had the potential for higher results and are finally realising it. Flynn added that: “This improvement is more marked for women than for men because they were disadvantaged in the past.”
Flynn, who will publish his findings in a book, said more data was needed to explain the trend.
“The full effect of modernity on women is only just emerging” he added.
These results were collated by Flynn from Western Europe, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia. It was found that the gap in scores between the sexes had narrowed.
In Australia male and female IQ scores were practically identical. Women scored higher than men in New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia.
Flynn is planning to publish a book with the findings is willing to predict that “the same trends are happening in Britain, too, although the data is too sparse to be sure.” The news has proven to be a great excuse for publishing photos of the only intelligent woman in the UK, multiple Rear of the Year winner Carol Vorderman who demonstrated her brain power by picking out those letters on Countdown so prettily and gracefully doing a maths every now and again. Of course Vorderman is intelligent, it is however quite interesting that when tabloids think of a clever, famous woman it seems only one comes to mind. Can we use our expanding IQ to think of any more please?
Of course the real question is: what will we women do with our new giant brains? Might I suggest we head-butt the glass ceiling.
Squeamish Kate
This sudden lead has people grappling for an explanation. It can't simply be that women are capable, so theories are being suggested. One theory is that in the bid to Have It All and juggle both family life and a career has resulted not in steam escaping from selfish lady ears but an increase in intelligence. Another is that women have always had the potential for higher results and are finally realising it. Flynn added that: “This improvement is more marked for women than for men because they were disadvantaged in the past.”
Flynn, who will publish his findings in a book, said more data was needed to explain the trend.
“The full effect of modernity on women is only just emerging” he added.
These results were collated by Flynn from Western Europe, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia. It was found that the gap in scores between the sexes had narrowed.
In Australia male and female IQ scores were practically identical. Women scored higher than men in New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia.
Flynn is planning to publish a book with the findings is willing to predict that “the same trends are happening in Britain, too, although the data is too sparse to be sure.” The news has proven to be a great excuse for publishing photos of the only intelligent woman in the UK, multiple Rear of the Year winner Carol Vorderman who demonstrated her brain power by picking out those letters on Countdown so prettily and gracefully doing a maths every now and again. Of course Vorderman is intelligent, it is however quite interesting that when tabloids think of a clever, famous woman it seems only one comes to mind. Can we use our expanding IQ to think of any more please?
Of course the real question is: what will we women do with our new giant brains? Might I suggest we head-butt the glass ceiling.
Squeamish Kate
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