Never have they smashed the down arrow quite as hard .😆
Iirc the show “Where in the World is Carmon Sandiego?” was created by the government of the US because something like half of US Americans couldn’t identify the Pacific Ocean on a map.
Edit: it was 25%
The show was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey indicating little knowledge of geography among some of the American populace, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_Sandiego%3F_(game_show)
They also couldn’t find the Soviet Union on the map (literally the biggest country in the world) in 1991.
“Let’s make a TV show to teach kids instead of actually fixing our education system”
Nuh, africa is the biggest country!
Like, that’s the biggest ocean and biggest country in the world. I wonder how many in the 75% just randomly pointed at blue and got lucky at identifying the Pacific Ocean.
The actual number of people who didn’t know where is the Pacific Ocean must be higher, because of the ones who guessed and got lucky.
Wow what an incredibly xenophobic and hateful headline.
Also from the author himself:
The studies used to support these data, however, are controversial. This is in part because they may have considered only specific population groups or a small sample size per country.
What productive and enlightening kind of discussions were you expecting with that headline, OP?
Never underestimate the urge non Americans have to make fun of America.
Yeah I’m not American but it’s particularly egregious (shocking for you Americans 😉) as it states that the score for the USA was 98 and the global average was 100.
So OP is an ass for that title imo.
But that makes the title true?
Well I would say IQ tests don’t equate to actual intelligence. I also take issue with the adjective dumber.
OP could have worded it better, something like:
Americans score lower than average on IQ tests. USA: 98 VS Global: 100.
Most people have an above average number of arms.
According to the chart, here are a few other countries where the average is “dumber than the average human”:
Australia
Belgium
Belize
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Finland
Germany
India
Israel
Italy
Mexico
I suppose dunking on those stupid Belgians isn’t as eye catching of a headline as good, old fashioned America Bad bait.
Do you think many Beliz…ians loudly proclaim themselves the greatest nation on earth, and act like it too? Has Chile squandered a good deal of the world’s productive output to produce a literally civilisation ending military capability and put it in the hands of morons?
A blind person on the bus is only a problem if they’re driving.
As an Estonian, I am glad to see Finland on the list.
You chose the worst example in the list, because Belgians are famously the butt of “haha they’re dumb” jokes, getting it from both their French and Dutch neighbours (maybe Germans too?).
I’d pick the Danes since they’re typically seen as a more evolved people.
For France, it just makes sense tbh.
Also the whole galaxy.
https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Belgium
“You stupid Ghent” - Ford Prefect
Miserable fat Belgian bastards!
Israel dumb woo!
Obviously. They think stealing from and murdering your neighbors brings peace. They dumb as hell.
I should be another one of those “dumber than the average human” folks (and yesterday Lemmy told me so because they are saying two different apps on my phone are the same app…?) but am pretty sure the thing with Israel went off the Hanlon’s razor long ago.
I can’t believe I’m saying this to defend the people who most often used it to justify their racism but the IQ test is not an objective measure of intelligence and was designed by eugenicists.
Only when you’re behind. Lol.
I don’t think it was destined by eugenicists. I think it was used by eugenicists and the original creator warned against it being used that way. Basically like Darwinism.
Also, the difference between the countries with the highest average IQ and the US was 10 points, which is the same kind of increase you can get in IQ testing scores if you tell the tester that they’ll get $10 if they do well.
Or if they played Tetris regularly. (Although that might be correlational only).
Part of the test is pattern recognition. Playing Tetris trains that.
Totally. The history of intelligence has sadly also been the story of eugenics. Fortunately, there have been process-based theories and contextual theories that have defined intelligence in more humane and useful ways. In this view, IQ tests do not measure an underlying characteristic, but a set of mental skills. Seen this way, intelligence becomes something people can gain with nurturance. If you’re interested, check out Relational Frame Theory.
And 50% of them are stupider than that
This is a well written article. I’m not sure how the OP came to their conclusion. The US ranks 24th on average IQ (with an IQ of 98) and is in good company with France, Denmark, Australia also at 98. For those curious, Canada, Finland and Germany were 99.
24th out of 102 should not be considered “dumber than average”. Additionally, as the article clearly states, the average has been going up, approximately 3 points per decade, and this is partly due to an increase in logical thinking.
East Asia is the outlier here, with many countries at 101 or higher (China at 105) though I find it curious that Hong Kong and Macau were singled out separately from China.
I wonder if these higher numbers have something to do with the homogeneity within these cultures, the average age of the county’s population, and/or, as another commenter mentioned, the way in which the higher IQ countries approach education.
IQ doesn’t measure intelligence.
24th out of 102 should not be considered “dumber than average”.
Isn’t, by definition, a score of 100 in the test supposed to be average…? If so, 98 would definitely be below average, though not by much.
I mean, by definition half of the countries will be below average. It’s a normal distribution— literally by definition since the distribution is set that way.
Could it be possible that the author was making a joke, and the people who don’t get it are the dumb ones?
On TIL? A shitpost, sure it’s possible, but I see people not understand averages pretty regularly.
Can’t your read? It says American not English.
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These national tests are yeesh material tho. Subtle, or not so subtle, at least tangential to, eugenicist or nationalistic ideals.
No me not
Well, the way things seem to be going, it doesn’t surprise me too much.
Shocker. The places that basically have forced study schools top out but only just barely.