# Humans are getting stupider every day. Or maybe only researchers are?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-are-getting-stupider-every-day-or-maybe-only-researchers-are/640815>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 12, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-are-getting-stupider-every-day-or-maybe-only-researchers-are/640815 "2012-11-12T20:08:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-are-getting-stupider-every-day-or-maybe-only-researchers-are/640815/21 "2012-11-16T06:30:58Z")

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On first glance, I was inclined to dismiss this Prof. Crabtree…but consider this: Americans do join the Church of Scientology, homeopathic “medicine” is making a big comeback, and people actually pay money to read about the Kardashians.  
Ya can’t fix stupid!😃

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-are-getting-stupider-every-day-or-maybe-only-researchers-are/640815/22 "2012-11-16T10:24:59Z")

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> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> It seems counter intuitive that anyone would assert humans are getting dumber. Just look at all the things we use every day. Learning an Iphone or other computer gadgets. Driving cars, using GPS, there’s so much technology we’re expected to master in the modern world. Heck high school science classes are covering things that weren’t even known when I went to high school almost 40 years ago.

Yes, but we’ve lost similar skills that were equally necessary years ago. How many of us can saddle a horse, navigate by the stars, or tell time from the position of the sun in the sky? All of those were once considered normal skills of any educated person.

> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> We’ve mapped the human genome, ventured into space and sent probes to Mars. All that and this researcher thinks we’re stupider than some hunter gatherer wandering the plains 4000 years ago?

Yes, but I didn’t have anything to do with any of those things (except for my taxes helping to pay for them). Nor did most of the people on this board. Those were achievements of some of the smartest people on the planet. So I’m not sure this works as an argument against the idea that the average intelligence of the species is declining.

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-are-getting-stupider-every-day-or-maybe-only-researchers-are/640815/23 "2012-11-16T10:47:01Z")

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My hobby is building all wood primitive bows and arrows. In the past 80 or so years man has got back into building these bows and studying the performance of them and how to maximise it. Performance has continued to improve and finaly now is nearing as good as it will get. Scientists, physiscists and craftsman have all been involved in this passing down whatever they have learned for someone else to expand on. Looking at what is left of some of the 10,000 year old samples it appears ancient man had it figured out.

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