Time Bomb: How the Western Conception of Intelligence Is Taking Down Humanity

Abstract

During the twentieth century, IQs rose an incredible 30 points—two full standard deviations! Higher IQs may have helped people deal better with computers, cell phones, and other technological innovations, but they seem to have been a time bomb—they have been worse than useless in dealing with the truly serious problems that confront the world today. These problems include, but are not limited to, global climate change, nuclear weapons, uncontrolled violence such as in school shootings, terrorism, growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, pandemics, unprecedented income disparities, unaffordable health care, pollution, and homelessness, to name just a few. Many societies have built a funnel that restricts opportunities for people who underperform on academic measures—whether IQ-test proxies or courses in school. And yet, it is high IQ that is in part responsible for many of the world’s problems. That is, it took smart people to create the technology that is polluting our air and our water, that threatens nuclear destruction, and that has created the carbon emissions that are threatening the entire world. If our species is so smart, with its high standardized test scores, why are we slowly committing species suicide, which will provide a more and more dystopian world for each successive generation, and why are we taking down so many other species with us?

Note: This chapter is based upon a talk, “Time Bomb: How the Western Conception of Intelligence Is Taking Down Humanity,” first previously presented to the Western Psychological Association, October 28, 2020. Example problems are actual items from Sternberg Lab research projects.