One very basic fact of humans is that ability to do anything varies. This is also true for ability to do cognitively demanding jobs of which the main requirement is general intelligence. This trait follows a well known normalish distribution in the population. In general, then, it follows that the more people society dedicates to some activity, the lower average ability, and in this case, intelligence, of these people. This is equally true whether we are talking about dentists, mechanics, or various kinds of students. Thus, when we increase the proportion of the population that enrolls in some level of academic study, the lower average ability of such students. A lot of confusion in the literature results from ignoring this consequence and comparing just the educational levels as if these were invariant indicators over time. For instance, this gives us headlines such as
PhD students aren't what they used to be either
PhD students aren't what they used to be…
PhD students aren't what they used to be either
One very basic fact of humans is that ability to do anything varies. This is also true for ability to do cognitively demanding jobs of which the main requirement is general intelligence. This trait follows a well known normalish distribution in the population. In general, then, it follows that the more people society dedicates to some activity, the lower average ability, and in this case, intelligence, of these people. This is equally true whether we are talking about dentists, mechanics, or various kinds of students. Thus, when we increase the proportion of the population that enrolls in some level of academic study, the lower average ability of such students. A lot of confusion in the literature results from ignoring this consequence and comparing just the educational levels as if these were invariant indicators over time. For instance, this gives us headlines such as