There’s plenty of possible causes for Flynn Effect, but since we have very crappy data about worldwide historical IQs it’s pretty much impossible to pick one for sure.
Many obvious candidates are rejected by the fact that Flynn Effect is global and affects both rich and poor countries. That’s about how far we can go reliably.
It wouldn’t surprise me too much if physical effects started the Flynn effect, but once intelligence went up somewhat, the culture changed because thinking became more fun, so that there’s a positive feedback.
That’s one idea. The difficulty with physical effects is lack of any obvious physical effect which could plausibly affect both rich countries in mid-20th century (long past adequate nutrition phase and at slow beginnings of obesity epidemic) and poor countries in mid-20th century (still with regular starvation, and up to this day without adequate micronutrient supply in diets) at similar rates.
But then “similar rates” may very well be due to our evidence being so bad, perhaps these rates were very different, we just don’t know it.
There’s plenty of possible causes for Flynn Effect, but since we have very crappy data about worldwide historical IQs it’s pretty much impossible to pick one for sure.
Many obvious candidates are rejected by the fact that Flynn Effect is global and affects both rich and poor countries. That’s about how far we can go reliably.
It wouldn’t surprise me too much if physical effects started the Flynn effect, but once intelligence went up somewhat, the culture changed because thinking became more fun, so that there’s a positive feedback.
That’s one idea. The difficulty with physical effects is lack of any obvious physical effect which could plausibly affect both rich countries in mid-20th century (long past adequate nutrition phase and at slow beginnings of obesity epidemic) and poor countries in mid-20th century (still with regular starvation, and up to this day without adequate micronutrient supply in diets) at similar rates.
But then “similar rates” may very well be due to our evidence being so bad, perhaps these rates were very different, we just don’t know it.