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I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ will drop?
No. It won't. Google "deviation to the norm" . When traits get out of hand, they are corrected, and revert to the average. In the case of I.Q., 100 is it.
I struggled with infertility and it certainly seems that less intelligent people becoming pregnant. Higher fertility and fecundity rates.
However, I think that these outcomes are more social than biological. Better educated people tend to be brighter. They are more likely to postpone child bearing until their late 20 or early 30s.
At this point female fertility is already on the decline.
Less educated people tend to eschew higher education and to have children earlier. If a woman begins bearing children at 18, and continues through her twenties, the likely hood of her producing many children - four or more - is quite high.
And, the likelyhood that her IQ hovers a bit lower that 100 is also greater. People avoid what they are not good at. So young adults who forgo school for relationships, are generally not the cream of the crop, intellectually.
I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ will drop?
Highly educated folks use all forms of birth control, and approve of Planned Parenthood, rather than haphazard parenthood, so you might indeed have a point.
High intelligence is linked to fewer offspring throughout the animal kingdom. More intelligent animals tend to have fewer offspring, but invest more into those offspring. It even happens within groups. For example, guppies with higher than average brain size are more intelligent, but have fewer offspring. I don't see why humans would be any different. Smarter animals are more adaptable and there is a greater chance that they will survive to reproduction, which means fewer offspring are needed. The strategy of the dumber animal is to produce a ton of offspring and hope a few make it to a reproductive stage. Low fecundity is the trade off for high intelligence. There are, of course, human societal factors that have already been mentioned and might play a role. But it probably all boils back down to basic biology.
I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ will drop?
I think the welfare system has a role to play, reward or reinforce behavior you will get more of it.
Actually, the average IQ will always be 100 (if I understand correctly, IQ is always measured relative to the average person). Average intelligence would go down.
100 is set as the average in the European and North American countries where IQ testing originated. The world average is estimated at about 90.
I suggest you google "Flynn effect" The dumbest amongst us have always produced more offspring so the fact that trend is continuing does not lower average IQ's even if you did not change the standards to keep the average IQ at 100. The fact is they keep raising the bar for the 100 IQ average. Without that you see would see significant rises in IQ over time.
I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
I don't know of any evidence that low IQ women get pregnant more easily. But it is certainly true that they have been producing more children than high IQ women in recent years. This is mainly because, in this era of affluence and welfare, anyone can have as many babies as they want but high IQ women choose to have fewer.
Quote:
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ
will drop?
Yes. The premise of "Idiocracy" is correct and we may be on track for such a dystopian future.
I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ will drop?
This is a joke post right? You really can't be serious right?
I was thinking about people I know who get pregnant easily and people who have difficulty conceiving...and realized there seemed to be a pattern: that the lower IQ folks seemed to have greater fertility and the higher IQ/educated folks had problems. Researching this, it seems to be a fact. What I can't find is any scientific reasons why this might be?
And if lower IQ people breed more, doesn't that mean that the average IQ will drop?
Could you please post your research.
I'll give you my guess IF this is true. The smarter people I know spent more time in school and delayed child bearing. While I don't know anyone in my group who had a particularly hard time getting pregnant, waiting, even just a few years, could impact fertility rates. The uneducated people I know started having kids sooner because they got married younger. They also tend to be of lesser intelligence.
IF this is true, it may simply be that the more intelligent someone is, the more likely they are to wait to have kids and waiting to have kids could mean difficulty having kids. However, this is not what I see IRL. Dh was 50 and I was 38 when we sneezed and had dd#2. Dh's IQ was measured at 147. I don't know mine but I know it's in the top 5%.
I, personally, know two couples who had difficulty having kids or could not have kids. One intelligent and one pretty average if that. I've heard of others but I don't know them or their stories well enough to speak on them.
Also, if you have good insurance or money, doctors are way too fast to jump in so your data may be skewed. When I was 35, my ob/gyn decided I was no longer ovulating and prescriped Chlomid that I was to start on my next cycle. It's a good thing I was already pregnant because I was ovulating and might have ended up with quints if I'd taken the Chlomid. Dh and I were not trying to get pregnant but we weren't doing anything to prevent it either as dh had just had a vas reversal and we'd been told it would be a couple of years before we'd be able to try. By the two year mark, dd#1 was crawling.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 07-06-2013 at 07:11 AM..
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