>[!abstract] >The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century, named after researcher James Flynn (1934–2020). >[!note] >I note an interesting paradox here. English psychologist and self-described "scientific racist" Richard Lynn was a strong proponent for a genetic relationship between race and intelligence. He proposed the dysgenic view that "those with greater educational achievement have fewer children, while children with lower IQs come from larger families" (Wikipedia, 2024), which is reminiscent of the plot of the movie *Idiocracy*. Yet, he also published a paper in 1982 about the generational increase in performance on IQ tests in Japan, which was before James Flynn's own research, leading some researchers to naming the effect the "Lynn–Flynn effect". In other words, Lynn was of the view that IQ decreased over time due to modern societies no longer favoring the trait of intelligence, and also of the view that IQ increased over time in some communities. Apparently, Lynn reconciled both viewpoints by attributing them to different underlying causes that operated on different timescales. The Flynn effect reflects environmental improvements that have raised measured IQ scores over the 20th century, whereas the dysgenic trend represents a long-term decline in the genetic basis for intelligence, which is slower and less immediately visible than the rapid environmental gains driving the Flynn effect. In his view, the environmental gains of the Flynn effect could offset or even overwhelm the dysgenic trends in the short term, but the genetic decline could become more apparent if environmental improvements plateau or reverse. >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): — >- **East** (different): [[Dysgenics]] >- **South** (downstream): —