Can We Keep Getting Smarter?

Ever rising IQ scores suggest that future generations will make us seem like dimwits in comparison

By Tim Folger

Thirty years ago James R. Flynn, a researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, discovered a phenomenon that social scientists still struggle to explain: IQ scores have been increasing steadily since the beginning of the 20th century. Flynn went on to examine intelligence-test data from more than two dozen countries and found that scores were rising by 0.3 point a year—three full points per decade. Nearly three decades of follow-up studies have confirmed the statistical reality of the global uptick, now known as the Flynn effect. And scores are still climbing.
“To my amazement, in the 21st century the increases are continuing,” says Flynn, whose most recent book on the subject—Are We Getting Smarter?—was published in September 2012.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-we-keep-getting-smarter/