Flynn Effect Gen Z: Are IQ Scores Really Falling?
The Flynn effect is the long rise in average IQ test scores across the 20th century, roughly 3 points per decade in many countries. The "Flynn effect Gen Z" debate is about whether that rise has stalled or reversed for people born more recently, and in a few countries the data does show a dip. What it doesn't show is that you, personally, are less capable than your parents.
Headlines about falling scores can make you wonder where your own reasoning stands; IQ Tester answers that for you specifically by finding your weak spots. Find my weak spots
What the Flynn effect is
Flynn effect meaning, in plain words
Researcher James Flynn noticed something strange in the 1980s. IQ tests are set so that the average score is 100. But every time a test was updated, people scored higher on the old version than the people it was originally set on. Average performance had been climbing for decades.
The rise was big: around 3 IQ points per decade in many developed countries for much of the 1900s. That means an average person in 2000 would have scored well above average on a test normed in the 1950s.
What caused the rise?
Nobody knows for sure, but likely contributors include:
- More years of schooling for more people
- Better nutrition and health
- Smaller families and more attention per child
- A world full of abstract thinking: classification, hypotheticals, symbols, maps
Flynn himself argued people didn't get "smarter" in a raw sense so much as more practised at the abstract, "what if" style of thinking that IQ tests reward.
The reversal: has the Flynn effect stopped?
In some places, yes, the rise stopped, and in a few it went into reverse. This is called the reverse Flynn effect (also negative or anti Flynn effect).
The Norway study
In 2018, Bernt Bratsberg and Ole Rogeberg published a study in PNAS using Norwegian military conscription data on men born from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. Scores rose for those born until the mid-1970s, then started to fall.
Here's the important bit: the decline showed up within families. Younger brothers scored lower than older brothers. Since brothers share parents and genes, that points to environmental causes, not a change in who was having children.
US data
A 2023 study in the journal Intelligence by Elizabeth Dworak, William Revelle and David Condon looked at online test data from US adults between 2006 and 2018. Scores in several areas, including verbal reasoning, matrix-style pattern problems and letter-and-number series, dipped. But one area, three-dimensional spatial rotation, went up.
That mixed picture matters. It's not "everyone's dumber." Some skills are drifting down while others rise.
| Period | What happened | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Much of the 20th century | Scores rose ~3 points per decade | Many developed countries |
| Births after mid-1970s | Rise stops, then declines | Norway and some other countries |
| 2006–2018 | Mixed: some domains down, spatial up | US online sample |
What might be behind the reverse Flynn effect
Why are IQ scores dropping in some data? Researchers have floated several ideas, and none is proven:
- Changes in schooling: what's taught, and how.
- Reading habits: less long-form reading for some people.
- Test motivation: people may care less about low-stakes tests.
- Tests going stale: questions that fit 1950s life may fit today less well.
- How people spend attention: the media and screen environment has changed a lot.
The Norway within-family finding makes environment the leading suspect, but "environment" covers a lot. Be wary of anyone who confidently names a single cause.
What it does not mean for you
Is average IQ going down? In some datasets, a bit. Is Gen Z dumber? That's the wrong question. Here's why:
- Averages aren't individuals. A shift of a few points in a population says nothing about any one person.
- The shifts are small compared with the differences between people within any generation.
- Some skills are rising. Gen Z and Gen Alpha grew up with tools that train other things, like visual and spatial reasoning.
- Scores can move. As we cover in can IQ change over time, education reliably pushes them up.
So when someone asks "is Gen Z smarter or dumber," the honest answer is: it depends on the skill, and it depends far more on what each person practises.
Attention and screens
This is the part that is most in your hands. Whatever the cause of the population trends, constant switching between apps makes focused reasoning harder in the moment.
What scattered attention looks like on a test:
- You read the first half of a question and your brain jumps.
- You lose track midway through a three-step problem.
- You feel an itch to check your phone after 90 seconds.
Simple focus experiments
Try one for a week:
- Phone in another room for one homework block a day.
- A 10-minute single-task timer: one problem, no switching.
- Notifications off during school hours.
- Read a long piece (a chapter, not a feed) three times a week. See does reading increase IQ.
The hard part is knowing whether attention is really your issue, or whether it's something else like working memory or rushing under time pressure. From the inside, they all just feel like "I'm bad at this."
IQ Tester works that out for you. Its 16 questions take about two minutes and pin down which of 7 problems is yours, including scattered attention, working memory and rushing then freezing. Then it weights your daily drill toward that weak spot. Find my weak spots
What you can do about the Flynn effect Gen Z trend
You can't change a national average. You can change your own habits:
- Keep learning hard things. More education is the best-supported way to raise scores.
- Protect sleep. Tired brains underperform. See does sleep affect IQ test scores.
- Practise your weakest reasoning skill in short daily sessions.
- Train focus on purpose instead of hoping it shows up.
- Retest occasionally to see your own trend, which matters far more than your generation's.
Beat your generation's headline
The Flynn effect Gen Z story is about averages. Your story is about what you practise. In the next two minutes, IQ Tester gives you a reasoning tier, names your weak spots, and starts a daily 10-minute drill with a streak and history so you can track your own direction.
FAQ
What is the Flynn effect, explained simply?
It's the long rise in average IQ test scores through much of the 20th century, about 3 points per decade in many countries. It's named after James Flynn, who documented it.
What is the reverse Flynn effect in Gen Z?
It's the finding that in some countries, average scores stopped rising and started to dip for people born after roughly the mid-1970s. Gen Z falls in that later group, though data on the youngest people is still limited.
Is Gen Z dumber than previous generations?
No, not in any simple sense. Some skill areas dipped in certain studies, while others, like spatial reasoning in US data, went up. Differences between individuals are much larger than differences between generations.
What about the Flynn effect and Gen Alpha?
It's too early to say much. Gen Alpha is still young, and large datasets on their adult scores don't exist yet. Anyone claiming firm Gen Alpha IQ numbers is guessing.
Why are IQ scores dropping in some countries?
No single cause is proven. The Norway data showed the drop within families, pointing to environmental factors, and researchers have suggested changes in schooling, reading, attention and test motivation.