this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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[–] 000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Is this a typical quality of upvoted articles on science@lemmy.world?

[–] omxxi@feddit.org 22 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

What about the education systems? One of those two countries is heavily denying basic science at schools, teaching creationism as something at the same level as evolutionism, letting religion pollute education, banning books from schools, teaching obsolete two genders theory, etc. Is the study short about the differences in education?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

What about the education systems?

Education, sure. But also environment, nutrition, and stress/trauma.

The US is polluted with heavy metals, our food is awful, and we regularly put residents (particularly young people) in extremely traumatic situations. All of that stunts intellectual development.

[–] kevin2107@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Its a side effect about the differences in education. IQ is relative to the population and education, they slightly increase it to keep the average around 100. The average person 100 years ago had 30 less IQ points, because education and child nutrition were non existent. Cut those things and your average person reverts back.

Other countries have only gotten better, the US has just gotten worse.

[–] GoodLuckToFriends@lemmy.today 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

they slightly increase it to keep the average around 100

They don't "slightly increase it to keep the average around 100." The average is defined as 100. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_score https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_classification

[–] kevin2107@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My explanation is for laymen, 100 in 2025 is not the same 100 in 1925, my point.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Lots of people who talk about IQ don't know what the Q stands for.

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

This website's use of stock images and gifs were aggravating. The actual case study was worth the read, but only covers a single pair of individuals: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886922001477

It's certainly interesting. I'm particularly curious about the effects of the multiple confusions:

US had three concussions as an adult, caused by car accidents and from falling on ice. The most recent and severe incident occurred in January 2018, resulting in classic symptoms of light sensitivity and concentration difficulty. US feels she is a “different person,” with increased anger and anxiety. She requires additional time to process information in some problem-solving situations, although she has always seen herself as a poor test taker.

Some of the conclusions seemed a stretch for a single sample. I'm much more curious about more extensive studies with many more subjects.

[–] Jeremyward@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Gotta say as someone who experienced traumatic brain injury I also feel like I'm a different person, and not as bright as I used to be. The doctors estimate I lost somewhere on the order of 15-20% of whatever that was.

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago

Exactly, there's a lot of different factors that can affect cognition.

[–] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If anyone else is wondering why their faces on the image are not identical: its a representative stock pic

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The article is trash, especially with the added stock photos. Use the source link instead

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Breaking News….America makes you dumb

[–] x4740N@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago

With america being the shitshow that it is I am not surprised

I do hope she could move back and get the support of the family in South Korea because she shouldn't have to live in that sithole anymore

[–] reactionality@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Lmao at all of the nationalists post-hoccing away at shitty explanations as to why the US isn't just a dumb as a brick nation.

[–] kevin2107@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Yeah people don't realize IQ is relative to education. If you cut education you get dumber people on average.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

why the US isn’t just a dumb as a brick nation

The US isn't just a dumb as a brick nation. We're immersed in historic and environmental factors that are engineered to segregate who has access to intellectual capital and who is tracked into jobs that discourage free thinking.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Manga authors "write that down write that down!"

[–] matdave@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

'My twin Sister from another country couldn't be this dumb???!"

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Look at what Americans consume. There's your answer.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

yeah, totally not the concussions.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

And eating over 50 years of toxic waste and massive amounts of sugars and fats has zero effect or course.

[–] troed@fedia.io 235 points 1 week ago (5 children)

the researchers note that the sister raised in the US had suffered three previous concussions

+

the twin raised in Korea described growing up in a loving and harmonious family home, the adopted sister reported a harsher upbringing, colored by regular conflict and the divorce of her adoptive parents

It does seem as if there would be explanations for the unusual difference.

https://www.iflscience.com/identical-twins-raised-in-the-us-and-korea-display-surprising-iq-variations-71357

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 153 points 1 week ago (9 children)

That's kind of an understatement. Three traumatic brain injuries is not exactly something that can be ignored when discussing differences in mental faculties.

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[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 64 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (16 children)

I have children. The amount of trauma a two year old would experience losing their family, being transported to a foreign country and adopted by different people would be ~~traumatic~~intense as hell.

A two year old is not a newborn. That's their entire world blowing up.

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 13 points 6 days ago

Yeah you can basically completely disregard any other aspect in this study, right? 'massive trauma in early life has strong impact' is the real finding here, and that's hardly a new one

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[–] noctivius@lemm.ee 53 points 1 week ago (30 children)
[–] Steve@communick.news 43 points 1 week ago

Yes. Contrary to current pop-sci thought, it's not actually useless bunk. Epically when differences reach into 2 digits.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago (6 children)

16 points, so about a standard deviation. That's big, but your own varience can be just as high; the original point of IQ is a measure of how well you'll do in school to detect who may need additional attention (and not an inherent intelligence) so later aged tests include more on knowledge base while earlier tests are more about things like pattern recognition, mental rotation, etc. Infact, it has to get recurved regularly as each generation tends to be roughly 10 or 15 points higher (although idk about gen Z).

All this is to say that a slump of 16 points doesn't have to be shit like lead poisoning or gas fumes (although that certainly doesn't help, and pollution matters), it can simply be the US education system isn't good at teaching students. Cross culture studies already show that, as do differences between the rich and the poor. Or hell, just playing Tetris raises IQ, lol.

It'd obviously help if this wasn't a click bait article, though. People wanting to know why need to read a lot of actual research to know the myriad of different things that impact IQ and not just "haha US stupid."

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[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The sister raised in the US had an IQ 16 points lower than her sibling in Korea. Previous studies revealed that identical twins typically have no more than a 7-point IQ difference, making this case astounding.

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago (3 children)

while the other faced hardships with her adoptive family and parents

Does anyone have more info? Abuse, neglect, and malnutrition are proven to reduce IQ. So are the concussions referenced in the article. I would be dubious to make any statements on the back of a single case like this. This is not even outside the realm of possibility of twin IQ variance - albeit unlikely.

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