Are We Seeing a Decline in Adult Intelligence?

The world is getting less intelligent! I have had the impression for quite a long time, but now it is official: according to data published by the OECD in December, adults are less literate now than they were a decade ago. Interesting about this assessment is, that it looks at literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem solving proficiency in adults aged 16 to 65 in 31 countries rather than just the well known PISA scores, which assess students only.

The results suggest that a fifth of adults do no better in maths and reading than might be expected of a primary-school child. The direction of travel is even less encouraging. In maths, average scores have risen in a few places over the past ten years, but fallen in almost as many. In literacy, a lot more countries have seen scores decline than advance, despite the fact that adults hold more and higher educational qualifications than ever before. It seems though, that a university degree is not a guarantee for high literacy and numeracy: Some graduates apparently have posted scores which would embarrass a child.

So what are the potential reasons for this abysmal performance? It seems that demographics plays a role: Immigrants may struggle with the language of their host country, but also the offspring of better educated parents is seen to do better than their less privileged peers. In many countries the gap in ability between the highest- and lowest-skilled grown-ups is widening not because smarty-pants are doing better, but because the least able are doing worse. And the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon (with the survey also being done once in a decade only, we won‘t find out for a while).

But quite honestly, does it really matter? Let’s face it, it seems soft skills are much more important than problem solving ability, and any day soon now Artificial Intelligence is going to do all our work anyway, while we are on holiday on a sunny beach. And if it’s not AI, then it’s those immigrants which took immense risk to reach our shores just for the opportunity to earn an amount of money which they couldn’t make in a lifetime back home.

In the U.K., for example, opportunities for vocational training are not very well developed, which pushes some youngsters to pursue a degree without necessarily being academically gifted. And what about the value of such courses such as media studies? Is this what the influencers and content creators of tomorrow study? But then I encounter university graduates who can’t find a job in their field of study jobbing as sales assistants instead. It seems that roughly one third of workers in the OECD is mismatched for their jobs. This has significant economic and social costs, particularly if they are over-qualified. For example, adults who work in roles that do not require their level of education receive 12% lower wages compared to peers who are in well-matched jobs.

A further consequence is that employees in mismatched positions are likely to be less satisfied and thus less invested in their work, which in turn is likely to affect customer satisfaction. Haven‘t you noticed that some sales clerks really just don’t seem to be motivated to be of assistance let alone take pride in providing a good service? On the other hand I can only begin to understand how frustrating it must be, to have to do a job that doesn’t motivate you just because you have to earn money.

When I was young we used to take pride in our work and we valued and understood the importance of a solid education – and as a consequence I suppose my generation was much more focussed as far as career planning was concerned. Now a good work-life balance seems to be a key factor for young people mapping out their future.

Are adults nowadays less intelligent? Maybe so, but potentially they are simply less educated. I suspect to a degree this is deliberate as values have shifted and a good education is valued less than it used to be. Nevertheless, and if this trend continues, this will exacerbate social inequality. And in the meantime we all just might have to lower our expectations as far as levels of service and dedication are concerned.