Testing the hypothesized effect of dysgenic fertility on intelligence with existing reaction time data: A comment on Woodley, te Nijenhuis, and Murphy (2013)

Abstract

Dysgenic fertility has supposedly resulted in a decline in general intelligence (g) over time. In light of evidence that simple visual reaction time (RT) is inversely related to IQ, Woodley et al. (2013) tested the hypothesized dysgenic effect by subjecting to a meta-regression simple visual RT data collected over 100years in 15 studies. This analysis found that RT had significantly increased according to a linear function over this time period. Woodley et al. then used this result to estimate the rate at which g had declined over the same period. The present comment points out that there are large gaps in the distribution of RTs analyzed by Woodley et al. with respect to year tested, and that RT in males did not vary as a function of year in the 13 studies published from 1941 on. It is concluded that although existing data are consistent with the idea that g has been adversely affected by dysgenic fertility, it cannot be determined at what rate g has fallen over time.