American society increasingly mistakes intelligence for human worth
I disagree. American society has always had something of a love-hate relationship with intelligence, and there have always been examples like _Big Bang Theory_ venerating intelligence (&#x27;Sputnik moment&#x27; and astronauts, anyone?). Intelligence correlates with success cross-culturally and over time, so that&#x27;s not in question.<p>What is in question is the &#x27;increasingly&#x27;; the only evidence offered, aside from anecdote, is that the returns from education have increased. This is inadequate. The research literature I&#x27;m aware of (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Embryo selection#iqincome-bibliography" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Embryo selection#iqincome-bibliograph...</a>) shows that intelligence has consistently been correlated with SES&#x2F;income&#x2F;occupation and it&#x27;s not that clear it has been increasing at all. Particularly relevant is Strenze 2007, &quot;Intelligence and socioeconomic success: A meta-analytic review of longitudinal research&quot; <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;emilkirkegaard.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;emilkirkegaard.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;Intelligence-...</a> who says:<p>&gt; Several studies have investigated changes in the association between intelligence and success during past decades. Although Herrnstein and Murray concluded that “ the main point seems beyond dispute ” (1994: 52) and some studies have found support for this point ( Murnane, Willett, &amp; Levy, 1995 ), there are still serious reasons to doubt that the importance of intelligence is or has been growing. Neither the meta-analysis by Bowles et al. (2001) nor the review by Jencks et al. (1979) found any clear trend in the correlations between intelligence and success. The same conclusion was reached by Flynn (2004) and Hauser and Huang (1997) . Breen and Goldthorpe (2001) found that the association between intelligence and occupational status in England is, if anything, declining<p>Strenze&#x27;s own meta-analytic results using ~44 studies are on pg13 Table 2, where the correlation of intelligence with education&#x2F;occupation&#x2F;income over the 20th century show no clear pattern of increase or decrease:<p>&gt; The influence of the third moderator variable, year of success (i.e., year of the measurement of success), is analyzed in the third section of Table 2 . Year of success ranges from 1929 to 2003 in the present meta-analysis. Judging by the sample size weighted corrected correlations ( p ), there appears to be no historical trend for any one of the moderator variables: correlations with education and occupation remain more or less stable throughout the period under study; correlations with income fluctuate more but without any obvious direction. Quite surprisingly, if unweighted and uncorrected correlations ( r ) are observed instead, then the correlations with education and occupation exhibit a declining trend.<p>So, if American society &#x27;increasingly mistakes intelligence for human worth&#x27; and &#x27;as recently as the 1950s, possessing only middling intelligence was not likely to severely limit your life’s trajectory&#x27;, why are the more intelligent, if anything, <i>less</i> likely to be successful when we go from 1920 to 2000?