Originally Posted by CCN
Originally Posted by Pranava
Really?! So he's saying that it is highly unlikely that children will be smarter than their parents?

I wonder if he's heard of the Flynn Effect.

IQ is measured relative to one's cohort. If people born in 2000 have higher raw scores on an IQ test administered in 2010 than people born in 1970 did on the same test in 1980, the IQ test will be re-normed to maintain a constant average IQ of 100. The Flynn effect is compatible with mean reversion of IQ.

Here is an analogy. People in 1980 were on average richer than in 1950, but there was still some mean reversion in income in the sense that not every child born into a richest (poorest) 10% household in 1950 belonged to a richest (poorest) 10% household in 1980.