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Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines
Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since 2017 | Week 357 | July 12-18, 2024 | Archive
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How to raise the world’s IQ
The Economist | July 11, 2024
People today are much cleverer than they were in previous generations. A study of 72 countries found that average IQs rose by 2.2 points a decade between 1948 and 2020. This stunning change is known as the “Flynn effect” after James Flynn, the scientist who first noticed it. Flynn was initially baffled by his discovery. It took millions of years for the brain to evolve. How could it improve so rapidly over just a few decades?
The answer is largely that people were becoming better nourished and mentally stimulated. Just as muscles need food and exercise to grow strong, so the brain needs the right nutrients and activity to develop. Kids today are much less likely to be malnourished than they were in past decades, and more likely to go to school. Yet there is no room for complacency.
In rich countries, educational attainment has levelled off, and what can be done about it. But in poor and middle-income countries, we face graver problems, as many children are still too ill-fed to reach their cognitive potential.
Globally, 22% of under-fives—roughly 150m children—are malnourished to the point of stunting. That means their brains are likely to be stunted, too. Half the world’s children suffer micronutrient deficiency, which can also impede brain development. Poor nutrition and a lack of stimulation can translate into a loss of as many as 15 IQ points. This has woeful consequences: one study found stunting led to incomes being 25% lower. Damage incurred during the “golden window” of the first 1,000 days after conception is likely to be permanent. The world grows enough food, but several obstacles stop nutrients getting into young brains. One is war. Another is disease. Poverty is a big part of the problem.
Many parents, even in middle-income countries, think it is enough to stuff an infant with stodgy carbohydrates but neglect protein and micronutrients. Sexism plays a role, too. In patriarchal societies, husbands often eat first, wolf the tasty protein and leave their pregnant wives with iron deficiency.
Demography adds urgency. Fertility is highest in countries where malnutrition is most widespread. Unless nutrition improves, the next generation will face greater cognitive challenges than the present one. That would be a dire outcome, especially because it is so easy to avoid. The World Bank estimates that it would cost a mere $12bn a year to fight malnutrition “at scale”. That is slightly more than a third of what America wastes on farm subsidies.
Several tactics would work. The simplest is to fortify basic foods, such as flour, with micronutrients, such as iron, zinc and folic acid. This is cheap and can make a big difference. Adding iodine to salt has made cretinism (a severe form of mental retardation) a thing of the past in places where it was once common. Nearly three-quarters of countries mandate that at least some mass-produced foods are fortified, but rice is usually not. Another method is to give small sums of money to poor families with infants or pregnant mothers. Some schemes make handouts conditional on other things that might help children, such as vaccinations or teaching parents about nutrition and hygiene.
3 key takeaways from the article
- People today are much cleverer than they were in previous generations. It took millions of years for the brain to evolve. How could it improve so rapidly over just a few decades? The answer is largely that people were becoming better nourished and mentally stimulated.
- In rich countries, educational attainment has levelled off. But in poor and middle-income countries, we face graver problems, as many children are still too ill-fed to reach their cognitive potential. The world grows enough food, but several obstacles stop nutrients getting into young brains. One is war. Another is disease. Poverty is a big part of the problem.
- Several tactics would work. The simplest is to fortify basic foods, such as flour, with micronutrients, such as iron, zinc and folic acid. Another method is to give small sums of money to poor families with infants or pregnant mothers. Some schemes make handouts conditional on other things that might help children, such as vaccinations or teaching parents about nutrition and hygiene.
(Copyright lies with the publisher)
Topics: Intelligence, Poverty, Food, Malnutrition, Stunning