Idiocracy - A Documentary on r vs K Selection Theory
Idiocracy was a bit of a box office dud grossing only $500,000 dollars worldwide but it became something of a cult movie after it left the theatres. It is also one of my favourite movies.
Before we even get started: high IQ do not have a higher human worth than low IQ people. That is not what this post is about at all. This post does not make judgments about the value or the worth of different types of people. Okay then, let's keep going.
The premise of the movie was that the intelligent people in society tend to have few or no children whereas the bottom half of the IQ distribution tends to breed willy-nilly. Over time the movie's conclusion is that the IQ level of society drops, and drops until no one knows how to run anything (with hilarious results).
This is movie has been compared to r vs K theory and it is a comedy and not a documentary as my post's title suggests.
r vs K theory posits that creatures that live in stable environments, or are able to create stable environments for themselves tend to produce fewer offspring that they also invest a lot of resources and effort in . Think elephants, chimps, lions, whales and of course humans. These are the K-selected species.
On the other hand, creatures that live in unstable environments tend to produce large numbers of offspring and expend very little and sometimes even zero resources in raising their progeny. Think bacteria, black flies, mosquitoes, octopi and mice.
K-selected animals tend to be larger, mature later in life, much energy is expended in raising them, they can reproduce more than once in their lives and they have longer life expectancy.
r-selected animals tend to be smaller, mature quickly, little or no energy is expended in raising them, they can usually reproduce only once in their lives and they have short life expectancy.
These two reproduction strategies are two ends of a spectrum and not every species will be a clear representation of the extremes described above.
Is Idiocracy Accurate?
The movie was funny and the point they were making seems true every time I wander through a Walmart but is it actually an accurate reflection of the trajectory of modern societies?
One way to check would be to search for IQ trends over time.
When you execute this search the first topic that tends to pop up is the Flynn effect. This is the stable, measured, effect that IQ scores in many countries have been steadily increasing over time. The effect is long term (since ~1930) and researchers have measured improvements in both fluid and crystallized IQ test scores over these last ~90 years.
A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the effect including better nutrition, better teaching, smaller families, more stimulating environments in modern societies, reduction in infectious diseases, more breeding with mates that are genetically distant etc.
The Flynn effect is believed to be too rapid for genetic selection to be the underlying cause.
However ...
On the other searches do turn up results that the average global IQ is decreasing with time as the global population numbers increases dropping IQ from about 91.5 in 1950 down to 88.5 in 2011.
The postulated reasons are that with the greater freedom and autonomy of men and women these days higher IQ people are allowed to, and tend to, associate with higher IQ people and vice versa. Also higher IQ people tend to earn more and there is a correlation between increased prosperity and fewer offspring. Lower IQ is correlated with lower earning potential and lower earning is correlated with larger families.
Lower income societies tend to have worse lifetime health outcomes which may impact negatively on the IQ of children.
How To Reconcile The Two Observations
So here we have two seemingly contradictory conclusions. How is it possible to even reconcile them?
My expectation is that the Flynn effect is more strongly observed in developed and recently developed countries and it is probably not yet observed in developing or under-developed countries.
In low income countries infectious diseases, although on the decrease, are still a significant factor in many citizens lives. In these societies children may not survive to adulthood and they are also your pension plan so it makes sense to have as many as you possibly can.
Population growth in low income countries is still swelling (India, Nigeria etc.) whereas population of high income countries is stagnating or even shrinking (Japan, Switzerland).
Combine this with an ever increasing automation and increasing sophistication in technology and the jobs that require understanding of this technology. The impact is that the people who unfortunately find themselves at the lower end of the IQ distribution will have harder and harder time finding jobs. This gives us the false impression that there are more people that are not smart enough to work but this would be just that, an effect and not a real trend in decreasing IQ.
Closing Words
I think that Idiocracy, although an enjoyable and funny movie, is not a portent for the future. A simple viewing of talks by the late Hans Rosling (video) teaches one about the great strides forward that humanity has made in increasing prosperity around the globe in the last century.
Prosperity will hopefully continue to increase and over time the birth rates will decrease (in fact they have). This means more attention given to raising children and a truly global Flynn effect will eventually take hold.
So relax and drink your Brawndo, just don't water your crops with it that's what toilet water is for.
Post Sources
r vs K selection
http://www.bio.miami.edu/tom/courses/bil160/bil160goods/16_rKselection.html
https://www.biologyexams4u.com/2013/12/difference-between-r-and-k-selection-in.html
Flynn Effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx
Decreasing IQ Trends
http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/BRBAKER/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-are-iqs-dropping-on-a-worldwide-basis_us_59743580e4b0f1feb89b4423
Hans Rosling
https://www.gapminder.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosling
https://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-ted-talk-2007-seemingly-impossible-is-possible/
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I dodged the whole ethnic side of the topic deliberately.Only researchers in that actual field are qualified to handle that particular touchy topic.
On a happier topic, I also recommend the movie. President Comacho is my favourite character.
Excellent post, intelligence (and this film specifically, which I love) is a minefield of a topic, that I often stay away from and at the very least avoid making any firm statements on. If anyone is interested in the topic of intelligence as a science Stuart Ritchie is a spectacular early career academic in that area.
As for the film, I've always loved Cracked’s take on it that the society has become a weirdly egalitarian utopia.
Also of course any post with reference to our boy Rosling is bound to get my attention.
I agree that it is quite a minefield of a topic and I hoped that I walked through it carefully enough. Not an easy thing to do but science needs to explore everything regardless of the current political climate.
Oh for sure, you did a great job. I highly agree
The first 10 min of the movie have become something of a meme. For some reason it stuck in people's minds, mine included, and I find myself often referring to it, not necessarily out loud but mentally. You gave it a good treatment here.
Thanks. It was like walking on a tightrope but I felt it was a topic worth discussing.
Interesting.
But of course IQ is a very narrow measurement of intelligence. I've always be a bit doubtful about these IQ tests because one can get better with practice.
So is IQ also not a measurement of education, at least partially?
I think so. Maybe this is one contributing parameter in why the Flynn effect exists.