12/03/2026
For more than 100 years, intelligence test scores kept rising across every generation, a trend scientists called the “Flynn Effect.”
But that streak may have just ended.
New research presented to the U.S. Senate by neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath suggests Gen Z is the first generation in a century to score lower than the one before it across several areas including attention, reading, math, memory, and problem-solving.
The data spans 80 countries, and researchers noticed a major turning point around 2010, when digital technology rapidly spread into classrooms.
Today students spend over five hours a day on computers at school, but studies show much of that time isn’t actually spent learning.
Horvath told students the problem isn’t them, it’s the environment they were raised in.
For the first time in a century, the rise in human intelligence may be going in reverse.
