September 08, 2004

A rather lame study into IQ changes after having children. Basically, parents lose IQ points after having kids, and are incapable of thinking objectively about the special talents of their child. Uh huh.

Call me touchy, but I can think of so many things wrong with the conclusions of this "study". Plus, what about adoptive parents, surrogates, extended families? What causes this "loss of intelligence"? Surely it couldn't be that parents with newborn kids couldn't care less about a stupid IQ test when they're sleep-deprived and trying to learn to care for a small object that constantly consumes, cries and craps? Wow, my first real front-page rant.

posted by tracicle 20 years ago
  • This has to be satire. Because if it's not, it's the dumbest thing I've read in a while. (A Google serch for "Hosung Lee" turns up names, but the only person so named affiliated with the Kinsey Institute is only referenced in this article. May mean something, may not.)
  • I are thinking more better since my dauters birth.
  • *waves to tracicle*
  • rxreed for president!
  • Oh, honey, you need a nice long break from the munchkins. I mean, the fucking Hoosier Gazette? As in Indiana?
  • The Hoosier Gazette is a satire site, in the vein of The Onion, but not as funny. =)
  • I forgot to say that I found it via briankaneonline.com, btw. I don't tend to read the, er, Hoosier Gazette generally. At first I saw the headline and thought, huh, yeah. I have moments of idiocy more often than I used to, so maybe there's something in it. But if this Hosung Lee guy is real, he's a moron.
  • Ah, thank god for that. I can stop being angry and self-righteous now.
  • punk'd
  • Totally, man. /nods
  • I feel my intelligence slipping every time the Little Guy forces me to reread him that *grumble grumble* Amy the Alien squeaky board book for the hojillionth time. I can recite that shit in my sleep. Please excuse me - I think for the sake of preserving my IQ (no less my sanity), Amy the Alien is taking a short trip to "falling behind the bookshelf, whoops".
  • tracicle: Spoof site notwithstanding I suspect most adults' measured IQs drop off over their lives. I know when I had to do an IQ test for a job I simply oculdn't answer a number of the math questions around, eg geometry problems because I hadn't done any real geometry problems for a long time. IQ tests, after all, only measure your ability to do IQ tests, as I like to remind anyone who brags about their results on any such thing.
  • i'm sure performance on IQ tests actually does drop for new parents because of the stress of looking after screamin' babies
  • Monkeyfilter: rather lame
  • What I find amusing is that there must be enough of a grain of truth to it that people are willing to accept it as real almost without question. When I saw the original link, which I found on FARK, I was sure it was legit. As soon as I saw the "Hoosier Gazette" I knew it wasn't, but it was mildly amusing, so I posted it anyway, and figured people would get it. Obviously not. In fact, someone felt obliged to post a comment on my site "informing" me it was a joke. Nevertheless, I too can attest from personal experience that becoming a parent does indeed affect your intellect. (and thanks for the plug, tracicle)
  • I can personally attest that being born increases one's intellect considerably. Perhaps this balances the drop in parents' intellect?
  • It'a always worth remembering (and pointing out) that 50% of children are below average.
  • My theory about the apparent loss of IQ that accompanies parenthood is this: there are only so many brain cells available for storing information (yes, I know this contradicts accepted scientific theory). Before parenthood they are used for storing important intellectual discourse. After parenthood they are used for storing the hundreds of thousands of units of useless trivia necessary for raising offspring. For example, the area of my brain that once contained the plot of Sartre's "The Flies" now contains the name and logo of the only brand of pull-ups that don't give my son a rash. The area once devoted to solving quadratic equations is now dedicated to packing my son's lunch box.
  • It'a always worth remembering (and pointing out) that 50% of children are below average. Depends how you define average. You're right if you define it as the median, but horribly wrong if you use the arithmetic mean. Intelligence, like many feature-statistics, follows a Pareto distribution.
  • briank, thanks for sticking up for us in the face of the usual
  • This is going to turn up on snopes if it isn't already.
  • Intelligence, like many feature-statistics, follows a Pareto distribution. I don't think so.
  • it's a hoax. it's easy to check this stuff, just go directly to the source. from the kinsey institute web site: It's a hoax- The Kinsey Institute is NOT involved in a study about IQ; we have no reason to believe that IQ changes after childbirth. This story is circulating through emails, and is not true. The Kinsey Institute has not been, and is not involved in this 'study.' But thanks for checking! (unfortunately, Fox News ran with this as soon as it began to circulate. arg.)
  • Can someone explain Pareto distributions to the mathematics-impaired?
  • Really stupid fake article. I'm thinking of one on my own now, wait a moment... TALENTLESS HACKS CAN'T TELL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASS AND PUNCHLINE
  • A pareto distribution roughly follows a 80-20 rule: 80% of the value is carried by 20% of measurements. For example, 80% of the wealth is in the hand of 20% of the population, or 80% of sales in a bar are to 20% of the clients (regulars), etc. Sorry, I guess the Wikipedia article is not very perspicuous.
  • stevens: fine, fine, I am full of shit.
  • Yeah but we need you to fill out the bell curve, fu ;)
  • 80% of monkeys are 20% full of shit! This game is FUN.
  • More like 80% of the shit is produced by 20% of the monkeys. /proudly shitting everywhere since 2004
  • 80% of your customers produce only 20% of the problems. But, 20% of your customers produce 80% of your profits. However, the troublesome customers are not necessarily the profitable ones. I wish I could say that I learned this in my son's textbook. Nope.
  • Anytime, briank. I was pretty sure you were a member here, but my reduced IQ prevented me from bothering to check. :)
  • (unfortunately, Fox News ran with this as soon as it began to circulate. arg.) In other words, becoming a parent doesn't make you stupid, but Fox News DOES. Obvious.
  • Can someone explain the word "perspicuous" to the vocabulary-impaired?
  • Sure, honey, it means "to cause convulsive micturition".
  • Ah, thanks for clearing that up. So that potato salad I had this weekend must have been perspicuous, because I sure picked up a bad case of the micturitions.
  • Don't you people have a dictionary?
  • (Thanks, Wolof!)