-----Original Message-----
From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
To: extropians@extropy.org <extropians@extropy.org>
Date: 23 April 2001 07:01
Subject: Re: Flynn Effect explained?
>While obstetrics might be one factor that helps, I think one should not
>discount the better nutrition and more stimulating environment that has
>developed. If it was just an issue of birth skull size we would see
>national differences much more clearly than is currently observed in the
>Flynn effect due to differences in health care. Evolutionary pressures
>are too slow to act much over the ~4 generations ibstetrics has become
>good.
>
I think this is right (although I would discount nutrition). If Friedman's
hypothesis were true we would expect the Flynn effect to be more pronounced
in places such as the US where caesarian sections are common as compared to
many European countries where it's used much less frequently. As far as I
know this is not the case. There is however a strong correlation with
urbanisation.
Steve Davies
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