In a memorable scene in the film "Aliens," Ripley (Sigourney Weaver’s character) exasperatedly asks a room full of managers, “Did IQs just drop sharply while I’ve been away?” Perhaps in context the question is superfluous, but, in the real world, it is an important one, to which the answer seems to be a qualified "yes," with a fairly strong association with social media use. What remains to be known is whether the effect is direct, and social media is sucking the intelligence out of its users; or indirect, in that something that social media encourages people to do also reduces IQ. The evidence tends to support the second, although the first cannot be discounted.

The "Flynn Effect" refers to the fairly consistent rise in intelligence test scores throughout much of the twentieth century; a rise that averaged around three IQ points per decade, at least across many industrialised nations1,2. However, since the 1990s, there have been reports of a slowing, or even reversal, of this trend in several of those developed countries, including Norway, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, and the United States3-5. This phenomenon has become known as the "Reverse Flynn Effect." Data from more than 700,000 Norwegian military conscripts have shown that IQ scores increased among those cohorts born up to approximately 1975, but subsequently declined among later cohorts4. In the USA, this decline appears to have accelerated from the turn of the century5. Reductions in IQ scores are observable within families, with younger brothers often scoring lower than older brothers4. This finding suggests that something in the environment, rather than genetic factors, is responsible for the reversal – now, what has become a major aspect of the environment since the millennium?

The emergence of social media has coincided with this reversal of IQ scores. Digital platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X, have come to play an increasing role in people’s communication and social lives, and this has led some to examine the relationship between its usage and the Reverse Flynn Effect6-8. It is a well-rehearsed argument that correlation does not demonstrate causation, but there are strong theoretical........

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