Human Evolution May Be Lowering Academic Achievement

Reminds me of the old saying: Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
If we don't reduce our birth rate, we doom ourselves.
But those who do behave responsibly are causing the genes that predispose people to plan for the future to decline, which is what we would expect.
Which of course will decrease the proportion of people who act responsibly in this matter.

Bridget M. Kuehn
January 27, 2017

Delayed childbearing among groups who carry genes linked with higher educational attainment may be causing these traits to become less common in some human populations, according to an Icelandic study. The study was published online January 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Epidemiological studies have found that genetics may account for as much as 40% of a person's educational attainment, explained lead author Augustine Kong, PhD, a statistician at deCODE Genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, based in Reykjavik, Iceland, which analyzes the human genome. Genome-wide association studies have revealed that some combinations of gene variations are linked to a greater likelihood of pursuing higher levels of education, he noted.

However, what might appear to be a genetic asset comes at a cost, in evolutionary terms. Studies in the United States and other countries have shown that individuals who stay in school longer have fewer children (Rindfuss RR et al. Demography. 1996;33:277-290).

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"Using data from Iceland that include a substantial fraction of the population we show that individuals with high scores tend to have fewer children, mainly because they have children later in life," Dr Kong and colleagues write.

Women paid the highest fertility price. For each standard unit higher score, women had 0.084 fewer children, whereas men had 0.054 fewer children. Women's age at first childbirth also increased more than men with each higher standard unit score (0.59 vs 0.46).

The link between having a higher score and fewer children persisted even after the researchers adjusted for actual educational attainment. This suggested that the effect is not fully explained by individuals delaying childbearing while they were in school. The authors speculated that the score may be linked not only to cognitive ability but also to genetic traits that predispose people to "long-term planning and delayed gratification."

Between 1910 and 1990, this trend of later childbearing and fewer children resulted in a decrease in the average score for educational attainment-linked genes in a separate subset of 129,808 Icelanders. The decline in these educational attainment-linked genes was occurring at a pace of about 0.01 standard units on average per decade.

"In evolutionary time, this is a blink of an eye," write the authors. "However, if this trend persists over many centuries, the impact could be profound."

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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-shows-genes-associated-education-are-declining-180961836/

By Jason Daley
smithsonian.com
February 3, 2017

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The research indicates that the drop in education-associated genes could also lead to a 0.4 percent drop in the average IQ of the general population per decade. While that is not a huge impact in the short term, Stefansson says it could have larger effects over the course of centuries.

In 2012, Harvard researcher Jonathan Beauchamp identified similar effects in the U.S. population. So is it time to dig out that old DVD of Idiocracy and prepare for a dimming future? Stefansson is not too worried.

“In spite of the negative selection against these sequence variations, education levels have been increasing for decades. Indeed, we control the environment in which these genetic factors play out: the education system,” he says in a press release. “If we continue to improve the availability and quality of educational opportunities, we will presumably continue to improve the educational level of society as a whole. Time will tell whether the decline of the genetic propensity for education will have a notable impact on human society.”

[We may be able to influence people to get more education, but that would not necessarily cause a proporionate increase in in people's ability or willingness to act for the long term welfare of our species and world. Like the college educated people who have many children.]

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