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Smarter every day: Increasing intelligence changed how we see IQ

Identical twins raised apart have similar IQ – so intelligence is all about genes? Not so, said James Flynn. His latest book picks apart nature and nurture

By Alun Anderson

27 July 2016

Woman showing toddlers a children's book — Families can boost our cognitive powers – at least up to late teens
David Hurn/Magnum

JAMES FLYNN has changed the way the world thinks about one of the things we care most about.

Cover of Does Your Family Make You Smarter? by James R. Flynn

Back in the 1980s, it was accepted that there was powerful evidence for a factor called intelligence, IQ or “g”, which seemed to be largely determined by our genes. That left us with the pessimistic view that human intelligence would only ever grow at the glacial pace at which evolution changes our genetic make-up. Worse, it led to bitter public debates over race, class and intelligence.

Flynn drew…

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