The Times: Trash TV makes boys ‘less intelligent’, researchers claim

The Norwegian study found that the earlier boys were exposed to cable TV, the worse they performed in IQ tests.

In the 1980s glamour came to Norwegian TV: out were staid documentaries on fjords and the leather industry, in were flashy game shows and the Scandinavian version of Blind Date.

Some 30 years later researchers have spotted an unexpected side-effect — the earlier boys were exposed to cable television the worse they did in IQ tests.

The debate about the cognitive effects of television has persisted since its creation and proven difficult to resolve with hard evidence.

The introduction of cable television in Europe, though, has provided an unlikely natural experiment that is being used by scientists. It may also partly explain one of the most troubling effects in cognitive science — the fact that after a century of IQ rises around the world intelligence scores are dropping.

Until 1981 the Norwegian state broadcaster had a legal monopoly with the mandate to “contribute to public education and learning” with “programmes of high quality”. After this date that changed, allowing Norwegians to see channels which, by broad consensus, contributed little to public learning but were also a lot more fun.

The full online article can be found here.