Does government spending boost patriotism?
The most interesting articles that came to our attention this week.
Meta-analysis: On average, undergraduate students' intelligence is merely average. Bob Uttl and colleagues meta-analyse the average IQ scores of US college students tested between 1939 and 2022. They find that the average has declined by 0.2 points per decade and is now only just above average (102). The authors argue their findings have important implications in a number of domains, such as hiring and education.
Diagnostic change and the increased prevalence of autism. Marissa King and Peter Bearman examine whether changes in diagnostic practices might contribute to the rise in the prevalence of autism. Analysing data from California between 1992 and 2005, they find that patients with mental retardation were much more likely to be diagnosed with autism during periods when diagnostic practices changed.
The Myth of Sexual Symmetry in Marital Violence. In a classic article from 1992, Russell Dobash and colleagues challenge the claim that violence against husbands is about as common as violence against wives. They show that the instruments on which the claim is based are flawed, the claim is contradicted by other survey evidence and the symmetry in spousal homicide victimisation in the US is not a convincing form of evidence.
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