Education has long been thought to improve cognitive abilities like intelligence.
But does simply spending more years in school actually make people smarter?
A new meta-analysis of quasi-experimental studies provides compelling evidence that education significantly increases intelligence test scores, by as much as 1-5 IQ points for each additional year of education.
Key Facts:
- Education was found to boost intelligence test scores by 1-5 IQ points per year across 3 types of quasi-experimental studies.
- The effects persisted into older age, with less fade-out than seen for targeted interventions like preschool.
- The intelligence gains applied across ability domains like reasoning, memory, vocabulary.
- More years of normal education improve intelligence, not just specific targeted interventions.
- The results support the idea that education causally improves intelligence, not just that smart kids stay in school longer.
Source: Psychol Sci.
Does Education Increase Intelligence?
The meta-analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, reviewed results from 42 datasets involving over 600,000 people.
The researchers focused on quasi-experimental studies, where factors like selection bias are minimized.
This allows stronger conclusions about education causing increased intelligence.
There were 3 types of quasi-experimental study designs included:
- Control for Prior Intelligence: These studies tested intelligence at two time points, before and after differences in education. They statistically controlled for pre-existing intelligence levels.
- Policy Changes: These studies compared intelligence after exogenous policy changes that increased educational duration, like changes to minimum school leaving age.
- School Entry Age Cutoffs: These studies used regression discontinuity analysis to compare intelligence in grades with a cutoff birthdate for school entry.
All 3 study methods found consistent evidence that more years of education significantly increased intelligence test scores.
The effects ranged from 1-5 IQ points per additional year of schooling.
For example, the school entry age design found that being a year older when starting school boosted IQ by over 5 points on average.
The policy change studies found around a 2 point IQ increase for each year of increased compulsory schooling.
And controlling for childhood intelligence scores, finishing college led to around a 2 point higher IQ versus finishing high school.
Importantly, the intelligence increases applied across ability domains like reasoning, memory, vocabulary, and processing speed.
This suggests education improves general cognitive functioning, not just specific skills.
The effects persisted into older age too, unlike targeted interventions like preschool that often fade out.
Even in people in their 70s and 80s, more education was linked to higher cognitive performance.
How Education Boosts Intelligence (Possibilities)
These results support the theory that education itself causally improves cognitive abilities like intelligence.
The alternative explanation is that naturally brighter kids simply stay in school longer.
But by using quasi-experimental designs, the researchers minimized this selection bias.
This strengthens the case that more schooling actually makes you smarter.
There are several reasons why education might boost intelligence:
- Teaching specific material like math and reading provides practice at skills assessed on intelligence tests.
- Education trains abstract thinking abilities, like logical reasoning, that transfer to IQ tests.
- Schooling develops learning abilities and promotes self-discipline and concentration skills beneficial for cognitive tasks.
- Time in school provides constant mental stimulation which expands cognitive capabilities.
- More education leads to occupational and lifestyle differences that help maintain initial cognitive gains over time.
Of course, the effect is not unlimited.
There are likely diminishing returns, where each additional year of education produces smaller IQ gains.
And not every student may benefit equally.
Further research is needed to uncover the specific mechanisms of how education improves intelligence.
1-5 IQ Point Boost per Year of Education
An increase of 1-5 IQ points per year of education may seem small.
But at a societal level, these intelligence gains can have profound impacts.
This is because intelligence is linked to outcomes like:
- Educational attainment and academic achievement
- Job performance and occupational status
- Income level
- Physical and mental health
- Life expectancy
So if more schooling boosts intelligence, and intelligence drives important life outcomes, then policies that increase education could have significant real-world benefits.
Those extra years of schooling don’t just provide access to more facts and skills – they actually make people smarter.
Even relatively minor IQ gains can translate into greater success and well-being when multiplied across entire populations.
Additional years of normal schooling could be a highly effective way to raise cognitive abilities.
Unlike targeted interventions, extended education is already implemented worldwide.
So we may already have a simple way to enhance human capital and produce broad socioeconomic benefits.
We should think of education not just as a place to gain specific knowledge, but also as a valuable opportunity to expand cognitive capabilities.
The evidence shows those years in school truly make you smarter.
References
- Study: How much does education improve intelligence?
- Authors: Stuart J. Ritchie & Elliot M. Tucker-Drob (2018)
