3 Surprising Things That Lower Your IQ And Make You Less Smart

Is your IQ score important for you? Do you love spending time with people who are intelligent and curious all the time? According to psychologists, 80 % of men love dating women that have a higher IQ comparing to theirs. Considering that a higher IQ plays an important role in today’s relationships and society, it […]

Is your IQ score important for you? Do you love spending time with people who are intelligent and curious all the time?

According to psychologists, 80 % of men love dating women that have a higher IQ comparing to theirs.
Considering that a higher IQ plays an important role in today’s relationships and society, it is very beneficial to increase it.

Below you can find some habits that lower your IQ.

What Are 3 Habits That Lower Your IQ?

1. SMARTPHONE ADDICTION

Okay, we know pretty much everyone owns a smartphone these days, and these devices definitely have their advantages. However, we can’t list things that can potentially lower your IQ without giving the smartphone a mention. Smartphones have an addictive, mind-numbing quality about them, which can hinder our cognitive abilities.

To prove this, researchers at the University of Texas gathered a group of about 800 smartphone users. The participants had to take several computer tests that required their full attention. The researchers asked some of them to leave their phones in another room, while the others just had to mute their phones and place them face-down on their desks. The participants who left their phones in another room performed much better on the tests than those who had their phones right by them.

Researchers believe that having a phone right near you hinders your ability to focus. One reason for this is that we have grown so accustomed to checking our phones constantly. With the phone out of sight, people automatically focus better because they have less distractions. You actually have to exert effort to avoid checking your phone when it’s in your sight, so the saying “out of sight, out of mind” definitely applies here. The energy you have to use to notcheck your phone can then be diverted to the task at hand.

2. REGULARLY MULTITASKING

Did you know multitasking doesn’t actually exist? (If not, there’s your little tidbit of new knowledge for the day.) The brain cannot truly focus on more than one thing at a time, which means “multitasking” is, in fact, just switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Many people think multitasking gets things done faster, but it takes longer than doing one thing at a time. Plus, multitasking isn’t nearly as effective as focusing on and completing one job before moving on to the next.

Not only is multitasking ineffective, but it also lowers the IQ. A study done by the Institute of Psychiatry in London discovered that multitasking resulted in a temporary 10-point drop in IQ. To put that in perspective, smoking marijuana or missing a night’s sleep didn’t cause as large of a decrease as multitasking does.

3. HAVING A DIET HIGH IN SUGAR.

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Most of us know sugar isn’t good for us, but it does more than harm our health; it lowers our intelligence, too. Researchers found that a diet high in fructose lowers intelligence after just six weeks.

Researchers from UCLA studied the effect of a high-fructose diet in rats. The rats were taught how to find their way through a maze before being split into two groups. Both groups were given fructose water, but one group was also fed omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to promote brain health.

After six weeks, the rats that had been given omega-3’s performed significantly better than the other group. In fact, the rats in the other group could not recall the route they had learned and showed decreased synaptic activity.

We do need sugar to survive, but it’s the type of sugar we ingest that matters. Choosing low-sugar fruits and vegetables instead of highly processed foods is your best bet.

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