Kinsey Institute: Having Children Lowers Your IQ

Attn: Today, Sept. 8, The Moderate Voice ran a retraction of the following story, saying "We got snookered". Evidently, this story was a hoax and sucked in lots of other folks, too, including MSNBC. Rather than deleting it, I'm going to leave it up so that if you hear about it elsewhere, you will know that it's not totally accurate. However, as you will read below, my initial reaction to it was, "Yep, that's what I've always thought". The scientific evidence may not have yet been studied by the Kinsey Institute, but I sometimes feel like a walking petri dish for such an experiment.

The Moderate Voice posted this on his site and I thought, "And they had to do a study to figure this out?" Anyway, this story from the Hoosier Gazette begins:

A five-year study run by Indiana University's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction proves that many in the scientific community have always suspected: having children significantly lowers the IQ of both male and female parents.

It continues:

Researchers at the Kinsey Institute
began their study in 1999 by giving 200 married couples who were planning on
starting families within the next four years Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests.
By 2003, all but 27 of these couples had conceived.

Another IQ test was given to each set of parents successful
in conceiving and birthing a baby six months after their child was born. These
results were compared to the previous intelligence tests.

In every single one of the 173 cases, both
parents scored at least twelve points lower on the second IQ test, with the
majority of parents losing twenty or more IQ points.

The effect on fathers is a bit of a surprise to me, but I know what has happened to me... and it's not pretty!

But wait, THERE'S MORE from Dr. Hosung Lee, director of the study. It seems that our children not only "retard" our brain activity, but that previously intelligent, rational people lose all ability to think objectively once they become parents. Dr. Lee says:

Having children does retard one's brain activity, and since both parents lost intelligence, we must assume that this loss has a psychological rather than biological cause.

The IQ tests show that when a child is born, the part of the brain that makes one think objectively takes the biggest hit when it comes to losing brainpower. This explains why every parent thinks their child is the smartest kid in class or the best athlete, even if that child is as dumb as a box of rocks or needs a calendar to time their forty-yard dash. People who before were intelligent and open-minded turn into raving lunatics who want to blame a teacher or coach every time their mediocre child fails, said Lee.

Fascinating, huh? Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.