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Education Science

Children Raised In Greener Areas Have Higher IQ, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 221

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Growing up in a greener urban environment boosts children's intelligence and lowers levels of difficult behavior, a study has found. The analysis of more than 600 children aged 10-15 showed a 3% increase in the greenness of their neighborhood raised their IQ score by an average of 2.6 points. The effect was seen in both richer and poorer areas. There is already significant evidence that green spaces improve various aspects of children's cognitive development but this is the first research to examine IQ. The cause is uncertain but may be linked to lower stress levels, more play and social contact or a quieter environment. The increase in IQ points was particularly significant for those children at the lower end of the spectrum, where small increases could make a big difference, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Plos Medicine, used satellite images to measure the level of greenness in neighborhoods, including parks, gardens, street trees and all other vegetation. The average IQ score was 105 but the scientists found 4% of children in areas with low levels of greenery scored below 80, while no children scored below 80 in areas with more greenery. The benefits of more greenery that were recorded in urban areas were not replicated in suburban or rural areas. [T]his may be because those places had enough greenness for all children living there to benefit. Behavioral difficulties such as poor attention and aggressiveness were also measured in the children using a standard rating scale, and the average score was 46. In this case, a 3% rise in greenery resulted in a two-point reduction in behavioral problems, in line with previous studies.

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Children Raised In Greener Areas Have Higher IQ, Study Finds

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  • I have no idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kenh ( 9056 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @11:43PM (#60438165) Homepage Journal

    I have no idea what a 3% greener environment looks like, nor can I pretend that a 2.6 IQ point difference is meaningful.

    Does this mean that children raised in the Amazon rainforest are smarter than children raised in a 'concrete jungle'?

    • IQ is not a litmus (Score:5, Insightful)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @12:11AM (#60438215)

      Well the interesting thing about IQ is that its a sliding scale. 100 is always average. But average is a function based on the people testing at a given time. If you took 1000 people from places that specialize in severely autistic, as in very low functioning, and had them take IQ tests, then yourself took one, you, in theory, would be cheating the outcome. IQ is not a litmus. They also claim kids that climbed trees as a kid do not develop ADHD. Thats bullshit. I never met a tree I did not want to climb as a kid and still have ADD (its label when i was a kid) a plenty. Sometimes studies are like that movie Pi. When youre looking for a 256 letter pattern youll see it everywhere you go. 256 steps to the mailbox. 256 days till Christmas. You become obsessed.

    • Yes (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @01:03AM (#60438263)
      and it's not hard to imagine why. More green means cleaner air. Cleaner air means less brain trouble.

      The shit we pump into the air so we can have cheap consumer goods and drive cars is really, really bad for us all.
      • Re:Yes (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dryeo ( 100693 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @02:15AM (#60438315)

        Being in greener spaces also leads to less stress, a more relaxed childhood may well help development. I know as a kid, I retreated to the bush whenever I could and was lucky enough to have bush to retreat to, even in the big city (Stanley Park).

        • by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @05:45AM (#60438521) Homepage

          Or there might be no causation, just a correlation due to external cofounding factor.
          The study did control for the rich vs poor *neighbourhoods*, but not the socio-economic level of the *family*.

          It might be that indeed a neighbourhood with more vegetation could help the better development of the kids (triggering some circuit, dating back from where we used to be tribes of social monkeys in the forst, to encourage to play outdoor ???)

          But it could also be that family with slightly better than local average socio economic have a better chance to be picky about where they live AND could afford slightly better education and even better parenting (have more time to spend with the kids, have more occasions to get the kids in a museum, etc. instead of leaving them to the "video player babysitter").

          That's a level of details that is going to be missed by this study.

          A slightly more affluent, but not ultra rich family, might opt to get a slightly nicer and very affordable living place in a slightly poorer neighbourhood, rather than opt for the shittiest possible living quarter in an ultra rich neighbourhood.
           

          • by hey! ( 33014 )

            Here's what the paper says it controls for:

            ...while adjusting for potential confounding factors including sex, age, parental education, neighborhood household income, year of assessment, and zygosity and chorionicity.

            It is true that the study did not control for parental income, probably because it didn't have that data. But I don't think it stretches the bounds of credibility to assume that parents of the same educational background living in neighborhoods with similar socioeconomic profiles are likely to be similar in their socioeconomic background.

            That said, the real problem is the effect here is tiny. While it's statistically significant, it's not necessarily practically

    • by Cyberax ( 705495 )

      Does this mean that children raised in the Amazon rainforest are smarter than children raised in a 'concrete jungle'?

      Quite possible. You won't survive for long in Amazon (or another harsh environment) if you're an idiot.

      • Quite possible. You won't survive for long in Amazon (or another harsh environment) if you're an idiot.

        Or if you can't bring yourself to piss in a bottle.

        Sorry, just a little "joke" (ha ha only serious) there related to your dropping the "The" ;)

    • Does this mean that children raised in the Amazon rainforest are smarter than children raised in a 'concrete jungle'?

      No, but it may mean that the authors of this study were raised in a concrete jungle because correlation is not causation and any result without quoted uncertainties is meaningless.

      • by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
        You may be confusing the summary and the study there. I expect the study has error bars, but popular articles in new media ignore them.
    • Re:I have no idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by niftydude ( 1745144 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @03:17AM (#60438367)

      Does this mean that children raised in the Amazon rainforest are smarter than children raised in a 'concrete jungle'?

      Yes. Obviously the children raised in a concrete jungle will on average have better life outcomes because they have have more opportunity for education and development than a child raised in a rainforest. But those Manhattan high rises are stunting children's intelligence.

      nor can I pretend that a 2.6 IQ point difference is meaningful.

      2.6 IQ points is just over a quarter of a standard deviation, so you should consider it meaningful.

      If you had made it to the end of the summary you might also have found this meaningful:

      the scientists found 4% of children in areas with low levels of greenery scored below 80, while no children scored below 80 in areas with more greenery.

      Considering that children with an IQ of 75 have a 50/50 chance of reaching high school, and even in the range 80-85 there is a strong chance that children drop out in elementary school before year 7, I would say that's a big deal.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        Anyone with an IQ less than 80 is basically a dribbling idiot who'll most likely be doing menial/manual jobs for he rest of their life so whether they finish school or not is mostly irrelevant.

    • Tarzan must have been a fucking genius then!

    • Probably has more to do with latent oxygen and carbon dioxide levels than anything else.

      https://www.menshealth.com/hea... [menshealth.com]

    • Did you read the fucking study, or even the story? It's amazing how much you can learn by actually reading more than the headline and the first sentence of the summary.

    • by v1 ( 525388 )

      Evolution works at much smaller percentage differences than this. Evolution is in it for the long game.

      But the obvious question here is "does more green improve IQ, or does higher IQ tend to go green? (or none of the above)

      My opinion is that smarter folks prefer a bit more green in their environment, and have higher IQ kids as a result of their higher parental IQ. So neither "causes" the other, they're just likely to occur together. (I'd bet there's a ~6 syllable "word for that', but I don't know what it

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @11:56PM (#60438191)

    Growing up in a greener urban environment boosts children's intelligence and lowers levels of difficult behavior

    Well Colorado and Washington have a lot of green to offer, so kids in those places must be pretty smart!

    Oh wait you weren't talking about weed?

    • Was this study done in London, Lagos or Los Angeles?

      And would that be relevant anyway?

      At least we should be told!

      Editors, editors, editors <Throws chairs>

  • by normandr ( 69161 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @11:58PM (#60438193)

    The paper conclusion is rightfully much more conservative than the first sentence in the Guardian article. Paper: "Our results indicate that residential green space may be beneficial for the intellectual and the behavioral development of children living in urban areas." Nothing about boosting which implies causation.

    • by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@yahoGINSBERGo.com minus poet> on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @01:26AM (#60438279) Homepage Journal

      True, but we already know polluted areas contaminate the brain - easily seen in postmortem, and known since the 1970s - causing impairment of brain function and increased violence.

      It seems logical for a reduction of air pollution to result in the opposite.

      Is it causation? In the sense that a truck and a tree cannot inhabit the same space. At least, not with the truck remaining functional.

      • Similarly, a Mini Cooper cannot coexist in the same physical space as a squirrel. I saw one try once. It was awful. Blood and guts everywhere. The victim only just barely survived, and the car was totalled. Fortunately, however, the squirrel was OK.
    • by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Well, we evolved living in green spaces and green spaces are considered relaxing. And kids love playing in the bush. I know I did, along with most of the neighbourhood kids.

  • by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @12:18AM (#60438223)

    The paper only shows a correlation and not causation. The paper IMO improperly uses the word "benefits" to describe the effect of green on intelligence. Nothing in the paper shows a causal benefit. Instead the paper shows empirical correlation and then hypothesizes about causal benefits in a fairly confident manner. The authors themselves provide no empirical evidence to substantiate the statements on causality but simply and repeatedly cite prior papers.

    There are statements about accounting for obvious significant factors such as parental income and education, "An important strength of our study is that we excluded potential confounding by socioeconomic indicators and traffic-related air pollution. Indeed, we presented our associations independently of socioeconomic indicators both at the individual level, such as parental education, as well as by group level by including neighborhood household income." However, even assuming that such factor analysis was done properly, a correlation is still just a correlation.

    If I were a reviewer for the paper, I would have harshly criticized it on the unsubstantiated claims on causality.

    • The paper doesn't even show a convincing correlation.
    • I note that you must also understand that, "Correlation is not necessarily non-causation."

      And of course, I wonder if this relationship continues to the exceptionally green farming communities in fly-over.

      {^_^}

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @06:19AM (#60438567) Homepage Journal

      That's how this kind of science works. You can't take newborns and place them in a controlled environment to determine direct causation. You can't dissect hundreds of children's brains to look for contaminants, and then inject those contaminants into other children's brains to observe the effect.

      All you can do is look for correlations and then try to discount all other possible factors to the best of your ability. Therefore the way to evaluate this paper is on how well it discounted other possibilities.

      In any case the results are useful. Again this is not uncommon with science, e.g. we know that copper alloys have useful anti-microbial properties but don't fully understand why, yet that knowledge is extremely useful. In this case even if we cannot be 100% certain it would be foolish to do nothing, especially as we know that green spaces in urban areas have many other benefits.

    • Have a look at the charts, the confidence on ANY correlation is microscopic..

      They are finding correlation in noise.

    • The paper only shows a correlation and not causation. The paper IMO improperly uses the word "benefits" to describe the effect of green on intelligence. Nothing in the paper shows a causal benefit. Instead the paper shows empirical correlation and then hypothesizes about causal benefits in a fairly confident manner...If I were a reviewer for the paper, I would have harshly criticized it on the unsubstantiated claims on causality.

      You speak as if we're still living in the 20th Century. Sorry, but profit now drives all media. Therefore, Clicks and Likes are the priority. Facts are secondary. Yes, even in a scientifically pointless but "sooo clickworthy!" paper such as this.

      Average of 2.6 IQ points? Give me a fucking break. Social media is still maniacally laughing at that "impact".

    • The paper only shows a correlation and not causation.

      Causation is determined by interconnected correlation.
      When we find correlation between green space and intelligence, and then find correlation between green space and lower air pollution, and then find correlation between air pollution and intelligence, it kind of starts to paint a bigger picture the typical "correlation != causation" crowd start looking increasingly childish.

      Causation does not need to be direct.

  • by cygnusvis ( 6168614 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @12:35AM (#60438237)
    This was also the finding in the past where LEAD in the air pollution made kids very low IQ. I thought that IQ determination was a right wing thing but I guess not.
    • Older inner-city houses might have higher levels of lead paint present.

    • The effect of even minute quantities of lead on intelligence, among other things, is is well-documented. It at least potentially explains a lot of things (e.g., disparate rates of crime, academic achievement, poverty, and health issues). And in ways that would not fit the narrative of either major party.

      Getting lead out of gasoline is believed to have led to a large reduction in crime rates and poverty, and I believe getting it out of inner-city homes, as quickly as possible short of razing them or furthe

  • It's odd that researchers are still using IQ as a measure of "something," because other researchers have expressed the opinion that IQ doesn't actually exist.

    So who is right?

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Researchers who aren't stupid enough to claim that 2+2=5, IQ doesn't exist and other anti-scientific nonsense.

    • by dryeo ( 100693 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @02:33AM (#60438339)

      IQ does measure something, it's just not general intelligence. Seems the tests I've taken have measured pattern matching, which is a type of intelligence but doesn't mean you're going to be successful at stuff that takes creative intelligence.

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Imagine you've got an assignment to design the very first IQ test. You've got a first draft, administered it to some subjects, and now you have some results.

      How do you know those results are right? How do you *validate* your test?

      If you were inventing a ruler, you'd start with something like this: check pairs of people and see that it consistently gives you larger readings for the taller person. There's no analogue of that for "general intelligence". The only means you have to measure GI is the very t

  • I grew up in a small redneck town that was fairly well forested, and there sure were a lot of dopes there.. (Myself included!)

  • by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @12:57AM (#60438253)
    IQ was a social construct and wasn't really relevant to anything?
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Same people were recently arguing on twitter that 2+2=5 in full seriousness, and accusing those that noted that mathematics are specific, and 2+2 cannot equal 5 of being racist, colonialist and espousing whiteness.

      • by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
        It's more likely that they were really good at poking fun at people who would believe they were serious.
        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          I thought that when that particular argument started. I didn't a week later after seeing the quality of arguments being used to back it up, as those were carbon copy arguments from arguments being used in various intersectional circles across anglosphere academia.

          • by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
            I'm still not convinced it's not a joke as I have been part of some jokes with friends that we've kept going, in this sort of vein, for far longer than you think would actually be possible. When you are getting a reaction from others it can be hard to let go of the joke. Maybe you are right and it is serious, but you might be underestimating the persistence of pranksters.
            • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:33AM (#60438959)

              These people have so far successfully used these same arguments to argue for same kind of insanity in other fields. Just not as specific and easily provable as math. For example, they successfully argued that human sexuality is fluid and completely disconnected from biology, a claim that is utterly absurd in light of what we know about biology and life on this planet. A claim which is now put into law in several places in anglosphere, and where stating the truth is punishable by law.

              Like I said elsewhere, these arguments have been used before many times with great success against various scientific fields. The only novel thing is that these arguments are now being fielded even against sciences as provable and as exact as mathematics. Everything else about this attack is at least a decade old.

              But I suppose you can argue that "everything is a joke until we have a law that punishes you for stating factually correct things that go against ideology of said friends". That has been done as this ideology was in process of attacking a specific scientific claim, to provide cover for the attack to succeed.

    • by dryeo ( 100693 )

      It's relevant to how well you can do on an IQ test.

    • Who is "they"? I usually see it touted around here by the dull and dimwitted.

  • Theories? (Score:2, Funny)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 )
    One theory I'm hearing is that the dumbest 10% of kids in those areas are wandering off into the woods and getting cannibalized by satanic democrats, thus raising the baseline IQ of their surviving peers. I'm not saying it's true, but that's what I'm hearing.
  • by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @02:34AM (#60438341)

    Our hunter/gatherer/nomad and "lots of nature around" ancestry is only a very short while back. Our cousins are monkeys that are really good at climbing trees and we share the same flexible body parts for that. There are strong indications that our brain and hands developed from climbing trees. That having a diverse environment as a child and the freedom to explore it up intelligence and creativity and problem solving abilities is just about a no-brained IMHO. As is the strong indication that such an environment helps strengthen and regulate impulse control and executive function, the key traits lacking in people with ADHD.

    The modern world that shuns nature fucks with our brains to a certain degree, that's for sure (fill in millennial joke of choice here).

  • For fchk sake ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OneSmartFellow ( 716217 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @03:19AM (#60438371)

    ... please, spare us the "correlation is not causation" BS.

    Observation is the first part of the process. These people observed a correlation. Now, maybe someone will be interested enough to discover the cause of the correlation. The authors even suggest a possibilty for further research.

    Does everyone here really have to be an armchair scientist

    • They didnt. Go and look at the data, they are extracting data with a confidence level of near 0. This is just finding a tiny possibility in noise..

      And thats ignoring the fact that apparently they found a TON of rural people who dont have any 'green space' within 3000m....
      Think about that for a moment.

    • No, lots of people here think they are smarter than everyone else. While in reality they are below average. This same thinking is what leads people down the path to believing in conspiracies.

      Some story here tells a simple fact, like say the sky is blue. The armchair geniuses want to show how much smarter they are and go "well actually its red..." and try to contradict the fact. Other dimwits see this as truth and mod it up because hey slashdot is full of smart people.

    • Does everyone here really have to be an armchair scientist

      Wait, did you not read Slashdot's ToS?

  • Negative effect? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @05:05AM (#60438473)

    There have been earlier studies that have linked air pollution to psychiatric disorders [slashdot.org].
    Greener areas tend to have fewer sources of pollution, and plant life can also filter pollutants from the air to some degree.

    It would be interesting to see how the brain chemistry is affected by different types of pollution. Maybe what we're seeing is not as much a positive effect in greener areas but more of a negative effect in less green areas.

    • Pollution could impact things to a negative degree. Diesel fumes from buses in particular can really have a cumulative effect. Look at what happens to a major city when they bus service goes on strike (I've seen this happen). The air starts to get noticeably cleaner soon afterwards. Any time humans live that closely together you start to need specialized resources to take care of the pollution that would otherwise disperse without concerns in lower density environments. Were humans really meant to live that

  • by jabjoe ( 1042100 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @05:36AM (#60438505)
    Very few towns or cities couldn't be a lot greener than they currently are. Couldn't this be the perfect excuse to make them nicer as well as better for the environment?
  • Rural voters (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pimpy ( 143938 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @06:18AM (#60438563)

    That explains all of the brilliant voters from rural areas.

  • by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @08:15AM (#60438677)

    So that's the reason those Hill people in Kentucky are so smart.

  • In the 1950s hospitals were painted green to make people calmer. By the 1970s these buildings were very shabby looking and it was referred to as "seasick green".
  • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:08AM (#60438903)

    I'm painting my walls green right now!

  • by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:15AM (#60438917)

    I gave my kid green sunglasses. Now he's a freaking genius. Want to buy a pair for your kid?

  • by EnsilZah ( 575600 ) <EnsilZah.Gmail@com> on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @02:36PM (#60439933)

    Since we're all throwing in our pet hypotheses, I suspect living in an environment of mainly boxes and flat surfaces might deprive the brain of some stimulation that would help with its development.
    Last time I went for a walk on the beach with some friends I remember noticing how I was using all these muscles I don't normally use, challenging my sense of balance, etc.
    I'm no expert, but I imagine that if you train a neural network with a low poly simulation it will miss out on a lot of valuable nuanced cues when applying it to data from the real world.

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