Gen-Z becomes first generation in history to score lower on IQ tests that their parents

Monday, February 9, 2026 - The Gen-Z generation, born between 1997 and 2010, is the very first generation who did worse in school than the generation before them, according to a top neuroscientist. 

“They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, 43, told The Post. 

“And to make matters worse, most of these young people are overconfident about how smart they are. The smarter people think they are, the dumber they actually are. 

“They underperformed on basically every cognitive measure, from basic attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function and general IQ.” 

Horvath recently testified to the sad facts before Congress, telling a panel of lawmakers that Generation Zers, who followed the Millenial generation, negatively blew up humanity’s proud academic record. 

Horvath, who studied reams of data from standardized academic tests, told Congress that Gen Z’s struggles stem from the fact that they’re the first generation to grow up with constant screen time. And it’s no substitute for real learning. 

“More than half of the time a teenager is awake, half of it is spent staring at a screen,” said Horvath, who’s taught at universities around the world, including Harvard and the University of Melbourne in Australia. 

“Humans are biologically programmed to learn from other humans and from deep study, not flipping through screens for bullet point summaries.” 

But digital devices, called educational technology (Edtech), take up most of their brain matter during class time and homework. 

Then, students spend their hours away from the classroom consulting with their phones, tablets and laptops where they scroll through TikTok captions and Snapchats in between skimming through summaries of classic literature — instead of picking up a book and actually reading it. 

Learning from screens has turned them into skimmers, Horvath said. And without the heavy lifting, even beautiful minds can turn to mush. 

“I’m not anti-tech. I’m pro-rigor,” said Horvath, who wants schools to limit the amount of screen time for students and go back to the good old days when kids had to open a book and pull an all-nighter to pass a test. 

“A sad fact our generation has to face is this: Our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age,” Horvath told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology. 

“We have been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s. 

“Every generation has outperformed their parents” said Horvath. “Until Gen Z.” 

Sadly, it’s not just happening in the US. 

“Across 80 countries, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly,” said Horvath, who is also founder of LME Global, a Arizona-based group that bridges research and classroom practices to improve academic outcomes. 

“Any time tech enters education, learning goes down.” 

Looking ahead, he said he hopes for new policies in which schools are forced to pull back on tech in the classrooms and give the upcoming kids, Generation Alpha a better chance at becoming brainiacs.