Members in the Media
From: The Toronto Star

Sorry, Ritalin’s not going to make you smart

The Toronto Star:

Popping pills won’t boost your brainpower if you have average or above-average intelligence, according to a new paper published by the Association for Psychological Science.

“Are you going to be able to manipulate your physiology to make yourself smarter? Chances are, you’re not going to be able to,” Thomas Hills, a psychology professor at the U.K.-based University of Warwick, told the Star. “Evolution’s already created the best possible physiological environment for you if you don’t have a deficit.”

And humans likely won’t get any smarter, according to the paper’s findings.

Published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, the paper analyzes existing studies on intelligence among humans. Co-authors Hills and Ralph Hertwig, a psychology professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland, suggest that human brains have already reached an evolutionary “sweet spot” and any long-term upgrades to intelligence would come at a steep price.

Read the whole story: The Toronto Star

More of our Members in the Media >


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.