Dysgenics (also known as cacogenics) is the decrease in prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or well adapted to their environment due to selective pressure disfavoring the reproduction of those traits.
The adjective "dysgenic" is the antonym of "
eugenic". In 1915 the term was used by
David Starr Jordan to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving the disabled at home.
Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and
social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century. More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations have been advanced by the controversial psychologist
Richard Lynn, notably in his 1996 book ''
Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations'', which argued that a reduction in
selection pressures
Any cause that reduces or increases reproductive success in a portion of a population potentially exerts evolutionary pressure, selective pressure or selection pressure, driving natural selection. It is a quantitative description of the amount of ...
and decreased
infant mortality since the
Industrial Revolution have resulted in an increased propagation of deleterious traits and
genetic disorders.
[Richard Lynn: ''Dysgenics: genetic deterioration in modern populations'' Westport, Connecticut. : Praeger, 1996., .] In popular culture, concerns about dysgenics have also formed the basis for
speculative fiction, notably the 2006 film ''
Idiocracy
''Idiocracy'' is a 2006 American science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge and co-written by Judge and Etan Cohen. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews, the film tells the story of Corporal Joe Bauers (W ...
''.
Despite these concerns, genetic studies have shown no evidence for dysgenic effects in human populations.
In fiction
Cyril M. Kornbluth
Cyril M. Kornbluth (July 2, 1923 – March 21, 1958) was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, W ...
's 1951 short story "
The Marching Morons
"The Marching Morons" is a science fiction story by American writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, originally published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction, Galaxy'' in April 1951. It was included in ''The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two'' after being vot ...
" is an example of dysgenic fiction, describing a man who accidentally ends up in the distant future and discovers that dysgenics has resulted in mass stupidity.
Mike Judge's 2006 film ''
Idiocracy
''Idiocracy'' is a 2006 American science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge and co-written by Judge and Etan Cohen. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews, the film tells the story of Corporal Joe Bauers (W ...
'' has the same premise, with the main character the subject of a military
hibernation experiment that goes awry, taking him 500 years into the future. While in "The Marching Morons", civilization is kept afloat by a small group of dedicated geniuses, in ''Idiocracy'',
voluntary childlessness among high-IQ couples leaves only
automated systems
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
to fill that role.
See also
*
Devolution (biology)
*
Flynn effect
The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century. When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially stand ...
*
Heritability of IQ
Research on the heritability of IQ inquires into the degree of variation in IQ within a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population. There has been significant controversy in the academic community about the ...
*
List of congenital disorders
List of congenital disorders
{{TOC right
Numerical
* 5p syndrome - see Cri du chat syndrome
A
* Albinism
* Amelia and hemimelia
* Amniotic band syndrome
* Anencephaly
* Angelman syndrome
* Aposthia
* Arnold–Chiari malformation
B
* Ba ...
*
List of biological development disorders
Notes
Further reading
*
*
* {{cite journal, last1=Beauchamp, first1=Jonathan P., title=Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States, journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, date=11 July 2016, pages=7774–7779, doi=10.1073/pnas.1600398113, pmid=27402742, volume=113, issue=28, pmc=4948342, doi-access=free
* Barban et al. 2016
"Genome-wide analysis identifies 12 loci influencing human reproductive behavior"
Eugenics
Evolutionary biology
Futures studies