Regression Toward the Mean

First described by the British mathematician Sir Francis Galton in the late 19th century. Galton observed this phenomenon in the context of biological traits such as height and intelligence, where he found that children of exceptionally tall or intelligent parents tended to be less extreme in those traits. The term "Regression Toward the Mean" has since become a recognized statistical concept and is widely used in fields such as psychology, medicine, and economics to describe the tendency of extreme values to become less extreme over time.