And surround that person with a bunch of morons for 8-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, does that relatively smart person become stupid over time?
It happens every day in households all across America. It's called parenting. Definitely brings down the IQ level a bit.
Possible. Or they never reach their potential. Why try to fly with eagles if you are running with turkeys? Then again, why is a relatively smart person continuing to put up with such a situation? Wait.....are you saying that parents are raising morons? Or are the kids the smart ones who have morons for parents?
It depends. Extremely bright people often have difficulties working with other extremely bright people. They surround themselves with lesser minds and far lesser egos that don't mind being the followers. I see this in many university research units. The Whiz gets smarter and more effective because he has a half-dozen pairs of hands and eyeballs all doing what his brain directs. I'm not talking morons obviously, but you really aren't either. But, I could see some genius working in a cube farm where everybody has essentially the same duties getting frustrated by being one among drones. Better and faster work is rarely rewarded in such a case. People either leave and get smarter in a better situation or they stay, advance to drone supervisor, become jaded and get dumber and more unhappy..
There is a quote, not sure who it was from, perhaps Einstein that said "If you are the smartest person in the room, then find another room" I think there is a lot to that. I'm going to go with @TigersTailgating stupid just grates on me. I usually find a way to distance myself from it so that I don't lose my composure. Perfect example, the other night we went over to some friends house for a bit. They had another chic there and because I'm nice I said "Hello" big mistake. She started to pontificate about all sorts of stuff that just made me want to jab an ice pick through my ears. When she told me her son who is 19 makes 40K A MONTH welding I looked at sooner babe and said "time to go"