Thursday | May 24, 2012
Science Proves It’s Brain over Brawn
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By
Zach Kaufmann
20 October 2008
The Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior recently published a new study from four researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. The study finds that women, both in short- and long-term relationship situations find the brainy guy more attractive than the dumb jock.
The article, "Intelligence and Mate Choice: Intelligent Men are Always Appealing," published online (Sept.
27, 2008) says that women are surprisingly good judges of men’s intelligence and that, contrary to past studies, women prefer intelligence over attractiveness, even when they’re not looking for anything more than a one night stand.
In the study, fifteen college men were filmed answering questions about news reports, what makes them a good date, and what would it mean if life were found on Mars. They also took a comprehensive verbal assessment. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was then used to give an IQ score. Men were also filmed playing Frisbee and other physical activities. More than 200 women were then asked to watch the videos and judge the men on four levels: attractiveness, intelligence, creativity, and appeal for both short-term and long-term relationships. Most of the women gave an IQ score that fairly well matched the men’s actual WAIS score.
As Martie Hassleton, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles put it, "There could be aspects of intelligence that we pick up on when we interact with a person and that affect our assessment of them, even if we wouldn’t label it as intelligence." In other words, even in short-term relationship situations, a woman is thinking about a man’s intelligence, even if she doesn’t know it.
The study is in no way of a comprehensive predictor of relationship success, ignoring as it does money, job status, political views, family and friends, etc. And Mark Prokosch, the evolutionary psychologist (now at Elon University) who led the study said that looks were still a very important factor: "women are still going for the hunk… if you had an option to pick from five different people; you would pick the most attractive one." But it is nice to know that if you’re at a party trying to go home with that hot blonde over by the beer pong table, having a pocket protector and a copy of Stephen Hawkins’s A Brief History of Time won’t necessarily be a disadvantage.
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