Beauty → Intelligence

**Psychonaut** · 01-18-2011, 09:06 PM

Beautiful men and women are more likely to be smarter with high IQs:

Beautiful people don't just get all the breaks, scientists say they're likely smarter than most people, too.

A study in England conducted by researchers at the London School of Economics found that attractive men and women generally have higher IQs.

"Physical attractiveness is significantly positively associated with general intelligence," said LSE lead researcher Satoshi Kanazawa, in the latest issue of the journal Intelligence.

The study indicated attractive men have IQs that are 13.6 points above the average, while beautiful women are 11.4 points higher than average.

Since intelligent men are more inclined to achieve more success, they are "more likely to marry beautiful women," Kanazawa said. "Given that both intelligence and physical attractiveness are highly heritable, there should be a positive correlation between intelligence and physical attractiveness in the children's generation."

The study included 52,000 people from both the United Kingdom and United States.

However, Kanazawa insists this should not be considered justification for believing beautiful people are better than everyone else.

"Our contention that beautiful people are more intelligent is purely scientific," he said. "It is not a prescription for how to treat or judge others."

**Adalwolf** · 01-18-2011, 09:17 PM

I'm skeptical of this study. Based on personal experience, I can't say that attractiveness has any correlation to intelligence.

However, I think that because good looking people generally will have more confidence, they will attempt and learn more things in life. Making them seem more knowledgeable and 'intelligent'.

Inheritable IQ seems more to do with genetics and upbringing then anything else.

**~~The Journeyman~~** · 01-18-2011, 09:28 PM

I agree to some extent, I can instantly tell a person's intelligence by the their eyes and the general expression, and higher intelligence is an attractive trait. So I guess what I'm wondering is whether their intelligence was easily perceived by the test subjects or if the correlation is simply based on physical/dimorphic traits.

**~~Guapo~~** · 01-18-2011, 09:33 PM

I don't buy it, just look at Libre.

**~~Treffie~~** · 01-18-2011, 09:46 PM

Anecdotally, I can say that from experience the healthiest and fittest are usually the most intelligent. When I used to be a competitive swimmer, invariably my fellow competitors were high academic achievers. In addition to this, they were also multi-eventers; they could also run pretty well, partake in team sports etc.

**Debaser11** · 01-18-2011, 10:56 PM

While I'm not sure about overall attractiveness and intelligence being tightly linked (it just seems like too many genes and variations are at play to say this with any type of simplicity), a very loose correlation on the surface seems to make sense but I tend to think these articles (and there are several on this subject) exaggerate.

One phenotypical trait that does seem to reflect intelligence in my experience is the nature of the eyes. If a person has a distant (dreamy) look in their eyes (which is rather attractive), they tend to at least be capable of abstract thought on some level. Most European-descended peoples, in my experience, have it. It's almost a glazed look. It's subtle. It puts me at ease on almost a subconscious level. The opposite extreme is when people have those unsettling criminal eyes which sometimes have a yellow coating. They're actually pretty gross looking. I'm immediately more alert around them. Again, this is not something that I have to consciously make an effort to acknowledge. My inner reactions to these phenotypes are knee-jerk and I don't dismiss my instincts.

**Radola** · 01-18-2011, 11:00 PM

Bullshit I must say, I know a huge bunch of people who might be considered attractive and their intelligence...well, isn´t really stunning. On the other hand I know people who might not be considered as attractive and their intelligence is just surprising - at first sight you wouldn´t believe how smart those people are.