Read geoffrey millers mating mind recently and at one point he mentions that pretty people have higher iq’s.
I have kind of heard this said before but never really believed it.
HOWEVER, today I happened to have visited 2 supermarkets, one cheap and one expensive and the people in the expensive supermarket were a lot better looking.
I don’t mean this in every instance but there was a good ‘gut feel’ of change.
Do you think this could be true about looks & IQ ?
p.s. its a good book, read it.
There probably is a positive coorelation between physical attractiveness and intelligence. However, don’t make the mistake of getting the cause and effect mixed up here. You said that people in the expensive supermarket were better looking right? There are many reasons why that may be true. Obviously, people with more money are likely to shop in the more expensive supermarket. In the US, people with more money are less likely to be overweight and tend to take better care of themselves than the poor. Factors such as better dental and medical care come into play not to mention the ability to buy better clothes. In short, being physically attractive doesn’t make someone smarter but it does probably enable more intelligent people the ability to move into social classes where they can afford to take better care of themselves.
No need to debate.
Yes, yes we are.
**dude wrote:
Read geoffrey millers mating mind recently and at one point he mentions that pretty people have higher iq’s.**
Can you come up with an objective definition of pretty and smart? Especially one that is non- culturally biased?
If not, how do you intend to measure these qualities?
Your supermarket observation is more likely a result of the measured statistic that physically attractive people get hired or promoted more often. Ergo, they are more likely to be able to afford a higher standard of living and the attendant costs thereof.
As to pretty = intelligent. A host of airhead movie stars and pop entertainers put the lie to that idea.
Don’t forget that better-looking women are also able to marry into better financial situations.
Originally posted by Zenster
As to pretty = intelligent. A host of airhead movie stars and pop entertainers put the lie to that idea.
Is talent not part of intelligence, even though it may not be used in standard I.Q. testing? I read a book several years ago titled “The New I.Q.”, and I think talent and creativity were used as the variables for determining I.Q.
My guess is that movie stars and pop entertainers attract more potential mates than posters on discussion groups, not to infer that this is anyone’s intention, or that posters have higher I.Q.'s than movie stars or pop entertainers. On the other hand, isn’t most of our behavior directly or indirectly related to attracting mates?
Balls , I remember in my 6th form college years we watched this experiment where people were asked to grade peoples exams .There was a control group with no photos attached to the exam papers and one with photos of that person , turned out that examiners gave good looking people higher marks compared to the group that didn’t mark with pictures. However i think it could be something to do with confidence maybe somebody who is better looking maybe has the confidence to do things and ask for help when others dare not (hermits like me stay home all the time and do everything online except work)
Perhaps pretty people are not ‘smarter’ but have an advantage in that people ‘prefer’ them for good jobs etc. and therefore they have the money for the expensive supermarket.
Actors - I suspect if your ‘good looking’ you become an actor and therefore those that make it are from a pool of ‘good looking’ people.
Amazing fact - ugly actors get lots of work because you need someone for that ‘ugly role’, there is an actress in the UK who is a big success who was told at drama school ‘you will never get any work because of your looks’.
Why do people give advantages to ‘pretty people’ in a rational ( perhaps… ) society ?
Because they’re nicer to look at.
Look at it this way - if you had the choice to be in a aesthetically appealing environment, or an aesthetically unappealing one, which environment would you choose?
And no, human beings are not, for the large part, rational.
In this case, I would assume it is the perception of the examiners being studied. Surely some of the papers without picture were done by “pretty” people.
IMHO, this goes to show how attractive people can get away with not being as intelligent. Not that their can’t be people who are both, but attractive people get a bit of a by.
Of course, I am biased since I’m ugly as the ass end of a bulldog.
Genetically, I wonder if there is some basis for this. I have read - in New Scientist, not just factoids!! - how one of the criteria for “perceived human attractiveness” (for want of a better word than “pretty”) is regularity and evenness of feature, as well as smooth/good skin.
These are all features that also denote health, and a “well put together” human. (Can’t remember the article details sorry). Presumably a “healthy” brain - though I am not sure how to define this, but perhaps undamaged, or firing on optimum might also have a higher IQ, or at least an average one.
But social factors possibly play an even bigger role. Also regularity of feature-wise I would not describe my features as regular (they look wonky to me!) but I have a highish IQ.
Smarter than dirt? I’d say just about all of them.
Smarter than me? A few are and a few aren’t. According to my I.Q. I’m smarter than most, be they ugly or pretty. But since I don’t put much stock in I.Q. tests, it doesn’t mean much.
Are pretty people perceived to be smarter? I think the posts in this thread so far answers that question.
Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are major hunks!!!
Oddly enough Miller kinda says a good brain is a sign of ‘health’ also says that boys & girls like flash ( brainy ) people so their is a sexual selection advantage.
I regard these as ‘mutations’… I mean ‘generally’, not specifically.
Bwhahahahahaha…
He’s obviously never gotten dumped by a guy who just figured out you are smarter than he is and “thar’s somethin’ not right about yur girlfriend bein’ smarter un ya.” He’s also seems to have noticed the popularity of the NHS as opposed to the cheerleaders and football team - guess I missed that in high school.
Back in high school and college I could turn heads with my looks (now I’m a middle aged mom) - but they often turned right back if I let the guys find out there was more than air between my ears.
This is the halo effect. Here’s a link: [link]http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/psych1a6/1aa3/Social/lec1-2.htm [/link]
Most professional services companies (law firms, consulting firms, financial services, etc) hire people who ‘look’ professional. You don’t have to be a beauty queen/king(judging by the girls at my firm) but you can’t be a mutant either. Most people look a lot more attractive when they are dressed up with a suit and a decent haircut.
Smart don’t make up for ugly.
Here you are operating on 2 faulty assumptions.
(a) You assume that because these people shop at the more expensive supermarket they are wealthier.
Perhaps they prioritize their spending differently than the people you observed in the cheaper supermarket. Some people wear their money and drive their money and even eat their money (and spend it at gyms and beauty salons). Others save it or invest it or put it away for the kids education…
(b) You assume that because they are wealthier, they are consequently smarter.
Assuming they actually are wealthier, the ability to amass (or inherit, or marry or shack up with, or win through gambling or crime, or insurance settlement due to misfortune) great wealth is not correlated with high IQ.
Hope that clears it up for you.