# Does Head Size Matter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 12, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977 "2005-06-12T15:56:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/21 "2005-06-15T22:41:04Z")
I can affirm other testimony herein offered. Of course, the compensations for the cranially enhanced are ample. The crisp intelligence, preternatural grace, the massive sexual prowess… a comprehensive list is simply not feasible, given space limitations and a demure modesty. Also explains why my Mom never liked me very much. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/22 "2005-06-15T22:47:36Z")
Brain size correlates 0.40-0.51 with intelligence. From: Neurobiology of Intelligence, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, June 2004 pg [471-482](http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/PDF/nrn0604-GrayThompson.pdf) (PDF). ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/23 "2005-06-15T22:48:15Z")
As I noted elsewhere, head sizes seem to have grown somewhat in the past 100 years. Apparently, it is quite easy to find vintage top hats but it is rare that they fit modern heads. I am rather puzzled by this. Of course, human bodies are getting bigger - I am not sure why. But lower jaws are getting smaller because we don’t chew as much as or grand- or great grand-parents did. So why are skulls getting bigger? I have always thought evolution was a load of old tosh anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/24 "2005-06-17T22:08:29Z")
> [@II Gyan II](#): > > Brain size correlates 0.40-0.51 with intelligence. For those of you not into statistics, that is a very high correlation. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/25 "2005-06-18T04:55:22Z")
> [@II Gyan II](#): > > Brain size correlates 0.40-0.51 with intelligence. Serendipitous development: A new [study](http://www.vcu.edu/uns/Releases/2005/june/061705.html) which purportedly shows “_People with bigger brains are smarter than their smaller-brained counterparts_”. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/26 "2005-06-20T14:51:36Z")
> [@](#): > > I am rather puzzled by this. Of course, human bodies are getting bigger - I am not sure why. But lower jaws are getting smaller because we don’t chew as much as or grand- or great grand-parents did. So why are skulls getting bigger? I have always thought evolution was a load of old tosh anyway… Better nutrition. We have access to a variety and quantity of food that the richest of the rich 200 years ago could only dream about. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/27 "2005-06-20T15:01:24Z")
If head sizes are getting bigger, does that mean that eventually all births will be Ceasarean? Or are females evolving to accomodate birthing larger heads? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/28 "2005-06-20T15:09:01Z")
Alas, no. Women’s pelvises have not been keeping up with the head sizes of babies, and more and more caesarians are being performed (some say it’s just impaitient obstetricians). ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/29 "2005-06-20T15:43:33Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If head sizes are getting bigger, does that mean that eventually all births will be Ceasarean? Or are females evolving to accomodate birthing larger heads? A friend and I were discussing the vaguely eugenic upper class of Annapolis MD, where most of the men are wealthy retired Captains and Admirals and most of their wives are the very very pretty trophy wives of naval officers. You can tell me that’s not the case, but I was at the Academy graduation in May, and I have never seen a female population so uniformly pretty and healthy (some were skinny, but even the ones with curves were slender). Several of the cadets were graduating, commissioning, and going to become Rhodes scholars. These are bright kids, and they are tall and broad and fit as hell – damn near “perfect specimens”, many of them with big heads. Their girlfriends and fiancées were uniformly slender; very few of them had actual hips. Their mothers and aunts were the same way. There was a _serious_ genetic predisposition to slender hips in the crowd. What I worry about is this: if our notion of female beauty includes a narrow pelvis, but we also highly value intelligence, then aren’t we setting up our wives for painful or even hazardous births? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/30 "2005-06-21T16:17:30Z")
> [@mike1dog](#): > > I’ve got a large head. I’ve never found a baseball cap that will fit me. I just don’t wear them. I bought a couple of hats for doing yardwork (I sunburn easily) here: [Village Hat Shop: ‘Big Head’ section](http://villagehatshop.com/big-head1.html). According to their hat sizer, I’m somewhere above an 8. The XXXL [mesh crown aussie](http://www.villagehatshop.com/product1597.html) and [regular aussie](http://www.villagehatshop.com/product1571.html) actually fit me, for which I am eternally grateful. > [@](#): > > Didn’t JFK have a really big head? Not at the very end. (harsh!) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977/31 "2005-06-21T16:51:40Z")
According to the [John F. Kennedy Library and Museum](http://www.jfklibrary.org/jfkmisc.htm#General/Trivia), his hat size was 7 3/8. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-head-size-matter/307977.md?page=1)