# Why Are Stupid-Looking People Stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674 "2009-09-26T20:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/81 "2015-01-10T00:52:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Goldang, I was almost stoopid enough to post to this zombie thread. hey, I’m new here, what’s a zombie thread? is that like necroposting? ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/82 "2015-01-10T00:55:20Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I embrace the “hillbilly” identity. Advanced degree and high IQ be damned. I moved up to New York and found me a nice Jewish girl, and we begat a couple of kids who have excelled in the schools of this rich county we live in (albeit the poor part of the rich county). Dunno if I have the face of an imbecile, but the wife seems to like it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y03C0kTCjU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y03C0kTCjU) ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/83 "2015-01-10T01:12:43Z")
> [@vomit\_comet](#): > > hey, I’m new here, what’s a zombie thread? > > is that like necroposting? Welcome! A zombie thread is one that was long dead, but has been resurrected. This thread was created in 2009. It usually happens when someone is searching google and one of our old threads is a hit. They then post to it not realizing that the thread is several years old. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/84 "2015-01-10T01:15:23Z")
I was being facetious… Been around the net a while. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/85 "2015-01-10T01:16:52Z")
> [@vomit\_comet](#): > > hey, I’m new here, what’s a zombie thread? > > is that like necroposting? yeah ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/86 "2015-01-10T01:20:51Z")
Zombie or no… One particular obvious facial trait is the wearing of glasses. It also happens to be easy to tell whether someone is nearsighted or farsighted based on the magnification of the eyes. I was nearsighted before Lasik, and to be honest I’ve always associated nearsightedness with high intelligence and farsightedness with stupidity. I hate to say it, but corrective lenses for hyperopia just give people a [stupid expression](http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1075399/trailer-park-boys-bubbles.jpg) for me. I think part of the problem is that it makes the eyes look relatively close together (fewer eye-widths between pupils as compared to normal or myopic people). Anyway, it looks like [correlation is real](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127804): myopia is associated with higher IQ and hyperopia with lower IQ. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/87 "2015-01-10T01:33:18Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Zombie or no… > > One particular obvious facial trait is the wearing of glasses. It also happens to be easy to tell whether someone is nearsighted or farsighted based on the magnification of the eyes. > > I was nearsighted before Lasik, and to be honest I’ve always associated nearsightedness with high intelligence and farsightedness with stupidity. I hate to say it, but corrective lenses for hyperopia just give people a [stupid expression](http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1075399/trailer-park-boys-bubbles.jpg) for me. I think part of the problem is that it makes the eyes look relatively close together (fewer eye-widths between pupils as compared to normal or myopic people). > > Anyway, it looks like [correlation is real](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127804): myopia is associated with higher IQ and hyperopia with lower IQ. The correlation is real, but it’s not huge. [One study](http://www.iovs.org/content/45/9/2943.full) found a prevelence of myopia of 46% in the lowest quartile of nonverbal IQ, then 56%, 63%, and 68%. So yeah, someone with myopia is more likely to be smart than not, but it’s not enough to have even a reasonable guess as to whether any given person is in the top quartile or the bottom. That’s what usually happens when someone says that you can tell some trait about someone by looking at them (sexual orientation, intelligence, etc.). They’ll do the study, and often time they’ll find some small correlation, and all the news articles will trumpet it as “gaydar is real” or whatever, when in actuality the studies will have just shown that people can determine these traits slightly better than chance, for some specific category. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/88 "2015-01-10T01:34:17Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Zombie or no… > > One particular obvious facial trait is the wearing of glasses. It also happens to be easy to tell whether someone is nearsighted or farsighted based on the magnification of the eyes. > > I was nearsighted before Lasik, and to be honest I’ve always associated nearsightedness with high intelligence and farsightedness with stupidity. I hate to say it, but corrective lenses for hyperopia just give people a [stupid expression](http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1075399/trailer-park-boys-bubbles.jpg) for me. I think part of the problem is that it makes the eyes look relatively close together (fewer eye-widths between pupils as compared to normal or myopic people). > > Anyway, it looks like [correlation is real](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19127804): myopia is associated with higher IQ and hyperopia with lower IQ. I have also noticed a difference in the eyes of people that are hard of hearing. People that are hard of hearing and don’t wear hearing aids or are so hard of hearing that hearing aids don’t do much, squint at you when you are talking. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/89 "2015-01-10T01:51:21Z")
> [@buddy431](#): > > They’ll do the study, and often time they’ll find some small correlation, and all the news articles will trumpet it as “gaydar is real” or whatever, when in actuality the studies will have just shown that people can determine these traits slightly better than chance, for some specific category. Yeah. I don’t claim at all to have “dumbdar” or whatever, but I can’t deny my mental association. I try not to let it affect how I treat people, though I doubt I succeed completely. I’d suppose that this small, real correlation is just the trigger needed to cultivate a full-blown case of confirmation bias. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/90 "2015-01-10T03:34:14Z")
I will say that after working with many special needs kids one issue is that their parents dress them shabbily or in clothes out of style. This automatically sets them apart and they are treated like crap. Dang, these kids already have enough strikes against them. Thats why one thing we push is to dress up your kids in the best clothes you can afford and get them to a great hair stylist who can make them look good. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674/91 "2015-01-10T04:07:00Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I will say that after working with many special needs kids one issue is that their parents dress them shabbily or in clothes out of style. This automatically sets them apart and they are treated like crap. Dang, these kids already have enough strikes against them. > > Thats why one thing we push is to dress up your kids in the best clothes you can afford and get them to a great hair stylist who can make them look good. Not only that the parents maybe even subconciously don’t seem to think it matters since they might feel if they are not able to work that they need to impress no one, and other people pick up on that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-stupid-looking-people-stupid/511674.md?page=4)