Slate has their own version of this ("Explainer"), answering everyday questions most of us take for granted. One such question I'm guilty of asking on this site repeatedly over the years as well:
Why are smart people usually ugly?
Usually ugly, not always. Usually. (Lest someone who scored a flawless SAT start complaining they're also a smoke show.) Yet it turns out this way of thinking is all wrong. Wrong by me, by you (damn right I'm involving you in this), and by everyone we associate with.
According to Slate--and, by origination, vast amounts of research--ugly people actually tend to be dumber than good looking people. As if being ugly wasn't already a letdown in life, you're also supposed to be drooling on yourself, too. But Slate points to substantial research, especially one conducted by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa--who looked to multiple databases covering a total of 38,000 people--and deduced (through examination that's too convoluted to explain briefly here) that good looking people tend to have an IQ 12 points higher than dumb people.
Obviously, this enters a murky gray area. What is beauty if not in the eye of the beholder? Yet, studies have shown that humans subconsciously acknowledge a biologically-based standard of beauty predicated on how symmetrical someone appears. The more symmetrical the more beautiful. (That crooked nose at a 90 degree angle you have from breaking it five times in your youth? It isn't wooing anyone.)
Intelligence is another matter. By and large, all research uses the IQ test as a basis for intelligence, which is mildly flawed. Boiled down, an IQ score is simply a matter of someone's likelihood of being intelligent--not their actual intelligence. One can have an IQ of 140, but never live up to the full potential of a 140 IQ. In theory, you could waste that entire potential and live out an existence no greater than someone with an IQ of 70. (Think: Forrest Gump squeezing every ounce out of his 70 IQ.)
Meanwhile, some researchers argue that IQs only gauge specific types of intelligence, and don't offer a comprehensive view of all the intellectual capabilities of a human being.
That said, there is a caveat to the whole analysis of beauty = intelligent argument, specifically that ugly people, while statistically less intelligent as a group, are also capable of having among the most intelligent individuals. Put another way, for every collection of Forrest Gumps there's an Einstein hidden within the ugly population, Kanazawa's research says.
The grand conclusion to take away from all of this is that intelligent people are probably--probably--better looking, too. Which is to say that Brad Pitt and George Clooney, Halle Berry and Brooklyn Decker are not only gorgeous human beings, they're probably also smarter than all of us, too. No question about it.
*Yes, they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment