Are beautiful people more intelligent than the rest of us?

Question

In a 17-page study called Why Beautiful People Are More Intelligent, researchers Satoshi Kanazawa and Jody Kovar explain bluntly: "Individuals perceive physically attractive others to be more intelligent than physically unattractive others. While most researchers dismiss this perception as a 'bias' or 'stereotype', we contend that individuals have this perception because beautiful people indeed are more intelligent."
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2006/09/are_beautiful_people.html

COMMENTS?

Answer 1

I guess if you're looking at some of the people that end up in trailers in the middle of a redneck town, then sure, you might say that. But if you work in any research facility as I do, you'll notice that almost ALL of the research scientists are very unattractive, nerdy people. So, no, I still agree with researchers that dismiss this perception as bias or stereotype.

Sometimes unintelligence causes ugliness through ignorance. I.e. people who stand out in the sun so much and smoke so much they look like they're 60 when they're 32. Also people who don't brush their teeth lose them early on. Too much fighting causes ugly noses. Drinking alcohol while pregnant causes fetal alcohol syndrome. Smoking crack can deform your face. Stupid people do stupid things and end up with some pretty ugly scars.

On the other hand, people who are already ugly might have nothing else to do(due to lack of sociability) but study all day and night.

I've met alot of pretty people over the years, and for the most part, I find them to be pretty stupid and/or ignorant.

What is my method of defining intelligence? Being able to see the whole picture.

Answer 2

The study cited makes the incorrect assumption that intelligent men select the most beautiful women as mates. I would postulate instead that that the correlation between the IQ's of spouses is stronger than the correlation between IQ and beauty.

If beautiful people were more intelligent, then one would expect those deemed to be most beautiful by our culture, i.e. actors and actresses to have both Oscars and Nobel Prizes. Although an actor can be a President, I cannot think of a single actor who has made a significant contribution in science and won a Nobel Prize. The paper correlates beauty and winning Presidential elections. By the postulated link between intelligence and beauty, all the Presidents must be geniuses. I don't think that most readers will have much difficulty thinking of counter examples.

I perceive, my friends and peers in the research community as rather plain looking, yet they all have a superior IQ. Perhaps my perception is miss- calibrated and research scientists should as a group seek alternate careers in the fashion industry. I for one shall gaze upon my reflection in the mirror in a new light.

Answer 3

Yes, on balance they are. Nature uses the perception of beauty as a sign that the possessor of that quality also has superior traits all around, and will produce superior children to a larger extent that the less beautiful.

Thus we are attracted to those people who we can discern have the most desirable qualities as a mate, and we refer to that sort of "attractiveness" as beauty. And "beauty" in turn reflects a high degree of attractiveness.

The anecdotal evidence cited elsewhere here in arguments to the contrary overlooks the fact that intelligence is reflected more by relative success in a group than relative degrees of learning, prizes won by extremely rare exceptions to the norm, and the also rare actors who are more often than not ignorant in the extreme, yet often quite intelligent when it comes to plying their particular trade.

Answer 4

i don't
agree the nerds are ugly right?
BUT EVERYONE KNOW'S
HOW MUCH BEAUTIFUL THEY ARE
AND HOW MUCH INTELLIGENT THEY AREN'T
OR THEY ARE
EVERYONE KNOWS IN THEIR OWN WAY
ARE BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE BUT ,
IN SOME PART OF THE WORLD ARE SOME OTHER PERSON WHO IT'S BETTER THAN YOU BUT NOT ALWAYS IT'S A BEAUTIFUL PERSON ...

Answer 5

Sometimes. The way u look has nothing to do with how smart or dumb u are.

Answer 6

no not really well am ugly but i am intellegent

Answer 7

OF COURSE SILLY