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ERIC Number: EJ729952
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 17
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0160-2896
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Why Beautiful People Are More Intelligent
Kanazawa, Satoshi; Kovar, Jody L.
Intelligence, v32 n3 p227-243 May-Jun 2004
Empirical studies demonstrate that 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. The conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent follows from four assumptions. (1) Men who are more intelligent are more likely to attain higher status than men who are less intelligent. (2) Higher-status men are more likely to mate with more beautiful women than lower-status men. (3) Intelligence is heritable. (4) Beauty is heritable. If all four assumptions are empirically true, then the conclusion that beautiful people are more intelligent is "logically" true, making it a proven theorem. We present empirical evidence for each of the four assumptions. While we concentrate on the relationship between beauty and intelligence in this paper, our evolutionary psychological explanation can account for a correlation between physical attractiveness and "any other" heritable trait that helps men attain higher status (such as aggression and social skills).
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A