Does Intelligence Cause Attraction? Only If You Do Not Exceed This IQ Level
It is normally said that all excess is harmful, but… Does this principle apply to people’s level of intelligence?
In most aspects of life, the answer to the above question has been proven to be “no.” Intelligence is the ability to adapt to new problems using the means available at any given time, and this is advantageous in practically any situation.
Thus, although there are certain myths about people with very high intelligence, the truth is that they have a better chance of finding a well-paying job and staying healthy and living longer. Generally, they neither have significant difficulties connecting with others, nor are they unhappy.
Now, there is one area of life in which being very intelligent does not seem to provide significant advantages: the possibility of arousing sexual attraction in others
In recent years, the concept of sapiosexuality has become very popular, associated with people who are usually called sapiosexuals. In short, sapiosexuals are individuals who, When assessing someone’s attractiveness, they take into account their level of intelligence to the point where it is the personal trait to which they give the most importance.
All this, however, does not stop happening in theory, since until very recently this topic had not yet been studied. However, a recent study carried out by researchers at the University of Western, Australia, has set out to verify whether sapiosexuality is really a psychological concept that explains something real, or if it is just a label that some people use to seem more interesting.
The results have shown that this phenomenon does have a certain empirical basis, but only to a certain extent. Regarding the attraction generated by high intelligence, there comes a point where the latter almost doesn’t matter. That is to say, a high IQ usually goes hand in hand with greater attraction, but not if it is so high that it borders on genius and intellectual giftedness.
If you are not a very high IQ genius, intelligence attracts
In this research we have worked both with the IQ data of different people and with those that refer to the sexual attractiveness that they have, and the interest in having a long-term relationship with those people. The results show, on the one hand, that intelligence has a greater effect on interest in having a relationship than on sexual attractiveness. Furthermore, among the 13 personal traits to be valued, intelligence was the second most valued when judging people’s attractiveness, just behind “kind and understanding.”
However, the results showed something strange. Intelligence significantly increases people’s attractiveness, but only up to an IQ of 120 (an intelligence score that only equals or exceeds one person in 10). When this level of IQ is passed, the importance of intelligence in attractiveness plummets That is to say, people’s mental ability to solve problems through intellect is not something that adds attractiveness to extremely intelligent people. Because?
A relationship of equals
It is clear that intelligence brings many advantages, and that normally these advantages are taken advantage of both by those who are intelligent and by those people with whom those with a high IQ have a positive relationship. However, it is also true that in relationships, whether fleeting or stable, symmetry is important.
Perhaps for this reason, intelligence can become something that distances people who are very different in this aspect. The results of this study show that sapiosexuality can have an empirical basis but this has its limits, and on the other hand the conclusions reinforce the idea that the excess of attractive or highly valued traits in most situations can have a negative effect.
And intelligence is expressed in many ways on a daily basis: in the type of conversations, in hobbies, in the type of humor, etc. All these elements are a way to create harmony between two people, but if this does not appear and it is difficult to connect, frustration appears.
The most intelligent people may not normally have problems when socializing simply for the sake of being smart, but That doesn’t mean they connect with everyone ; It may also mean that they have more resources to find those people with whom they fit best and who provide more interesting mental stimuli.
