Intelligence is one of the most important mental traits that have been studied by psychology. It has been shown that having a high level of IQ (the indicator of the level of intelligence) is related to being more likely to enjoy a long life, with access to well-paid jobs, and in good health.
Now, what is the link between intelligence and love? Several investigations have set out to explore this fascinating relationship, and today we will look at one that, specifically, focuses on analyzing the way the smartest men approach marriage
It makes sense that intelligence is something that allows us to adapt well to the environment, since by definition, this trait is the ability to find solutions to new problems. The opposite of solving a situation by resorting to routine and memorized actions through habit is intelligence.
However, it is also true that under this famous concept there is a certain ambiguity. What, exactly, are the mental skills that are working in a specific situation to achieve a goal? Is it the same intelligence that acts when solving a mental calculation operation as that which intervenes when understanding a philosophy text? The answer is yes and no: intelligence is a set of mental processes, and at each moment some become much more important than others
Now, what does it mean to be intelligent in romantic relationships? In this case, we must take into account that currently gender roles continue to have a lot of influence on the way in which most people behave in their relationships and in their marriages. Therefore, it is worth differentiating by sex. In this case we will focus on what happens to men, their marriages and their IQ level through research carried out by a team of Finnish psychologists headed by Jaakko Aspara.
It has long been known that smarter men are more likely to get married. However, this does not mean that intelligence is an element that improves the emotional bond that unites these men with their partners; It could also be the result of a parallel effect of having a high IQ: higher income levels
Ultimately, if a man opts for better jobs because he is more intelligent, he will also have a greater capacity to be able to contribute resources to start a family (and even more so when, as a result of inequality, many women cannot contribute so much money to life together).
So the researchers led by Aspara wanted to see if it was a greater ability to affectively manage relationships and not the family economy, which explains this greater success in marriage.
In addition, they wanted to see what type of mental sub-skills included in the concept of intelligence make these men more successful in life with their partner. To carry out the study, Aspara took advantage of the large amount of data collected by the Finnish government: data on income, marital status and IQ of all the men who live in the country (the latter data, as a result of the tests that men pass when they pass due to compulsory military service).
The results
As expected, more intelligent men tended to be more likely to get married and stay married 4 years later. This effect was preserved even when the influence of economic income was discarded. In fact, although economics was more important in predicting the chances of getting married, intelligence was more powerful when it came to predicting the duration of marriages
And what mental skills were most important to the health of the marriage? To find out this, the researchers went from taking into account IQ, as a measure of general intelligence, to doing so with the scores in the parts of the tests that, separately, measure these specific abilities: logical, numerical and verbal reasoning. verbal skills They were clearly the ones that best explained the possibility of having long marriages.
The importance of communication in a couple
One explanation for this is that verbal skills allow for better communication in relationships in general and in marriage. This would be very illuminating, as it would mean that Many of the conflicts between couples are, in reality, a matter of communication errors Of course, being better at using language also makes it easier to seduce, which makes the beginning of a stable relationship more likely.
In short, if the most intelligent men make better husbands, it seems that it is not because of their ease with words, but because of their ease in connecting with their partners, letting them know their way of seeing things and their interests.
