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Researchers from Western Sydney University recruited 600 adults to rate their feels towards a series of hypothetical people of all sexual orientations. Each participant was asked to rate how desirable each person was for both a short and long-term relationship based on descriptions they were given about their intelligence (i.e. ‘less smart than you’, ‘as smart as you’, ‘smarter than you’) and their physical attractiveness (i.e. ‘insufficiently attractive’, ‘sufficiently attractive’ or ‘abundantly attractive’.)
For heterosexuals, the results were intriguing, to say the least.
Men and women alike chose equally as smart or smarter partners than themselves to couple up with long-term – suggesting intelligence is an important factor to consider when getting serious with someone.
That said, men preferred less intelligent women for short-term commitments (but only if they were determined to be sufficiently attractive). *Sighs*
On the other hand, women appeared uninterested in dopey dudes altogether.
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“The less intelligent person is one to be avoided, as this person will come with considerable social and even biological costs, making less relative intelligence a deal-breaker,” the authors write.
Curiously though, those who were too smart were often perceived as a threat.
"A partner who was relatively more intelligent comes with [their] own set of costs like a greater probability of defection and even a sense of superiority, both which may also be deal-breakers," the authors explained.
In short: dating someone who is way brainier than you could lead to them being poached by another person because they are so dang desirable. Or, it could just be that it's super annoying to have your grammar corrected 24/7.
Probs the latter, tbh.
