THE age-old stereotype that people either have the beauty or the brains could soon be lost as new research shows good looking people also tend to be smarter.
Studies based in both Britain and America has shown that handsome men and beautiful women can have an IQ which is on average14 points higher than the norm.
The London School of Economics (LSE), which carried out the research, suggests that attractive people choose partners who are not just good-looking, but also intelligent.
This means the beauty and intelligence is inherited and the children of these couples will be blessed with both.
Satoshi Kanazawa, an LSE researcher, said: “Both in the British and American samples, physical attractiveness is significantly positively associated with general intelligences, both with and without controls for class, body size and health.
“The association between physical attractiveness and general intelligence is also stronger among men than among women.”
He said attractive men have IQs which are an average 13.6 points above the norm, while beautiful women’s IQs are about 11.4 points higher than average.
Mr Kanazawa’s British findings were based on the National Child Development Study, which has followed 17,419 people across the UK since they were born in a single week of March 1958.
Throughout childhood and adolescence they were given a series of tests to show their academic progress, while being scored for their appearance.
A similar study was carried out in America, based on 35,000 young people, and his findings have been published in the academic journal, Intelligence.
He said: “If more intelligent men are more likely to attain higher status, and if men of higher status are more likely to marry beautiful women, then, given that both intelligence and physical attractiveness are highly heritable, there should be a positive correlation between intelligence and physical attractiveness in the children’s generation.”
