Normally it is said that all excess is harmful, but… does this principle apply to the level of intelligence of people?

In most aspects of life, the answer to the above question has 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 virtually any situation.

Thus, despite certain myths about people with very high intelligence, the truth is that they are more likely to find a well-paid job and to stay healthy and live longer. They usually have no significant difficulty connecting with others, nor are they unhappy.

However, there is one area of life where being very intelligent does not seem to bring significant advantages: the possibility of arousing sexual attraction in others .

Testing the concept of sapiosexuality

In recent years the concept of sapiosexuality, associated with people who are usually called sapiosexuals, has become very popular. In short, sapiosexuals are individuals who, when assessing someone’s attractiveness, take into account their level of intelligence , to the point where it is the personal trait to which they give most importance.

All this, however, does not cease to occur in theory, since until very recently this subject had not yet been studied. However, a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Western, Australia, has set out to test whether sapiosexuality is really a psychological concept that explains something real, or whether it’s just a label that some people use to make themselves seem more interesting.

The results have shown that this phenomenon does have a certain empirical basis, but only to a certain extent. As regards the attraction generated by a high intelligence , there comes a point where the latter hardly matters. In other words, 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 with both the IQ data of different people and with those referring to the sexual attractiveness given to them, and the interest of having a long term relationship with those people. The results show, on the one hand, that intelligence has a greater effect on the interest in having a relationship than on sexual attractiveness. Moreover, of the 13 personal traits to be assessed, intelligence was the second most valued when judging people’s attractiveness, just behind “kind and understanding”.

However, the results showed something strange. Intelligence makes people significantly more attractive, but only up to an IQ of 120 (an intelligence score that only equals or exceeds one person in 10). When this IQ level is passed, the importance of intelligence in attractiveness collapses . In other words, the mental ability of people to solve problems with their intellect is not something that adds to the attractiveness of extremely intelligent people. Why?

An equal-to-equal relationship

It is clear that there are many advantages to intelligence, and that these advantages are usually exploited both by those who are intelligent and by those 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 because of this, intelligence can become something that distances people who are very different in this respect. The results of this study show that sapiosexuality can have an empirical basis , but that it 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.

The fact is that intelligence is expressed in many ways in everyday life: in the type of conversations, in hobbies, in the type of humour, etc. All these elements are a way of creating harmony between two people, but if it doesn’t appear and it is difficult to connect, frustration appears.

Normally, the smartest people may not have problems socializing just because they are smart, but that doesn’t mean they connect with everyone ; it may also mean they have more resources to find those people with whom they fit best and who provide the most interesting mental stimuli.

Bibliographic references:

  • Gignac, G. E., Darbyshire, J., Ooi, Michelle (2017). Some people are attracted sexually to intelligence: A psychometric evaluation of sapiosexuality. Intelligence, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2017.11.009