With great intellect comes great responsibility.
It takes a fool to fall in love, but an intelligent partner to make it last according to new research.
General intelligence is a strong indicator of an individual’s odds at success in life, as those with the right stuff are more to experience the sort of academic and professional achievements that get them ahead socially and economically.
In terms of romance, previous studies have also revealed lower rates of divorce and higher odds of marriage at mid-life among the intelligent sect.
Taking the research a step further, evolutionary psychologist Gavin S. Vance and his colleagues at Oakland University in Michigan set out to explore which factors of a relationship, good or bad, were linked to intelligence — or the lack thereof.
For their new report, published in Personality and Individual Differences, they chose to narrow their experiments to heterosexual men, enlisting 202 participants aged 18-65 who have been in relationships for six months or more, with an average length of just over three-and-a-half years.
The study cohort were required to take a cognitive test to asses general intelligence skills, such as ability to problem-solve or apply logic, and took another survey that revealed positive and negative relationship behaviors.
Results shows that the more intelligent the man, the more positive his relationship outcomes. Smart men demonstrated lower levels of harmful relationship heaviors such as verbal abuse, manipulation and sexual coercion, and higher levels of relationship satisfaction and prioritization.
In particular, high marks pertaining to pattern recognition and sequential reasoning were strongly linked to men who invested more in their relationships and, conversely, exhibited fewer problematic behaviors overall. According to researchers, this finding suggests these skills may facilitate impulse control by helping men consider the consequences of habitual bad behavior.
However, researchers found no significant link between male intelligence and some behaviors, such as jealousy, physical abuse and desire to dominate.
Further research to explore the relationship between romantic succces and female general intelligence, as well as its impact on other relationship types, could help us get to the root of what makes love last.
