Are blondes stupid?

Blonde hair color is due to a lack of a pigment called eumelanin. However, It seems that there is a general belief that blondes also lack something else: intelligence. Who hasn’t heard that blondes are stupid? Put your hand down, almost all of us have heard this phrase and, on some occasions, we have even used it. But what is true about it? Is it a myth or are there studies that show that blondes are less intelligent? And in the case of people who dye their hair, is this naivety contagious?

This stereotype, which especially affects women, centers on two beliefs: that blondes are sexy and that handsome people are stupid. It is a list of ideas that we make when we consider that attractive people do not need to resort to their intelligence to achieve their goals..

IT IS NOT A CURRENT CLICHE

The curious thing is that these perceptions are not a cliché of today’s society, but rather respond to a belief that we have inherited from our most remote ancestors. For several European cultures, blonde hair was an attractive feature, which was enhanced if it was accompanied by blue eyes. Let’s travel to ancient Rome. At that time, The Roman women, most of them brunettes, looked for all kinds of tricks to dye their hair blonde because they were jealous of the slaves that their husbands brought from the campaigns through Germany.

If we stop in the 20th century, Perhaps the first dumb blonde icon and the one that has most influenced current belief is the character of Lorelei Lee, who was brought to life by Marilyn Monroe. Inspired by the novel “They Prefer Blondes” it tells the story of a companion woman for rich men. This peroxide blonde, lover of diamonds, is more than stupid and superficial, but contributed a lot to the popular myth that blondes are more attractive and libertine than brunettes.

THEY PREFER BLONDES

If we look for a scientific explanation to clarify the reason why we find one hair color or another more or less attractive, We find a biological reason, inherited from our primitive ancestors. Hunting was very dangerous. There were few adults prepared for it and women depended on men for food. This encouraged sexual competition between women, a battle that blondes always won.because they preferred them to the detriment of brunettes, a choice that seems to still prevail today.

Another biological factor which would explain the success of blondes among the male gender, We find it in the number of estrogens that these women have, higher than usual, a factor that gives them that extra that makes them more sexually attractive.

Other studies that have tried to find out how this myth affects the intellectual performance of blondes and people in general have shown quite surprising results. A group of French scientists, led by Thierry Meyer, verified how people of both sexes and different hair colors reduce their intellectual capacity after seeing photographs of blonde women, despite being intelligent individuals.
Meyer justifies the results of this study in the fact that stereotypesbeliefs rooted in society, They unconsciously condition our thinking. Although we know that stereotypes do not always correspond to reality, they act as a glass through which we see reality and act accordingly.