Scientific study reveals that intelligence is more important than appearance when it comes to falling in love

It’s no surprise that physical appearance is an important first-time factor when it comes to winning a heart. After all, the most physically attractive people are the most likely to receive messages on dating apps and, of course, to be sung in person. However, a recent study has shown that there’s something more powerful than physical appearance when it comes to attraction… and that’s intelligence.

In this post, the awesome.club will provide more details about the research and how the researchers arrived at this conclusion.

Charles Darwin had already raised the hypothesis that suggests the importance of the appeal of intelligence when looking for a partner — and this hypothesis contributed to the “construction” of his famous theory of evolution. The basic conclusion is that the selection of a life partner is part of the evolution of human intelligence.

In fact, appearance is only important at first to attract the other, since the ability to solve problems tends to ensure a more definitive attraction, proving that intelligence and cognitive abilities manage to make a person, who previously may have been rejected, much more attractive.

A scientific article published in the famous magazine Science explained how female parakeets have a greater preference for their male counterparts who are shown to have higher intelligence and more problem-solving skills.

The team responsible for the study that culminated in the publication of the article included researchers from China and the Netherlands, including Jiani Chen, Yuqi Zou, Yue-Hua Sun and Carel ten Cate. The study consisted of working with 34 male and 17 female parakeets, which were divided into groups in different cages.

Each of the cages was segmented into 3 parts, using transparent screens: the female was placed in the middle and the males were left at the ends. After 4 days of observation, the “preferred” and “least desired” parakeet were identified according to the female’s attitudes.

Then the parakeets were taken out of their cages and formed into a “problem-solving” group consisting of the “least preferred” males. These animals were trained for a week to be able to solve small tests such as: opening a “puzzle box” in order to access the food inside.

When the researchers returned to place the same trio of parakeets in cages segmented into 3 parts, they performed the same test and noticed that the females started to prefer the parakeet that had been trained, proving to be able to open the box, despite having been the “least preferred” by them previously.

Interestingly, the researchers also performed this test in reverse, that is, with a male surrounded by two females. It also identified a group of “least favorites”, trained to pass the box test, just as they had done before with the male parakeets.

The difference is that the males’ preference did not change and they continued to choose the female that had no training and could not open the box.

While it is obvious that humans are far more complex creatures than parakeets, it is extremely interesting to see how even among animals we can observe similar behaviors. This is because intelligence is a factor that determines the ability to survive, which suggests that we evolved to be attracted to those who are more capable – which in evolutionary language, means greater ability to breed and preserve the genes of the species, be it she a parakeet, a dog or a human being.

Now you know: on your next date, don’t worry so much about how you look; just try to strike up an intelligent conversation. What did you think of the study? What attracts you most in a person? Leave your opinion in the comments.