NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE AND FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS IN A LARGE, GENETICALLY INFORMATIVE SAMPLE.
Theories in both evolutionary and social psychology suggest that a positive correlation should exist between facial attractiveness and general intelligence, and several empirical observations appear to corroborate this expectation. Using highly reliable measures of facial attractiveness and IQ in a large sample of identical and fraternal twins and their siblings, we found no evidence for a phenotypic correlation between these traits. Likewise, neither the genetic nor the environmental latent factor correlations were statistically significant. We supplemented our analyses of new data with a simple meta-analysis that found evidence of publication bias among past studies of the relationship between facial attractiveness and intelligence. In view of these results, we suggest that previously published reports may have overestimated the strength of the relationship and that the theoretical bases for the predicted attractiveness-intelligence correlation may need to be reconsidered.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America ; Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
Dorian G
DG
Mitchem
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia ; School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Brendan P
BP
Zietsch
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Margaret J
MJ
Wright
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Nicholas G
NG
Martin
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America ; Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
John K
JK
Hewitt
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America ; Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
Matthew C
MC
Keller
evolutionary genetics; facial attractiveness; fitness trait; genetic correlation; intelligence; twin and family study