Across speed‑dating labs and real‑style app tests, intelligence is detectable but adds little to sexual appeal compared with physical attractiveness. A 2025 study using verified IQ on synthetic profiles found attractiveness (~β=0.80) outweighed intelligence (~β=0.12) by roughly sevenfold, with similar patterns in face‑to‑face experiments. Population‑genetic data further link higher intelligence/education to greater sexlessness risk.
— This challenges widely held claims that intelligence is a decisive attractor, reshaping conversations about dating advice, status signaling, and the roots of sexlessness/incel trends.
Robin Hanson
2025.11.30
60% relevant
Both pieces analyze sexual‑market dynamics and what determines attractiveness; Hanson’s status‑coordination story offers a complementary mechanism to the empirical finding that physical attractiveness dominates intelligence as a mating signal, by explaining how male peer status can amplify or suppress those preferences.
John Carter
2025.11.29
60% relevant
The essay describes a winner‑take‑all dating marketplace in which a small set of highly attractive men capture most partners—this is the same empirical dynamic the existing idea summarizes about attractiveness dominating dating outcomes.
Davide Piffer
2025.10.01
100% relevant
Witmer, Rosenbusch & Meral (2025): verified IQ badges on profiles had a small positive effect on swipes but were dwarfed by looks; Driebe et al. (2021) speed‑dating showed intelligence perception didn’t boost appeal.
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