Beauty or intelligence? Are men so imbued with themselves that they prefer a beautiful woman by their side rather than an intellectually brilliant woman? Not only would that be underestimating men, but it would also imply that, for them, only appearance matters. Men are more subtle than that, ladies!
A team of researchers has carried out an experiment that will prove it to you. Four classifieds were posted on an Internet dating site. The texts of the ads were identical each time except for three words: "cute and thin", "sensual and passionate", "bright and ambitious" and the fourth without mention. The researchers then counted the number of responses obtained for each ad.
The ad that received the most responses was the one with "bright and ambitious" (around 190 responses), just ahead of "cute and thin" (around 130 responses). The ad with "sensual and passionate" yielded fewer responses than the one with no mention (90 versus about 100 responses).
Contrary to feminine intuitions, men therefore prefer bright women to beautiful women. Still, responding to an ad on the Internet afterwards does not mean that they are going to marry the brilliant woman, but it is still proof that men do not always judge by the physique and leave the right to women to to be ambitious and brilliant too.
