Many men believe that it takes good looks, brains, wit and humor to land the girl of his dreams. While that may be perceived in the media and, well, pretty much in millions of peoples’ minds, what attracts women to men may be somewhat of the opposite.
According to a new study from the University of Western Australia, women said that men who are deemed to be too clever are actually more likely to be turned down, per the research, via DailyMail. That’s not to say girls don’t enjoy intelligence, guys, so don’t think they want some scrub who sits around all day and isn’t in tune with all that’s going on. But, like most people who are surrounded by people who seem overly intelligent, women think it can be a intimidating and/or a drag.
As for good looks, well, the University of Western Australia study also found that guys who are too physically attractive aren’t high on the suitor list for girls, either. While you may think that having a six-pack, toned arms and muscular legs might be what every girl dreams of — and, let’s be fair, some do — the study showed that those “exceptionally” handsome men aren’t what girls are into.
On the contrary, the same wasn’t true for guys, who said that both extreme levels of both intelligence and good looks were not a turn out. That’s not unexpected, we’d imagine, given guys are a bit more into the physical than their female counterparts, if we’re being honest. Plus, it can be tough to read a girl’s mind and what she wants, so, when she’s open with both her looks and smarts, it can come across as her being confident and interested.
The study, which asked hundreds of people what they found attractive in a potential romantic partner, had participants rate four qualities: good looks, cleverness, kindness and an easy-going personality. Using a somewhat in-depth ranking system of the general population, the results showed that the more one of the above qualities were present in a person, the more attractive the person was a partner; most of the time.
For instance, girls said that a partner would be more attractive if they were more intelligent than 90 percent of the population, however, that attractiveness decreased if the person was 99 percent more intelligent than the population. So, again, girls like smart guys, just not those obnoxiously smart guys. The same type of trend showed up for girls when considering both physical attractiveness and an easy-going personality.
The findings were published in the British Journal of Psychology, and, according to the co-author of the research, Dr. Gilles Gignac, the information is important in seeing what threshold of certain traits guys and girls are willing to accept in a partner, via DailyMail:
“It is well established that several mate characteristics are valued highly in a prospective partner. But the sort of continuous measurement used in our research is making it clear that several of these characteristics are associated with a threshold effect – in other words, you can have too much of a good thing.
Although there are plenty of other factors as to what attracts women to men, this research, hopefully, calms some of the pressure some guys feel when it comes to looking and appearing too smart. Bottom line: If you’re confident, keep yourself groomed, can make her laugh and carry a conversation, that’s your best chance at landing your dream girl.