Does this man look intimidated by this woman?
[From article]
While men say they like the idea of dating a woman who’s smarter than they are, when it comes time to meet her, they’re less keen on the brainy lady, a study that will be published in the November journal “Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin” reveals.
In the first part of the study, researchers had 105 male participants read a hypothetical scenario about a woman who, among other traits, had either outperformed the male subject or underperformed him in a math or English course; the men were then asked to imagine how desirable that person might be as a romantic partner.
In this scenario, “men formed favorable impressions and showed greater interest in women who displayed more (versus less) intelligence than themselves.” (Research out this year supports the notion that men say intelligence is very important to them in a romantic partner.)
But in the second part of the study — where the men were told they would meet a woman in person — a woman’s intelligence worked against her.
The participants took what they thought was an intelligence test, and were told that they would soon be meeting someone who had either scored better or worse than them on the test.
Faced with actually meeting a female who was smarter than they were, the men “distanced themselves more from her, tended to rate her as less attractive, and showed less desire to exchange contact information or plan a date with her,” the study revealed.
[. . .]
Plenty of men aren’t threatened by a woman’s intelligence, and this study didn’t look at what would happen if a man was in a relationship with a woman more intelligent than he was.
http://nypost.com/2015/10/16/men-feel-threatened-by-smarter-women-science-says/
Men feel threatened by smarter women, science says
By Catey Hill, Marketwatch
New York
October 16, 2015 | 4:33pm
