Smart men are more loyal in relationships, study shows

With great wisdom comes great responsibility.

New research shows that only fools can fall in love, but only smart partners can make love last.

General intelligence is a strong indicator of a person’s chances of success in life, because those who have the right stuff are more likely to experience academic and professional achievements that put them ahead socially and economically.

In terms of love, previous research has also shown that smart people have lower divorce rates and higher marriage rates in middle age.

Gavin S. Vance, an evolutionary psychologist at Oakland University in Michigan, and his colleagues took this research a step further and began to explore what factors in relationships, both good and bad, are associated with intelligence or the lack of it. related.

In the new report, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, they chose to narrow the experiment to heterosexual men, recruiting 202 participants aged 18 to 65 who had been in six relationships. months or more, the average relationship duration is just over 3 months, – half a year.

The study cohort was asked to take cognitive tests to assess general intellectual skills, such as the ability to solve problems or apply logic, and another survey that revealed positive and negative relationship behaviors.

The results showed that the smarter a man was, the more positive his relationships were. Intelligent men exhibit lower levels of toxic relationship severity, such as verbal abuse, manipulation, and sexual coercion, and higher levels of relationship satisfaction and prioritization.

In particular, high scores related to pattern recognition and sequential reasoning were strongly associated with men who were more invested in their relationships and, conversely, exhibited less problem behaviors overall. The findings suggest these skills may help men consider the consequences of habitual bad behavior, thereby promoting impulse control, the researchers said.

However, researchers found no significant link between male intelligence and certain behaviors such as jealousy, physical abuse and dominance.

Further research exploring the relationship between romantic success and women’s general intelligence, as well as its impact on other relationship types, could help us uncover the roots of lasting love.