Why smart men are better husbands
Intelligence is one of the most important mental traits of those that have been studied by psychology. It has been shown that having a high level of IQ (the intelligence level indicator) is related to having a better chance of enjoying a long life, with access to well-paid jobs, and in a good state of health.
Now, what is the link between intelligence and love? Several investigations have been proposed to explore this fascinating relationship, and today we will see one that, in particular, focuses on analyzing the way in which the smartest men face marriage.
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An advantageous trait in love
It makes sense that intelligence is something that allows us to adapt well to the environment , because by definition, this feature is the ability to find solutions to new problems. The opposite of solving a situation by resorting to routine actions and memorized through custom is intelligence.
However, it is also true that under this very famous concept there is a certain ambiguity. What, exactly, are the mental abilities that are working in a particular situation to achieve a goal? Is it the same intelligence that acts at the time of solving a mental calculation operation that one that intervenes at the time of understanding a text of philosophy? The answer is yes and no: intelligence is a set of mental processes, and at each moment some become much more important than others .
Now, what does it mean to be intelligent in romantic relationships? In this case we must bear in mind that currently gender roles continue to have a great influence on the way in which most people behave in their relationships and marriages. Therefore, it is worth differentiating by sex. In this case we will focus on what happens with men, their marriages and their IQ level through an investigation carried out by a team of Finnish psychologists headed by Jaakko Aspara.
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Economy or affectivity?
It has been known for some time that smarter men are more likely to get married. However, this does not mean that intelligence is an element that improves the affective bond that unites these men with their partners; it could also be the result of a parallel effect of having a high CI: higher income levels .
At the end of the day, if a man chooses better jobs because he is more intelligent, he will also have a greater capacity to be able to contribute resources to raise a family (especially when, due to inequality, many women can not contribute so much money to life in common).
So, researchers led by Aspara wanted to see if it was a greater ability to emotionally manage relationships , and not the family economy, which explains this greater success in marriage.
In addition, they wanted to see what kind of mental sub-abilities encompassed in the concept of intelligence make these men more successful in life with their partner. To carry out the study, Aspara took advantage of the large amount of data compiled by the Finnish government: income data, marital status and CI of all the men who inhabit the country (this last data, as a result of the tests that men pass when they pass for compulsory military service).
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The results
As expected, the smartest men tended to have more chances of getting married and of remaining married 4 years later. This effect was retained even when the influence of economic income was ruled out. In fact, although the economy was more important in predicting the chances of getting married, intelligence was more important when predicting the duration of marriages .
And what mental skills were most important to the health of marriage? To know this, the researchers went from taking into account the IQ, as a measure of general intelligence, to do so with the scores in the parts of the tests that, separately, measure these specific capacities: logical, numerical and verbal reasoning. Verbal skills they were clearly the ones that best explained the possibility of having long marriages.
The importance of communication in the couple
One explanation for this is that verbal skills allow for better communication in relationships in general and in marriage. This would be very enlightening, since it would mean that Many of the conflicts of couple are, in fact, a matter of communication errors . Of course, behaving better with language also gives many facilities when it comes to seducing, which makes the beginning of a stable relationship more likely.
In short, if smarter men make better husbands it seems that it is no longer because of their ease of speech, but because of their ease in connecting with their partners, making them get their way of seeing things and their interests.
Bibliographical references:
- Aspara, J., Wittkowski, K., & Luo, X. (2018). Types of intelligence predict likelihood to get married and stay married: Large-scale empirical evidence for evolutionary theory. Personality and Individual Differences, 122, pp. 1 - 6.
