Althouse: "Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs, a Cambridge evolutionary biologist has claimed."

May 26, 2015

"Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs, a Cambridge evolutionary biologist has claimed."

"Although having a large bust and never-ending pins are deemed by western culture as the epitome of femininity, when choosing a mother for their children, men look for brains first."

44 comments:

James Pawlak said...: I can not write for other men; But, I suspect a "loving nature" and compassion is the chief goal in selection.; 5/26/15, 5:36 PM
LakeLevel said...: Large breasts get way too much credit. Their appeal is simply that they are easier to see from across the room. I was lucky enough to get a smart, good looking woman.; 5/26/15, 5:38 PM
LakeLevel said...: Large breast are very over rated. Their primary appeal is that they are easier to see from across the room.; 5/26/15, 5:40 PM
damikesc said...: Can't men like both? I like brains AND tits, personally. Wife has both, so score!; 5/26/15, 5:58 PM
cubanbob said...: Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs, a Cambridge evolutionary biologist has claimed."

"Although having a large bust and never-ending pins are deemed by western culture as the epitome of femininity, when choosing a mother for their children, men look for brains first."

For such supposedly brilliant scholars and scientists it seems it has escaped them that most men distinguish the difference between the qualities wanted in a wife versus what is desired in a girlfriend. Or as the Jimmy Soul song goes "if you want to happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife". Now I wouldn't go that far and I didn't, an attractive wife who is smart and competent is the ideal.; 5/26/15, 6:00 PM
Bryan Townsend said...: I'd like to see his evidence! You can claim anything you want...; 5/26/15, 6:05 PM
tim in vermont said...: Not first, beauty gets you in the door, as the saying goes, but without brains, you fish can forget about this bicycle. Brains can open a door with exposure that looks couldn't break down, over time, anyway.

I read once, and it makes sense to me, that the large breast thing is due to the fact that a woman with large breasts can't fake youth. If you are attracted to large, lovely breasts, you are unlikely to waste your seed on a lady past her prime childbearing years.

I can live without them, but large breasts are included in the collection of kinds of breasts that I love, along with small ones, average ones, and especially ones attached to women I like as people, usually. Yes, Billy Crystal was right in that movie, "You pretty much want to bang them too."; 5/26/15, 6:05 PM
n.n said...: Men look for compassion first, physical attributes second, and intelligence last, which actually reflects a better correlation with evolutionary principles. The mother, the wife, and the partner. This may have changed with the so-called "social revolution", but only through the establishment of a false gender equivalence, that among its other failures has been a primary political and social forcing that caused the annual premeditated death of over one million unwanted or inconvenient human lives in American alone.; 5/26/15, 6:08 PM
kermitt said...: what about us guys who prefer small breasts and short legs ?; 5/26/15, 6:11 PM
n.n said...: Aesthetic appeal, after the initial lust phase, probably coincides with third or even last place on the totem pole of relationship constructs. The mischaracterization of the majority of men in order to establish an equivalence guideline for women has done a great disservice to both women and men.; 5/26/15, 6:13 PM
tim in vermont said...: what about us guys who prefer small breasts and short legs ?

You have the "Hillary" from KFC, two small breasts, two large thighs, and two left wings.

But really, I don't know about all men, but I have a sweet spot for the short girls. They wear the hottest shoes.; 5/26/15, 6:32 PM
tim in vermont said...: Sometimes women think that if they are doctrinaire liberals, it proves they are smart. These are not the brains we are looking for.; 5/26/15, 6:34 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I got all three. Nyah nyah.; 5/26/15, 6:39 PM
Moose said...: Only during the morning after - not the night before...; 5/26/15, 6:42 PM
Anthony said...: I'm a leg and butt man, m'self. Dancer bodies are the best.; 5/26/15, 6:47 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I read once, and it makes sense to me, that the large breast thing is due to the fact that a woman with large breasts can't fake youth. If you are attracted to large, lovely breasts, you are unlikely to waste your seed on a lady past her prime childbearing years."

Seems like the preference should be for perky breasts. Breasts get larger with age, so you could, in fact, waste the old "seed."; 5/26/15, 6:56 PM
Unknown said...: Men value intelligence in women far above large breasts and long legs, a Cambridge evolutionary biologist has claimed.

It's noteworthy that the study makes no mention of a really great ass.; 5/26/15, 7:02 PM
Meade said...: Bob Ellison said...
"I got all three. Nyah nyah."

Your IQ is above 110 and the inseam of your jeans is 36 inches or more. So what size bra do you wear, Bob?; 5/26/15, 7:04 PM
Unknown said...: "I read once, and it makes sense to me, that the large breast thing is due to the fact that a woman with large breasts can't fake youth. If you are attracted to large, lovely breasts, you are unlikely to waste your seed on a lady past her prime childbearing years."

I've always assumed it pertained to feeding offspring.; 5/26/15, 7:06 PM
Kyzer SoSay said...: I'm definitely a boob man, but what always keeps my attention is a pretty face. My wife is very pretty (her French ancestry really comes out in the lines of her face) and has very nice breasts. She is also better than me at Math (or at least tried harder in school) and can hold her own in most conversations that aren't political. She teaches Honors Physics to high schoolers, and that impressed me quite a bit when I first met her. Teachers (at least the non-crazy ones) make great mothers.; 5/26/15, 7:13 PM
rhhardin said...: Large breasts shows it's not a serious study.

Big boobs is only a cartoon convention for hot babe.

If they don't know that, they don't know anything.; 5/26/15, 7:59 PM
Fritz said...: Seed is cheap.; 5/26/15, 8:17 PM
Sebastian said...: In mate selection, watch out for 1. evolutionary biologists with convenient just-so stories; 2. newspaper reporters who link role of intelligence in selection to "human rights barristers"; 3. human rights barristers.; 5/26/15, 8:22 PM
Saint Croix said...: "The brain is a very overrated organ."

Woody Allen; 5/26/15, 8:24 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: "Although having a large bust and never-ending pins are deemed by western culture as the epitome of femininity, when choosing a mother for their children, men look for brains first."

So is not the corresponding question being asked: what are "large bust and never-ending pins" women looking for? Are they looking for brains, too, or maybe just money?

What about the " large bust and never-ending pins" women when they pass fifty? What criteria has changed?

This article is so Tina Fey, explaining why men MUST want Tina Fey. Now before later. For undisclosed reasons.

I am Laslo.; 5/26/15, 8:27 PM
rhhardin said...: The Invention of Lying with Tina Fey was amusing in an amusing way.; 5/26/15, 8:35 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: My Neo-Nazi-Almost Girlfriend had amazing breasts.

Blue eyes, too.

Perhaps insomnia will fill out details.

I am Laslo.; 5/26/15, 8:35 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: I'm a smart guy--maybe not as smart as I think I am, but I've got those intellectually arrogant A-hole qualities. Back in my dating days, I rejected some ladies who (a) had big boobs, (b) had a great posterior, and (c) had a pretty face--or some combination of a +b + c. Heck even a few of them liked me. But most of them were too damn dumb to ever make a wife for me.

When I found a smart woman (who could and would tolerate me) it was all over. 50 years later we're still married.; 5/26/15, 8:53 PM
traditionalguy said...: The intelligent woman is a risk worth taking. She can teach you so much before she figures out you are just witty and not smart like her.; 5/26/15, 9:41 PM
JAORE said...: Love my wife. Love to be with her all the time. Love sharing our life together. Couldn't nail down the specifics of why her above others. Don't give a damn about some study of the "right" generic woman.; 5/26/15, 10:13 PM
n.n said...: Would lack of academic intelligence disqualify a woman from qualifying for evolutionary fitness? For example, would a woman (e.g. Sarah Palin) from the much disdained "fly-over" country and fringes of "respectable society" be disqualified, or alternatively exploited, by this evolutionary biologist and men of similar outlook?; 5/26/15, 10:15 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Meade, it was my understanding that there would be no math.; 5/26/15, 10:54 PM
MayBee said...: JAORE said...
Couldn't nail down the specifics of why her above others.

The magical mystery of love. I love it so much.; 5/26/15, 11:16 PM
Fen said...: As others said - compassion. I wanted a woman with a pure heart. Got lucky too.

Liberal babes with no morals are fun, because there are some thing you don't want to do to the woman you plan to marry.; 5/26/15, 11:54 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Skeptical,

You're kinda dodging the question.

My wife, too, is quite smart (teaches Calc and Stats at a tech-oriented high school.)

But that's not the question. The question is, if she weren't also attractive, would you have still married her?; 5/27/15, 2:23 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Don't know about anyone else here, but I always went after brains, at least once I started college. That is over 45 years now, and they have almost all graduated either magna or summa cum laude. Previous one graduated second in her class in high school, and vowed that wouldn't happen again. Something my mother would have (and did) do.

So, after all that, starting at almost 50, I have been with a former dancer with very nice tits, and like Kyzernick's partner, mine has a French face, with classical features, high cheekbones, etc. I think a 12 at 25, and still stunning as she nears 60. Sure, she had straight As in school, but mostly, I think because of a photographic memory. Not sure if I would have picked her to mother my children. Wouldn't have mattered because she was looking for physical over mental characteristics (6'3", strong jaw, muscular, etc). I think that the fact that she was looking for strong male traits over brains would have disqualified her though in my mind, if I had had a chance there. The thing that we did have in common though was that we both mostly only dated people whom we could see having kids with.

I think though that the reason that I was this way was my mother, and her ancestresses, all the way back at least into the mid 1800s. First in her class at the University of Illinois (in science even). I always seem to have been looking for the gal just like the one who married dear old dad.; 5/27/15, 2:49 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Thinking of my mother, as well as my current partner, and a lot of the women I have met professionally, etc., I think that it is interesting that the latter have tended to be smaller breasted and bespectacled. Indeed, I noticed this in law school. Were they really that flat chested? Or was it that they just hadn't thought it necessary to buy bigger tits? I almost think that is part of it, that smarter women tend to rely less on their physical attributes, and their less intelligent sisteren (female equivalent of brethren) having to depend more on physical attributes.; 5/27/15, 2:57 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Bruce,

Be completely candid, now.

By "brains" you mean brains + hot, not brains - hot, right?; 5/27/15, 3:19 AM
tim in vermont said...: Just to be clear, "seed" is cheap, I meant the commitment in life energy to protect and support children.

That argument is sure to piss off women, I have noted, which probably validates it, if you ask me.; 5/27/15, 5:45 AM
Mark Caplan said...: The brighter the woman, the more likely she'll duck motherhood and child rearing altogether.; 5/27/15, 5:47 AM
Meade said...: Fritz said...
"Seed is cheap."

Manure is dear.; 5/27/15, 6:28 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Perkies. Definitely perkies.; 5/27/15, 9:32 AM
Skipper said...: Does anybody do useful work anymore?; 5/27/15, 9:59 AM
Bricap said...: I have read that attraction to larger breasts is inversely related to socioeconomic status.; 5/27/15, 4:34 PM