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Life

28th Jul 2019

We tend to think our partners are a lot smarter than they actually are

Jade Hayden

Rose tinted glasses – they’re real.

When you’re in a relationship with someone, you tend to like them.

You think that they’re nice, you think that they’re attractive, you think that they’re a good person, mostly.

You may even think that they’re smart and you may even be correct – but it’s also entirely likely that you’re overcompensating and thinking that they’re a lot more intelligent than they really are.

At least, that’s according to a new study anyway.

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Researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Warsaw found that both men and women were more likely to overestimate their partner’s IQ than their own.

Their findings, as reported by Intelligence, show that heterosexual couples overshot their partners’ IQ by an average of seven points more than their own.

The higher the IQ, the more likely the couple was to be happy, meaning that if you’re in a good relationship, you really will start to see things through rose tinted glasses.

Which is fair enough, like. You’re happy, after all. Well done.

Researchers used both verbal and written tests to gauge how smart participants thought their partners were, and to find out what the actual truth was.

The study authors said that the research suggested a link between sexual selection and intelligence selection, but that further tests would be necessary going forward.

‘It would appear that women and men participate in the process of mate selection, with respect to evaluating IQ, consistent with the mutual mate model of sexual selection,” they said.

“However, the personal benefits of intellectual compatibility seem less obvious.”

 

So the next time you go boasting to your mates about how smart, sexy, and perfect your new partner is, just take a second and consider that maybe – just maybe – they’re not.