Why smart men make better husbands

What is it that makes intelligent men create stronger emotional bonds?

Intelligence is one of the most important mental traits studied by psychology. It has been shown that having a high level of IQ (the indicator of intelligence level) is related to being more likely to enjoy a long life, with access to well-paying jobs, and in a good state of health.

But what is the link between intelligence and love? Several research studies have set out to explore this fascinating relationship, and today we'll look at one in particular that focuses on analyzing how men who are more intelligent are more likely to be more likely to have a long life. how the smartest men approach marriage.

An advantageous trait in love

It makes sense that intelligence is something that allows us to adapt well to the environmentThis trait is, by definition, the ability to find solutions to new problems. The opposite of solving a situation by resorting to routine and memorized actions through habit is intelligence.

However, it is also true that under this famous concept there is a certain ambiguity: what exactly are the mental abilities that are at work in a given situation to achieve an objective? Is the intelligence that acts when solving a mental calculation operation the same as the intelligence that intervenes when understanding a philosophy text? The answer is both yes and no: intelligence is a set of mental processes, and at any given moment some are much more important than others..

Now, what does it mean to be intelligent in love relationships? In this case, it should be noted that today gender roles continue to have a strong influence on the way most people behave in their relationships and marriages. Therefore, it is worthwhile to differentiate by gender. In this case we will focus on what happens with men, their marriages and their IQ level through research conducted by a team of Finnish psychologists led by Jaakko Aspara.

• You might be interested in "The 4 types of love: what different kinds of love are there?"

Economics or affectivity?

It has long been known that more intelligent men are more likely to marry. However, this does not mean that intelligence is an element that enhances the affective bond that unites these males with their partners; it could also be the result of a parallel effect of having a high IQ: higher income levels.

Ultimately, if a man is eligible for better jobs because he is smarter, he will also have a greater ability to be able to bring resources to raise a family (especially when, as a result of inequality, many women are unable to bring as much money into a life together).

Thus, the Aspara-led researchers wanted to see if it was was a greater capacity to affectively manage relationships, rather than family finances, that wasand not family finances, that explains this greater success in marriage.

In addition, they wanted to see what kind of mental sub-skills encompassed in the concept of intelligence make these men more successful in life with their partner. To conduct the study, Aspara took advantage of the large amount of data collected by the Finnish government: data on income, marital status and IQ of all men living in the country (the latter data, as a result of the tests that men pass when they go through compulsory military service).

The results

As expected, smarter men tended to be more likely to marry and to stay married 4 years later. This effect was preserved even when the influence of economic income was ruled out. In fact, although economics was more important in predicting the likelihood of marriage, intelligence was more important in predicting the likelihood of marriage, intelligence was more important in predicting the duration of marriages..

And which mental skills were most important for the health of the marriage? To find this out, researchers shifted from considering IQ as a measure of general intelligence to scores on the separate parts of the tests that measure these specific abilities: logical, numerical and verbal reasoning. Verbal skills were clearly the ones that best explained the likelihood of long marriages.

The importance of communication in couples

One explanation for this is that verbal skills allow for better communication in couple relationships in general and in marriage. This would be very enlightening, since it would mean that many of the couple's conflicts are, in reality, a matter of communicational errors.. Of course, better command of language also makes it easier to seduce, which makes the start of a stable relationship more likely.

In short, if smarter men make better husbands it seems that it is no longer because of their facility with words, but because of their ability to connect with their partners, to convey to them their way of seeing things and their interests.

Biblioraphic 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.