Feel like guys are intimidated by your intelligence? Well, it's not in your head.
A new study conducted out of University of Buffalo, California Lutheran University and the University of Texas at Austin found even though men liked the idea of dating intelligent women, when it comes down to it, they view smart women as less desirable romantic partners.
Here's how it worked: Researchers had 105 men read a hypothetical scenario. In this scenario, a woman either outperformed or underperformed them in a math or English class. The men were then asked to imagine this woman as a romantic partner.
While in this hypothetical scenario, these guys were all about dating the smart girls. But when they were given intelligence tests and then told they would actually meet a woman who supposedly did better or worse than them on the tests, the results were a little different.
They were more likely to view the women they had been told got higher scores than them as less desirable.
Oof. This finding isn't exactly surprising, though, as intelligent women are more likely to be single and previous research has indicated similar results: Another study conducted with 121 British participants found male/female relationships where the women had high intelligence were seen as "problematic."
Well, that's not great at all. But just know that it's not you, ladies. It's your brains.
