The analysis of high IQ’s different effects on marriage rates for men and women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61173/1ew80a38Keywords:
Intelligence Quotient, marriage rate, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, social psychologyAbstract
Research shows that high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is positively correlated with increasing marriage rates for men and negatively correlated with increasing marriage rates for women. This paper uses the framework of cognitive psychology and evolutionary psychology to elucidate the potential reasons for this phenomenon. In general, women value intelligence more than men when choosing a mate, so knowledgeable women face a more limited range of choices. The social culture of marriage and reproduction is more consistent with men’s pursuit of marriage, which can easily lead to cognitive dissonance in women. At present, gender bias is still widespread, and this paper calls for the protection of the rights of women and other marginalised groups in the choice of marriage and the promotion of equality of opportunity and choice-making.
References
[1] Anna Louie Sussman. (Nov. 11, 2023). Why Aren’t More People Marrying? Ask Women What Dating Is Like. New York Times.
[2] Austen, J. (2011). Jane Austen’s letters. Oxford University Press, USA.
[3] Balestrino, A., & Ciardi, C. (2008). Social norms, cognitive dissonance and the timing of marriage. The Journal of Socio- Economics, 37(6), 2399-2410.
[4] Bjorklund, D. F., & Kipp, K. (1996). Parental investment theory and gender differences in the evolution of inhibition mechanisms. Psychological bulletin, 120(2), 163.
[5] Cannonier, C., & Mocan, N. (2018). The impact of education on women’s preferences for gender equality: Evidence from Sierra Leone. Journal of Demographic Economics, 84(1), 3-40.
[6] Cuddy, A. J., Wolf, E. B., Glick, P., Crotty, S., Chong, J., & Norton, M. I. (2015). Men as cultural ideals: Cultural values moderate gender stereotype content. Journal of personality and social psychology, 109(4), 622.
[7] Desai, S. D., Chugh, D., & Brief, A. P. (2014). The implications of marriage structure for men’s workplace attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours toward women. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59(2), 330-365.
[8] Ellemers, N. (2018). Gender stereotypes. Annual review of psychology, 69, 275-298.
[9] Feingold, A. (1992). Gender differences in mate selection preferences: a test of the parental investment model. Psychological bulletin, 112(1), 125.
[10] Goodman, J. H. (2004). Paternal postpartum depression, its relationship to maternal postpartum depression, and implications for family health. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45(1), 26-35.
[11] Hally, T. J. (2015). A brief history of IQ tests. Pridobljeno, 15(5), 2018.
[12] Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (2019). An introduction to cognitive dissonance theory and an overview of current perspectives on the theory.
[13] Jonason, P. K., Marsh, K., Dib, O., Plush, D., Doszpot, M., Fung, E., ... & Di Pietro, K. (2019). Is smart sexy? Examining the role of relative intelligence in mate preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 53-59.
[14] Kislev, E. (2018). Happiness, post-materialist values, and the unmarried. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19, 2243-2265.
[15] Kleisner, K., Chvátalová, V., & Flegr, J. (2014). Perceived intelligence is associated with measured intelligence in men but not women. PloS one, 9(3), e81237.
[16] Kuijper, B., Pen, I., & Weissing, F. J. (2012). A guide to sexual selection theory. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 43, 287-311.
[17] Lakey, B., & Cohen, S. (2000). Social support and theory. Social support measurement and intervention: A guide for health and social scientists, 29, 29-49.
[18] Li, N. P., Bailey, J. M., Kenrick, D. T., & Linsenmeier, J. A. (2002). The necessities and luxuries of mate preferences: testing the tradeoffs. Journal of personality and social psychology, 82(6), 947.
[19] Li, X. (2023). Constructing the ultimate “leftover women”: Chinese media’s representation of female PhDs in the postsocialist era. Feminist Media Studies, 23(3), 902-917.
[20] Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). Conceptualising stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 363-385.
[21] Maharani, C., & Mardiana, M. (2023, November). Analysis of the Needs of Breastfeeding Mothers in the Workplace. In Proceedings of International Conference on Physical Education, Health, and Sports (Vol. 3, pp. 121-133).
[22] McGrath, A. (2017). Dealing with dissonance: A review of cognitive dissonance reduction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(12), e12362.
[23] Nadeem, A., Abedin, B., & Marjanovic, O. (2020). Gender Bias in AI: A review of contributing factors and mitigating strategies.
[24] Numao, J. K. (2021). Locke on Sex, Marriage, and the State. Locke on Knowledge, Politics, and Religion: New Interpretations from Japan, 214-40.
[25] Park, L. E., Young, A. F., Eastwick, P. W., Troisi, J. D., & Streamer, L. (2016). Desirable but not smart: Preference for smarter romantic partners impairs women’s STEM outcomes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 46(3), 158-179.
[26] Prates, M. O., Avelar, P. H., & Lamb, L. C. (2020). Assessing gender bias in machine translation: a case study with Google translate. Neural Computing and Applications, 32, 6363- 6381.
[27] Prokosch, M. D., Coss, R. G., Scheib, J. E., & Blozis, S. A. (2009). Intelligence and mate choice: Intelligent men are always appealing. Evolution and human behavior, 30(1), 11-20.
[28] Sakallı Uğurlu, N., Türkoğlu, B., Kuzlak, A., & Gupta, A. (2021). Stereotypes of single and married women and men in Turkish culture. Current Psychology, 40(1), 213-225.
[29] Stack, S., & Eshleman, J. R. (1998). Marital status and happiness: A 17-nation study. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 527-536.
[30] VandenBos, G. R. (2007). APA dictionary of psychology. American Psychological Association.
[31] World Economic Forum(Ed.)(2004) Global Gender Gap Report 2024. https://www.weforum.org/publications/gender-gapreport-2024
[32] Xie, R. H., He, G., Liu, A., Bradwejn, J., Walker, M., & Wen, S. W. (2007). Fetal gender and postpartum depression in a cohort of Chinese women. Social science & medicine, 65(4), 680-684.
[33] Zhang, R., Chen, Y., & Zhao, X. (2024). “I’m a female PhD, and I’m married”: resisting gender stereotypes of female PhDs on Zhihu. Journal of Gender Studies, 33(4), 404-417.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 by the authors.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
