Q: Why Are Smart People Usually Ugly?

I hope the rest of you like this article as much as I did?

An answer to the Explainer's 2011 Question of the Year.
By Daniel Engber|Posted Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, at 6:52 PM ET

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...iner_s_2011_question_of_the_year_.single.html

 

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haha, nice! Isn't general "beauty" about symmetry when it comes to the human face? I heard that symmetry is an indication of "good" genes and so thats why we tend to find it beautiful. If this is the case, then good genes could be an overall attribute that contributes to both physical symmetry and intelligence.

 

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Ugly people face greater challenges: they either rise up to them and become smarter; or they give up and become even uglier and even dumber.

 

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I think the question should be:

Why is it that some ugly people turn out to be the smart ones?​

And the answer, not surprisingly, is that, being ugly, they aren't allowed to waltz through life unencumbered (as the bimbos and hunks are allowed to do), so some of them develop brains to survive.

 

We must be careful what we've been fooled into surmising about the upper intellect, because they may get frustrated with us, and leave us behind to drool alone, with the monkeys.

 

What we consider "ugly" has been told to us by the media and other entertaining types of businesses. People never really considered what a person looked like that much back in the 1700's or 1800's because there wasn't much entertainment businesses that were being publicized. Look at Abraham Lincoln just as one example and how today many refer to him as "ugly" but when he was elected no one considered his looks as much they did his intelligence.

So today we are all exposed to the media and its glorification of the beauty they want us to be aware of and not what really matters when it comes to real brain power. I try to understand a person for what they say and do more than what they look like. This internet is a good way to do just that because you really don't know what people look like but are interested in what they are saying.

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An interesting article, KJ, and an interesting twist in your naming of the thread as it appears that the data correlates to smart people more often than not being attractive also.

We are too easily influenced by the stereotypes portrayed in the media and by our own limited exposure, as most of us tend to socialize and interact within our own peer group. Persons who do extensive travel or whose work brings them into contact with a wider variety of people would have a better sense of what this article is speaking to and how accurate it may be.

The Yukon may have a fairly small population by number, yet it is an incredibly diverse population because of it's mix of established and transient persons. The RCMP and federal government use Yukon as a stepping stone for upwardly mobile staff as a means to get their regional experience in before they are ready for an Ottawa posting.

Approximately 20% of our population is First Nations and they are representative of 13 separate traditional regions within the territory.

Mining and tourism attract workers and business operators from many regions to work in these fields.

The point I am making is that the Yukon affords me opportunity to observe such correlations in spite of my schedule and general avoidance of large congregations.

We have a lot of very clever people in these parts, offset by an equally high percentage of people with FAE and FAS. Symmetry of facial features and presentation are frequently good indicators of intelligence, but certainly not the only ones and the occasional brilliant person does seem to find tending to one's own person to be an interruption of their thought processes, lol...

I was raised with the teaching of being presentable for all appearances. I tend to wear conservative clothing in coordinating and complementary colors and in my personal presentation I enhance the symmetry of my features and posture. My hobby of horses also assists because in riding the horse one must remain centered and balanced in their movements as they follow the motion of the horse.

As one person was fond of saying, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, you can surely baffle them with B.S."

So whether I am smart or not, I am clever enough to assume the presentation of the demographic that is presently under consideration, having learned same from my teachers.

Which really begs the question of just how smart any of us may be or if we are all just faking it, LOL....

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We smart people go for cosmetic surgery to make ourselves ugly so you dumb asses don't feel quite as bad.

 

. . . THAT (thread title) must explain why I'm so ugly then!!!

 

Well I'm the most intelligent person that ever lived!!!

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oh......

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I have also heard that an attractive person is more likely to get a job than an ugly one, the same could be said of electing politicians. Does this mean that the world is run by beautiful idiots?

 

Maybe, but I like what this paragraph said.

 

Desperate republicans voting for Romney? You might have something there.

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1.Having big brains makes scientist's heads look deformed.
2. Thinking gives them wrinkles.
3. Lack of care about appearance means smart people have pudding bowl haircuts, 28 year old suits with accumulated dinner stains,
dog-dirt on their shoes. Etc. Etc.

Exception is Brian Cox.

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Annoyingly unugly scientist.

and then there is the Blessed Sir Patrick Moore.

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Normal Scientist.

 

If you can fake it good enough, what's the difference? I've never seen a stupid person that could fake anything successfully.

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If you look at what novels from the 1800's and before say of women characters, there is often a reference to their looks.


A sentence from Henry James' "Portrait of a lady," off the top of my head, to the effect of -
"She was fortunate to have gotten married at all, given her looks."
It is very incisive in the original.


Looks mattered, very much.

 

Brian Cox? .........Smart <> Parrot. Parrots are pretty.

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Speaking of Brian Cox the following video is making the email circuit.

Wonders of the Stoner System

 

As I said.
An annoying C***

This is him with his OBE

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I don't consider myself a Hollywood model or anything, but with the weight I've lost in the past couple of years I feel I'm at least as good looking as the average Joe my age, if not better. I get a reasonable amount of exercise, my DNA is decent, there are quite a few womanizers in the family, and I've had many occasions where friends would tell me about really hot chicks that intimidated me actually feeling the same about me, or commenting that a change of clothing style would be all I need to do so (i.e. tighter jean pants and stuff). I can definitely see how "ugly" people might be pushed to pursue academic pursuits, because society is chock full of judgmental bullies and twits like that.