Intelligent Men 'Less Likely to Cheat'

Intelligent men are less likely to cheat on their wives because of evolution, a new analysis of social trends indicates.

By Matthew Moore, The Daily Telegraph
28 Feb 2010

Researchers at a British university found that men with higher IQs place greater value on monogamy and sexual exclusivity than their less intelligent peers.

But the connection between conventional sexual morality and intelligence is not mirrored in women, it seems.

The researchers could find no evidence that clever women are more likely than the general population to remain faithful.

The patterns were uncovered by Dr Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science in a paper published in the March edition of the journal Social Psychology Quarterly.

As part of the study he analysed two major US surveys which ascertained the social attitudes and IQs of thousands of teenagers and adults.

He concluded: "As the empirical analysis ... shows, more intelligent men are more likely to value monogamy and sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men."

Dr Kanazawa claims that the correlation between intelligence and monogamy in men has its origins in evolutionary development.

Sexual exclusivity is an "evolutionary novel" quality that would have been of little benefit to early man, who was programmed to be promiscuous, he argues.

The modern world no longer confers such an evolutionary advantage to men who have several sexual partners - but it is only intelligent men are able to shed the psychological baggage of their species and adopt new modes of behaviour

Other "evolutionary novel" qualities that are more common among people of higher intelligence include liberalism and atheism, his study indicated.