Excess Having Smart Couples, Sure Will Be Treated Well

Illustration (Yan Krukov/Pexels)

JAKARTA - Having a smart partner certainly makes you expect him to achieve success in the workplace, even raise higher socio-economic status. However, the latest research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences shows some of the benefits of having a smart partner.

Researcher Vance, DeLeccee, and Shockelford (2024), cited from the Psychology Today page, Wednesday, November 13, surveying more than 200 heterosexual men aged between 18-65 who were in a romantic relationship for at least six months or more. These men completed the International Cognitive Ability Resource to assess their general intelligence.

In the measurement, the men also completed a smooth reasoning task to assess their ability to respond to new problems (such as letters or figures that might follow a series of letters or numbers). Men also completed several other measurements that judged constructive matters such as jealousy, aggression against partners, sexual coercion, sexual dysfunction, and investment in relationships.

The researchers found that men's intelligence in general and their performance in reasoning tasks in particular, is associated with fewer negative behavior towards partners. For example, smarter men tend not to report insults to their partners or use coercion techniques to pressure their partners to have sex.

Male intelligence is also negative with their own reports of erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, male intelligence is associated positively with better treatment of partners. For example, men who score higher in intelligence measure are reported to be more invested and committed to current partners.

As the authors reported, in previous studies, higher intelligence scores were attributed to increasing the ability to understand other people's emotions and managing their own emotions. The author speculates that higher intelligence may allow men to control negative behavior boosts more effectively or respond more appropriately to their partner's needs.

The authors note some limitations of current research. Due to the correlational design of the project, researchers were unable to draw causal conclusions about the impact of male intelligence on the quality of their relationship. Another limitation of this study is that participants only provide self-reports on their behavior to their partners. Future research should examine women's reports on their partner's behavior in order to verify the results of current research.