People tend to overestimate their romantic partner’s intelligence score, according to a recent study published in the journal Intelligence.
Research consistently shows that people tend to hold inflated opinions of themselves, rating themselves as smarter than they actually are. Some evidence suggests that people are similarly biased towards their romantic partners, but little research has explored whether people overestimate their partner’s intelligence.
This study set out to examine how romantic partners rate each other’s IQ versus how each partner actually scores on objective IQ tests. Researchers explored whether sex differences exist in the ability to accurately predict intelligence, whether couples tend to have similar objective IQ scores and whether similar intellectual ability influences relationship satisfaction.
Researchers collected data from 218 heterosexual couples living in Warsaw, Poland. All couples were in long-term relationships (average duration was 6 years) and around 25% were married. Participants were asked to estimate both their own and their partner’s IQs and later completed a non-verbal intelligence test called the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). Finally, couples completed the Relationship Assessment Scale, a self-report inventory used to measure relationship satisfaction.
As was expected, participants overestimated their own intelligence to a significant degree. Results showed a difference of about 30 points between people’s self-estimated intelligence scores and objective measures of their IQ based on the APM test. Interestingly, this positive bias was also shown in how people rated their partner’s IQ, and the effect was even larger. Women overestimated their partner’s IQ by about 38 points and men overestimated their partner’s score by around 36 points.
Researchers also assessed whether men or women were significantly better at discerning the intelligence of their partners. One sexual selection theory suggests that males compete for the attention of females by displaying certain favorable characteristics in order for women to choose a mate. If this theory were true, it stands to reason that women would have evolved to be better at discerning the intelligence of others. However, no significant sex differences were found in the ability to accurately predict partner IQ. This suggests that both men and women take part in the process of mate selection.
The study did find support for what is called assortative mating – the tendency for people to choose mates with similar characteristics to themselves. Researchers found a positive correlation between partners’ objective IQ scores. This would suggest that people tend to seek romantic relationships with people who have a similar intellect to their own.
Finally, since people tend to select partners with a similar IQ, researchers wondered whether couples with compatible IQ scores would have higher relationship satisfaction. Surprisingly, researchers found no significant correlation between IQ compatibility and relationship satisfaction. It seems the benefits of intellectual compatibility are unclear and would benefit from further study.
The study, “People tend to overestimate their romantic partner’s intelligence even more than their own”, was authored by Gilles E. Gignac and Marcin Zajenkowski.