There are some easily misunderstood statements in the article. Lots of people reading it will NOT actually read what is being said, and will read their own misinterpretation into the article. Face shape does NOT appear to predict intelligence!!
“’Our study revealed no relation between intelligence and either attractiveness or face shape.’”
That quote is what is important, and summarizes the data best. Researchers found that there is no measurable trait in the faces that seems to predict IQ, or any other measure of intelligence they used, but that raters were still able to significantly predict intelligence. The raters (falsely) attributed their perception of intelligence to certain facial features, but those features weren’t correlated with intelligence so there is some other factor besides facial geometry that they’re using to make accurate predictions.
Contrasted with:
‘Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between the eyes, a larger nose, a slight upturn to the corners of the mouth, and a sharper, pointing, less rounded chin.
‘By contrast, the perception of lower intelligence is associated with broader, more rounded faces with eyes closer to each other, a shorter nose, declining corners of the mouth, and a rounded and massive chin.’
There is a very important word here - PERCEPTION. The use of that word changes the meaning of those statements.
The researchers found that while people said faces with certain characteristics were seemingly more intelligent, the researchers actually delved into the data on the faces being rated and found that what the study participants PERCEIVED as intelligent features had no correlation with IQ or the other measures of intelligence that the researchers were using.
Even the study participants who SAID those features struck them as signs of intelligence rated some people with those features as “dumber” than some people without them.
The real data here is more interesting than the false assumption that face shape predicts intelligence. The researchers found that despite there being NO CORRELATION between face shape and IQ in the faces being rated, that the study participants were still able to discern which (male) participants had greater intelligence.
One that points to Womans' intuition as having objective truth capabilities.
We men are so screwed (well actually not so much....)
Thank you for that clarification.