Big Brains = Big Stud, Nerds take heart

Via VSL from the Economist, brainy guys have better sperm and a higher count:

According to scientists at the University of New Mexico, the smartest guys in any given room might also be the studliest. Cognitive psychologists examined intelligence tests and semen samples taken by and from 425 American men and found that intelligence had a significant impact on the count, concentration, and motility of sperm. The finding echoes other recent studies that link high IQs to low accident and disease rates, increased popularity, professional achievement, and long life expectancy. In other words, braininess, which goes hand in hand with general fitness, may attract women for its own sake, but it’s also the sign of a mate who can really deliver the proverbial goods.

Accordingly, from the article itself:

These biologists believe intelligence, as manifested in things like artistic and musical ability, is such a reliable indicator of underlying genetic fitness that it has been chosen by members of the opposite sex over the millennia. In the ensuing arms race to show off and get a mate it has been exaggerated in the way that a peacock’s tail is. This process of sexual selection, Dr Miller and his followers believe, is the reason people have become so brainy.

Sphere: Related Content